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I'm currently teaching a Saturday math remediation class for middle school students the school has deemed "unlikely to pass the state tests" next month. These kids are in math prep from 8-noon every Saturday.
They're bored. They don't want to be there. (Can you blame them?) They're frustrated, angry, and have asked me 1000x if they can just go outside. I want to let them, but I also know it has to be productive if we go.
Does anyone have any ideas of how to incorporate math concepts (anything, really--fractions, decimals, algebra, integers, metric/customary measurement and conversions) into outside activities appropriate for 13 year olds? This is not my strong point. Give me computers and I'll come up with an awesome activity, but they don't teach you outside games in a secondary education degree.
So far all I have is a scavenger hunt of geometry things. I was going to make up a list of things around the school that they need to find the area/perimeter/circumference of.
I have anywhere from 20-30 kids on a given Saturday.
How about geometry? Calulate the height of a flag pole using it's shadow and the angle made by the sun. Or calculate the circumference of the earth using data from two different flag poles (you'll need another school to help here).
Practice working with fractions by using recipes and having the students make batches of different sizes. I know it's not outside but it could be fun.
Another proportion experiment that might be fun is baking soda and vinegar rockets (you can use old film canisters if you don't have rockets). It's chemistry but it's also proportions (fractions)
Have them mark off squares for hopscotch or a ball field (soccer, baseball, softball, football, kickball, etc). Then you can tell them one day after they have it marked off they can have a game AFTER their school session is over. You have enough for 2-3 teams. It can be sort of a tournament but the actual game played after school. For those not playing on one of the teams not playing they have to keep score of hits/runs/scores, etc. They then have to figure up RBI's, runs batted in, saves, shots on goal for soccer, etc.
^^ We did something like this with a bunch of kids. We got donations from the PTA for paint, and made hopscotch and four square boards on the playground.
Use the basketball hoop - to get a point you must answer the question correctly and make a basket. Measure distances across a field or yard in various units of measurement and convert them. You could have lots of fun if you use a hose and various containers set out on a fence or on pails or something. You get a chance to "shoot" after you answer a question correctly. You play against the student for more fun. Toss a ball and spell words letter by letter, or count by multiples of 12 or 15 or 25 with each throw. Use the chalk mentioned above to review geometric shapes on the driveway or sidewalk. Estimate the measure of angles created by a swing set or other objects outside. Take photos of angles created by nature.
Walk around the neighborhood and give him a list of skills (such as division, geometric shapes, money, fractions, place value, etc.) and have him create a word problem for each skill. For example, we have a gas station just a block from the school. One gallon of gas costs $2.09. Jimmy needs 10 gallons of gas. Will he have enough money?" You can write an estimation problem about how many steps it takes to walk from the base of the slide to the teeter-totter on the playground. Have him include 4 multiple choice answers perhaps.
Have him shoot baskets and figure out the fraction of missed shots to total, missed shots to made shots, etc. Do a bunch of trials and have him add or subtract the fractions he gets. (You can do sets of 10 baskets to make it easy fractions or decimals). You can have him reduce the fractions he gets, turn them into percents, etc.
Time him skipping, running, hopping, running backwards, race walking, and running on all fours. But first, let him rank the order in which they think they will do these, from fastest to slowest and estimate their times. Then time them and compare with their estimate. You can make up all sorts of story problems with this. How much faster did you skip than hop? How many total minutes did it take to do all the different activities?
How about asking them a question like "if the playground were twice as big, how many monkey bars would there need to be?" That of course is a multiplication or addition problem.
Ask them to guess how many pebbles there are in a particular play area. Count the number of pebbles in a container of known volume. Then measure the size of the play area.
How much weight does each chain of a swing bear when someone is sitting on it?
I think a playground is chock full of geometry and multiplication/division/addition problems.
We have ASI Gymnastics around here and they always have a kind of math fun day thing for the local schools as a field trip. I've gone w/ both of my kids and they seemed to all have fun. I just looked it up real quick and they call it Brain Gymnastics. You might be able to call them and ask them what they do since you are in a different state and then contact a local gym where you are and see if someone has something similiar or would be interested in doing something similiar.
Stand in a circle, start counting prime numbers--when they miss or give a wrong one, they sit--see how high you can get.
We've done a similar game called "Bizz Buzz" -- start counting from one and at each multiple of three the person says "Bizz" instead of the number. At each multiple of four, the person says "Buzz." If it's a multiple of both three AND four, then the person says "Bizz Buzz."
Is there a parking lot with cars in it nearby? See who can come closest to estimating, then figuring the percent that is full, then the percent that is empty. What percentage of the cars are red? What percentage of the cars are gray? etc.
If the lot has X red cars and the total is Y, how many are not red? It would benefit to have a vantage point of the parking lot.
This is great for learning how to calculate in their heads. If there are as many as 30 kids, you could also do these exercises with the color shirts they are wearing, or color of their hair.
They could also measure themselves, then their shadows at a particular time, then measure shadows an hour or two later to calculate how much the shadows have grown and estimate what they would be in another two, four or six hours.
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