DreamBox Learning®» Math in Real Life

Confessions of a DreamBox Parent

Blue — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:50:00 +0000

When I received that first email from DreamBox, I couldn't believe my eyes. What an outstanding surprise! All my prayers had been answered. It was like manna from the heavens. My wishes had come true. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but let me tell you, I sure was excited. If you're anything like me, you are curious about what your children do every day at school. Are they enjoying themselves? Are they learning anything? Are they progressing as people at all? If your child is anything like my kindergartener, then you know full well that getting answers to those questions from them is like pulling teeth. Except that with the teeth you actually end up with something in your hand. You might get a "Nothing" if you're lucky to enough to distract them from their Legos or Barbies. "I don't know," is likely what you consider the long winded version. When it comes to the math part of his education though, DreamBox gives me all the answers I need. Actually, I'm getting much more than I would have asked for. And I'm getting feedback on his math progress as soon as he and his teacher are. Whenever my son completes a lesson on DreamBox, my wife and I each get an email letting us know just how he is doing. We learn about the math concepts he is working on. We get an understanding of the progress he's making. We also are notified when he is struggling with something. These emails come every time he logs on to his account using the character he chose and the picture password he chose as well. If he's working through the DreamBox lessons every day, then DreamBox sends me an email every day. How many times do you get to sit down with your teacher and get some insight into your child's learning? Once or twice a year? If you are persistent, maybe you'll be updated more regularly. If your teacher happens to be into technology on a personal level, maybe you'll get some kind of general update about what the class has been doing the past few weeks, and possibly where they are headed in the next few weeks. Those updates are unlikely to carry the level of detail that I as a parent am looking for though. If this regular communication from DreamBox wasn't just the bees knees to begin with, then the recommendations they make following the update are just plain sweeter than honey. After a few sentences telling me what math concept my child is working through, DreamBox provides a suggestion about how we parents can reinforce this learning at home using live manipulatives. Here's an example of ideas I recently received. On-the-Run: Counting Fun: Ask your son to make equivalent amounts of objects, such as knives, forks, spoons, and napkins when setting the table; or to determine the number of items needed for all family members so everyone gets one. Finger Play: Hold up some fingers using two hands, but only show them briefly then put them behind your back. Ask your son to try to make the same arrangements with his fingers from memory. Is that the coolest thing or what? I am so happy with the progress and fun my child is having with DreamBox. It seems to me that the folks at DreamBox "get" learning so much better than some of these other computer folks. They understand that it's not all about the computer, or all about class time. They realize that parents and guardians must be involved. They know that to successfully engage a child in learning and creative thinking, time must be spent away from the computer using real world examples. With DreamBox, I'm learning what my child is doing in math in real time. I'm learning how to help my child think and learn about math in the real world. That is what makes DreamBox really, really great!

Brain Candy: Fun Math Posters

Tracy K — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:38 +0000

One of my coworkers here at DreamBox came across these fun posters by Brain Candy Toys. The posters take childhood stories and rhymes, and turn them into math equations. Print them and hang them up in yoru home or in your classroom for a fun activity!

Three Blind Mice	Humpty Dumpty

Cinderella	Three Little Pigs

Enjoy!

August Math Activities Calendar: National Back-to-School Month

Tracy H — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:00:23 +0000

Ready. Set. Go back to school! It's time to get the little ones ready for the classroom and DreamBox Learning is here to help. Our August Math Activity Calendar is all about going back to school, and we're celebrating with a number of activities to prepare your child for their first days of school!

Math Activity Calendar Highlights:

National Watermelon Day on August 3^rd: Be sure to count all the seeds!
National Tell A Joke Day on August 16^th: If there are ten cats in a boat, and one jumps out, how many are left?
Dream Day on August 28^th: Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a Dream" speech this day in 1963. What's your big dream?

Tell DreamBox How You Prep Your Kids for Back-to-School

How did you prepare for the first day of school: flashcards? Sesame Street? Online math games? DreamBox Learning wants to know. Just leave us a comment below or send us a message on the DreamBox Learning page on Facebook to continue the kindergarten readiness conversation. If you're a teacher, we want to hear from you too - let us know if you have any wonderful math games and activities for your incoming students. We hope you enjoy your August Math Activity Calendar and have a fantastic school year!

Tuesday Teacher Tips: Encouraging the Use of Building Blocks at a Young Age

Lisa W — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:05:31 +0000

One of the final math units I taught this year was a geometry chapter on recognizing two-dimensional drawings and nets as three-dimensional figures. We worked with nets; first predicting what they were, and then cutting, folding and taping them together. The students also studied drawings from multi-perspectives—top, side, front, back—and constructed what the three-dimensional figure looked like with their wooden cubes.

When we do this type of math I’m always a little surprised at which students get it immediately and which students struggle. For the students who “get it,” there is almost this huge sigh of relief; it feels like math time is play time and they are not doing “real math.” But for the students who don’t understand, their frustration seems to mount the entire math period. They want the formula of how to make it work; they want an easy answer. What they really need is the time and experience of working with the materials.

In the primary grades, there is a vast difference between the students who have had lots of literary experiences at home and those whose reading experiences are limited to the classroom. Children who are exposed to literacy from birth to school-age come to the classroom with an entire set of skills from their steady diet of books, words, storytelling, and illustrations.

It’s similar to the children who use building sets and blocks at home on a daily basis. They are used to looking at a picture and trying to replicate it with their materials. They are used to looking at buildings at various perspectives to try to get their version “just right.” And they are used to rotating, sliding, and flipping objects.

Teachers and educators have done an excellent job of getting the word out to parents about the importance of reading at home from the time their child is an infant. Maybe as math educators we need to follow the same example. By giving toddlers a set of blocks or age-appropriate building materials we can educate parents on the importance of developing their child’s spatial and geometric skills from a young age.

What are your experiences with students and geometry in the classroom? How do you encourage geometric learning when students have limited experiences? Email and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Tuesday Teacher Tips: Using Webcams in Classroom Learning

Lisa W — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:46:38 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. I was recently talking to a good friend, Dana, who teaches 1st grade. She was excited about the authentic learning that was happening in her classroom this winter and spring. This year her class has been faithfully watching the Lily and Hope den cam on the North American Bear Center’s website. The Bear Center is an educational outreach center located in Ely, Minnesota. Lily and Hope are mother and daughter black bears being studied by the Wildlife Research Institute in Ely. This winter Dana’s 1st graders, as well as viewers from around the world, watched the den cam and were able to “meet” two newborn cubs (Jason and Faith) as they came into the world in January. Everyday this winter Dana’s students faithfully watched the web cam and discussed their observations. Dana integrated the following real-life math activities around bears; the students were motivated and excited to learn everything they could about the topic. Charting temperature—each day the class charted the temperature in their area and compared it to the temperature in Ely, Minnesota. Calculating ages—using the family tree information on the Bear Center’s website, Dana’s class calculated the ages of each bear. Comparing Weights—Dana used the weight of each bear to compare and order numbers, teach number line concepts, as well as introduce mathematical vocabulary such as greater than and less than. Graphing Data—each time the students had a sighting or heard the bears, the class recorded the information on a graph. Problem Solving—Dana’s class was so captured by the bears that they held a class read-a-thon to raise money to buy bags of nuts to feed the resident bears at the Bear Center. The class discussed how much money was needed to buy one bag of feed and how many minutes they had to read to buy that bag. On a daily basis they recorded their reading minutes and used a graph to display the information. How do you integrate the outside world into authentic math experiences for your students? Email us and let us know. We love to hear all of the great things that teachers are doing to involve their students in real-life math experiences!

Tuesday Teacher Tips: Math and Environmental Education

Lisa W — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:26:39 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. The month of April provides many opportunities to integrate environmental learning into your classroom. Environmental Education Week (April 10-16) The National Environmental Education Week website has great resources. This year’s theme is “Ocean Connections.” To find a variety of lessons to use in your classroom, click on the “Resources” tab and scroll down to “Curricula Library.” Earth Day (April 22) Two websites provided lots of environmental lesson plans and resource links: Earth Day Network and Greening Schools. Arbor Day (April 29) How can you celebrate Arbor Day at your school? Download the Arbor Day Foundation’s Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebook. Or check out their other educational resources.

Incorporating math into environmental studies

Data analysis provides a natural link to the natural world. Nature Walk Take a nature walk with the class and have them record the wildlife that they observe. When you return to the classroom create a pictograph. Weather Studies Create a line graph of the daily temperature in your area. Use a different color to graph the temperature in another part of the country or world. Analyze the differences. Research Recycling Find facts about recycling, like Everything You Wanted to Know About Recycling, and use the information to create data-driven posters to educate the school about recycling. How do you integrate math into your science and environmental studies? Email us and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

A Parent Testament: DreamBox and Blended Learning

Sue — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:44:53 +0000

You can't believe how it makes us feel at DreamBox Learning when children make great leaps forward in their mathematics conceptual understanding through our online program; and parents discover the power of letting kids take control of their own learning. This is what it's all about for us - it's what makes us tick. I wanted to share with you "My children, my guinea pigs", a blog by Heather Clayton Staker of the Innosight Institute (an organization that works to apply Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen’s theories of disruptive innovation to develop and promote solutions to the problems of education). In Heather's case, necessity was the mother of disruptive innovation. After re-locating her family, and with her kids not yet in their new school, she leveraged her recent research on how Alabama is blending online and distance learning with classroom instruction: she started 2 of her children on DreamBox Learning, "which several education leaders have told me is one of their favorites for elementary students." Let me share her reaction, which is my favorite part of this article: "Today at IKEA my five-year-old kindergartener noticed a large, colorful abacus in the children’s area. She walked up to it and began showing me how to make numbers—20, 83, 56. She then demonstrated how to make 32 by taking 68 from 100. I was dumbfounded. She had never touched a real abacus before in her life. Her only exposure was from her three weeks with DreamBox math and its virtual abacus. I could not believe how much her conceptualization for the spatial relationship between numbers has shot up in this brief time and how well she was able to apply her virtual experience to the tangible abacus at IKEA." As our CEO, Jessie Woolley-Wilson, commented on the impact DreamBox had on Heather's family: "It’s a beautiful sight to behold!"

Tuesday Teacher Tips: Grocery Store Ads

Lisa W — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:48:22 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. Recently, I've been saving copies of the weekly grocery ads, the multi-page flyers that come in the Sunday paper. They work great to teach and reinforce so many real-life math skills. Collect enough for each student in your class; none have to be the same. Estimating Tell the class that you are giving them a budget of $5.00 (or $1.00 or $20.00…). Ask them to look through their ad to see what they can buy without going over their allotment. Explain that they can’t write any of their problems on paper; it all has to be done using mental math. How did they figure out the problem without writing down the equations? Did they estimate to the nearest dollar, quarter, or dime? Now have them figure out the exact answer. How close was their estimate to the exact answer? Comparing numbers Assign students to cut out five items, along with its price, from their ad. Next, ask students to arrange the items by cost from least to greatest. Then have them glue their items on a piece of construction paper. Display the posters in the front of the room to use during a class discussion. What costs more, a head of lettuce or a can of soup? Which costs less, a bag of candy or a box of cereal? How did you know which was the smallest and which was the greatest? Calculating totals and figuring out change Tell the class that they can buy any two items in their advertisement. Have them write down the items and calculate the exact cost of the purchase. Now tell them they are paying with a five or ten dollar bill. How much change they will receive? What is the fewest number of coins that the cashier will give them? Do they have money left to buy anything else? Multiplication You can easily have the class multiplying or doing repeat addition with grocery store ads. Ask students to find the cost of a pound of hamburger. How much would it cost to buy five pounds? How much would ten jars of peanut butter total? Measurement The ads give students the opportunity to discover how different items are sold: individually, by the pound, by the bunch, by the package, or by capacity. How is it is stated in the ad so they know the way it is sold? When is the metric system used and when is the standard system used in the grocery store? What are some everyday materials you use in your classroom? Please share, we’d love to hear about them.

A Present for the Whole Family—A Thermometer!

Lisa W — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:28:40 +0000

What’s the temperature outside?

Want a present that the whole family can enjoy? Buy an outside thermometer! It’s a great way to use real-life math. Place the thermometer in a place that your child can easily see it. Teach them how to read it. Show them how you look at the top of the red line and move your finger over to see what the temperature is. If there are numbers on both sides, talk about Celsius and Fahrenheit, and explain which system meteorologists usually refer to. Go to the Weather Channel Kids! website. You can type in your zip code and see a two-day forecast. Will it be hotter or colder tomorrow than it is today? Is the temperature on the website's forecast the same as it is in your backyard? (Then type in grandma’s zip code in Florida to see what the weather is like for her today.)

An experiment with the thermometer

Try some experiments with a kitchen thermometer and water. Fill three different cups with water. In one, just have lukewarm water. In the second, add ice. Heat the third cup up on in the microwave (watch that it doesn’t get too hot for little hands!). Under your supervision, have your child find the temperature of each cup of water and record it. Show them how to write the temperature correctly. The more you use the thermometer, the more the numbers on it will mean something to your child. What other ideas do you have for math-related presents that the whole family can enjoy? We'd love to hear about them!

Tuesday Teacher Tips: How many inches of snow are we getting?

Lisa W — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:42:02 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. With the current winter storm in my area, everyone is keeping their eye on the weather. Weather presents lots of opportunities for real-life math. How many inches of snow will there be? What's the temperature? What’s the wind chill factor? How many miles per hour is the wind blowing? Check out these websites to use with your students to learn about weather, and use a little math in the process! Weather Channels Kids: From the Weather Channel. Among other things on the website, type in your zip code for a kid-friendly 2-day forecast. Then type in a California zip code. Compare the temperatures. Weather Wiz Kids: A site written by meteorologist, Crystal Wicker. Lots of excellent information, including a page on the various instruments used to measure weather! Web Weather for Kids: Includes weather safety tips, weather experiments, and definitions. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for Kids: Information on how to prepare for a disaster (flood, hurricane, tornado, etc.), causes of disasters, and what to do if there is one. Videos, photos, Disaster Supply Kit recommendations, games, and lots of important information are included here. Do you have any weather websites you like to use in the classroom? We'd love to hear about them!