Connections Between Math and the Climate During Math Awareness Month

Every April, students around the U.S. participate in Math Awareness Month activities to increase understanding of mathematics and how it affects our world. Please celebrate our favorite month with us in some very special ways!

1. In support of Math Awareness Month, we're offering you HALF OFF the regular subscription price!

   We believe so strongly that an excellent math education should be accessible to every child that we are offering DreamBox Learning K-2 Math for just $6.48/month — that's half off the regular subscription price! Subscribe before April 30, 2009, and you can keep taking advantage of this low Math Awareness Month rate for as long as you subscribe. It's our way of helping you make math a priority in your child's life.

   • Click here to subscribe now.
   • Click here to sign up for a free trial now.

   
   

2. We're also announcing the DreamBox Math Classroom

   Since we launched DreamBox Learning in January, an amazing number of teachers have asked to use it in their classrooms. So we're pleased to announce the launch of the DreamBox Math Classroom! Through June 30, 2009, any qualified teacher can get a FREE DreamBox subscription for their entire classroom, computer lab, or after-school program to play and learn with DreamBox. Click here to send an email to your child's teacher and tell them about the free DreamBox Math Classroom. And be sure to tell them what your child has been learning in DreamBox! (You can learn more about it here.)

3. Get a month of climate-related math activities: download the calendar

   Take advantage of Math Awareness Month to focus on math in everyday life with your child (or children) by downloading our free Math Awareness Month calendar!

   Every April, students around the U.S. participate in activities focusing on a big challenge that can be positively impacted by math. Each year the organizations that sponsor the event choose a theme to help focus on a big challenge that can be positively impacted by math. This year's theme is Math and Climate. The goal is to use math to help students understand the nature of rising sea levels, global warming, melting polar ice caps, and the like because math, computer science, and other sciences are essential to solving problems that impact the Earth's climate.

   So the calendar is full of tips for everyday math that raise environmental awareness for kids. Print it out and celebrate Math Awareness Month each day with climate-related math activities. (Then be sure to recycle it at the end of the month!)

Parent Tip: Develop number sense through everyday activities

Watch for 'math moments' in everyday life at home that are learning opportunities for developing early number sense. Here are a few ways activities you can explore:

• Explore 1-to-1 correspondence by count the number of forks, spoons and knives that all of the family members need on the table.
• How many sweaters do you have? How many pairs of pants? Sort and group socks by color, or by which person in the family they belong to.
• Name the people in your immediate family from oldest to youngest. Then include grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
• Put all the canned food on one shelf and pet food on another. How many are in each group? Which group has the most? Which as the least? You can make labels for the amounts if you want to.
• Work on mastering the basic math facts by counting out 10 objects such as pencils or paper clips. Then explore how many combinations total 10. Can your child find all the possible combinations? Ask how he or she knows for sure. Then, try it with 20 objects.

Did you know?

DreamBox Learning is based on national math standards

DreamBox Learning K-2 Math has more than 100 lessons each for kindergarten and 1st grade, and 160 lessons for 2nd grade. The game’s underlying curriculum develops computational fluency, conceptual understanding, and problem-solving ability, allowing students to enrich and deepen their mathematical thinking. Content is aligned with the Focal Points — such as Number and Operations Focal Points and Algebra Focal Points — for each grade set by the national math standards-setting body, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). You can learn more at http://www.dreambox.com/curriculum.

You can try DreamBox Learning K-2 Math FREE

You can sign up for a 14 day FREE trial of DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. DreamBox Learning is solid math wrapped in fun web-based adventures that kids love. But don’t take our word for it! Read this review from USA Today, which said DreamBox is "... a powerful learning experience because it is so personalized." Or read what other parents are saying about DreamBox, like this mom who said "My son's learning math and doesn't realize it — he just thinks it's fun. He's ahead in school now because of DreamBox! And he's now doing mental math instead of counting on his fingers — he was doing addition in his head at the grocery store!"