Quiz for You

Here's a quiz for you today.

 

Look at the first picture below and guess what school subject they are taking part in?

 

Are they doing,

a) Science

b) History

c) English

d) Math

e) all of the above



 

 

 

If you answered d) Math, then you were right!

 

What mathematical concept requires that you bend over in such a way that the blood rushes to your head with tons of cards on the floor? Math Twister! 

 

One of the math skills that we do almost daily is drills - addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables - over, and over, and over again. The monotony of sitting at a desk and answering problems day after day can result in a cranky kid. So, I'm always looking for ways to motivate the girls to do their drills.

 

One day, my oldest and I were sitting on the floor going through her multiplication tables and as they were spread out on the floor the idea came to mind to do a spin on Twister. As I called out an answer to a multiplication problem, I would instruct her to, "Put your right hand on (##)" and as she proceeded to place her hands or feet on certain answers, she would get all twisted up in varying positions. After the first round, she clamored "again, again!"

 

Now, that's my kind of Math!

 

 We play this game several ways. I either call out the answer and the kids place their hand or foot on the problem, or I call out the problem and the kids put their hand or foot on the answer. You can also do variations with the game by having your child jump to the answer in a path until they reach the answer to the math problem. Whatever gets your child up and moving, you will find that they'll be motivated to play right along. 



 

(I googled, "Math Twister" at the end of the day and found out that this really is a game that you can purchase from a store. So much for thinking that I was a creative, ingenious person.)