Connections Academy Blog, Virtual Learning Connections

Using coins to solve real-world math problems is a lifelong skill that students learn early on in school. With a little creativity, you can make coin counting more entertaining and imaginative when you practice with your child. Try creating coin creatures with your student in this fun money activity.

Creating Coin Creatures

Print out the templates provided and challenge your student to build one or more of the “coin creatures” using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

•  Print the giraffe and snake template.
•  Print the fish and lion template.

Once your child is finished with an animal, ask him or her to count the total amount of money it took to fill it in. If your child is just beginning to work with coins, simplify the activity by helping him or her complete these steps:

• Count the total number of coins used
• Make a list of how many coins of each type were used
• Use pencil and paper to reduce this part into a series of math problems

Children who have had more coin counting practice can try adding the total of the coins in their head. If your student has filled in more than one animal, ask him or her to determine which animal is worth the most money and which is worth the least.

Try More Coin Creature Activities!

Add the animals. Prompt your student with some simple addition problems. How much money would the lion and the giraffe add up to? How much would the fish ...

Happy Pi Day! For those who are rusty on geometry, pi (the Greek letter π) is the symbol for a number that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference (distance around) to its diameter (distance from edge to edge, through the center). The cool thing about pi is that it’s a constant; for all circles of any size, pi will be the same. And while pi has been calculated to over a trillion digits beyond the decimal point, most non-mathematicians round pi to 3.14—which is why March 14 is known as Pi Day and celebrated by math teachers and students worldwide!

Why not celebrate Pi Day to spark your children’s interest in and use of math in everyday life? Make a Pi Day pie, reinforcing terms like radius, diameter, and circumference while you roll out the crust! Or plan a Pi Day math scavenger hunt, in which kids follow clues to locations where they find math problems to solve. Be sure to give prizes! Whatever you do, make it fun—and celebrate with Pi Day pie—even if it’s store-bought.

In honor of Pi Day, I’d like to share a tip for helping students solve math problems: using scrap paper. Picture this: it’s a hot summer day, and you want to fill the small pool in the backyard—but there’s no garden hose. You grab a bucket and fill it right to the brim, but by the time you walk to the pool, half the water has splashed out. ...

Did you know that children who exercise before learning outperform their couch potato counterparts? It’s true! Scientists theorize that because it stimulates blood flow, physical activity sends more oxygen to the brain, making it a lean, mean thinking machine! So why not integrate some learning activities into your kids’ outdoor fun? Here are some ideas and resources for keeping both mind and body in tip-top shape.

• Play multiplication catch. Have kids pair up to lob balls back and forth, along with math facts! If your children are too young for multiplication, practice addition or subtraction facts instead. For variety, switch partners, speed up the pace, or increase the distance between players.


• Be a bird brain. Equip your students with small notebooks, pencils, sturdy shoes, thick socks, and water bottles—and set off on a bird-watching hike. Pack a field guide and binoculars to help you identify our feathered friends, and be sure to have kids record all the varieties you see. For more nature-inspired activities and ideas, visit Nature Rocks.


• Leap for measurement. Stage a competition to discover who can jump the farthest in a standing broad jump. (Be sure to mark a clear starting point and review the rules first, for fairness!) Have your kids measure and record each contestant’s leap. After each jumper jumps three times, have each contestant add up his or her total distance jumped. For more advanced mathematicians, let them average the measurements. Don’t forget to award prizes!


• Learn to hat dance...

As kids start to focus more on sleeping in and swimming pools, many will flip an internal switch—LEARNING OFF, PLAY TIME ON! But the two don't have to be—shouldn't be—mutually exclusive.

There is a wealth of research that supports the idea that children greatly benefit from learning over the summer, and the importance of play in child development is a widely researched topic. During the summer, kids usually get more time to play and really let their curiosity lead them to explore and ask questions, which helps kids' brains stay sharp.

In celebration of National Summer Learning Day, enjoy these ideas for games that help give kids an educational boost while enjoying summer fun!

1. Take a Chance!
   Monopoly and Monopoly Junior are classic board games that put math skills to the test. Counting money, buying and selling, and making change all reinforce math concepts that many students are learning as early as first grade and kindergarten. Be sure to stop the game as needed to explain and assist with math problems.


2. Move Over Milton Bradley … Invent a Game
   Encourage children to get creative and develop their own board game. Use a piece of cardboard as the “board,” break out the crayons and markers, and let imaginations run wild. Refer to favorite games like Candy Land for ideas about structure and format. Kids will have a ball making their own playing pieces and even dice with modeling clay. This activity is an artistic way to boost logic skills. ...

We are wrapping up math awareness month with some ideas to highlight the math that already exists in our lives. Most people do math on a daily basis without even realizing it!  When we are with friends we exchange contact information such as cell phone numbers. We create budgets so that we do not overspend. There are calendars and planners on our desktops that tell us when we need to be somewhere. Dining at a restaurant leaves us calculating tips and taxes. Every day we are faced with math problems to solve. Helping students realize that math is a normal part of life and not just something they learn in school can be beneficial.

One of the best ways to learn is by doing. Textbooks, workbooks, and online classrooms and tutorials provide great resources for learning, but they aren’t the only way a student learns math. You can incorporate math into everyday life and help your student learn without calling it schoolwork. Here are a few activities that provide opportunities to engage your student with math concepts we use on a daily basis:

• Shopping

  Whether you are grocery shopping or shopping for a new outfit, it is important to stay within a budget. Have your student keep a running estimated balance and compare it to the balance on your receipt after checkout.

  Look for discounts or use coupons. If an item is on sale for 30% off retail price, let your student calculate the sale price for you!

• Cooking

  One ...

Want a piece of Pi?

π ≈ 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510

How about a small piece for Pi Day on March 14? Just two digits after the decimal point. 3.14. Get it? March 14 – 3.14.

No matter how you decide to slice or truncate Pi, you will not find a single predictable pattern. Pi is not a baked good. Pi is a constant that describes the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.

Believe it or not, Pi has a long history – and many math enthusiasts want to know more about it. It’s like an obsession or, as was the case in my previous virtual school math classes, a way to earn a Pi party for the whole class! The class that had the most digits memorized would get to eat pie, in addition to sing Pi Day songs and celebrate Pi Day activities on March 14 (3.14). I once had a student correctly memorize 80 digits of Pi that occurred after the decimal place. There are people who have memorized more than a hundred, even a thousand, digits of Pi.

Pi Day Activity:

Are you wondering how close you can get to approximating Pi? Here’s an activity you can try.

What you will need:

• 5-7 circular lids of various sizes
• string
• scissors
• a ruler
• a calculator

As a virtual elementary school teacher with Ohio Connections Academy for the past five years, I have received tons of parent feedback. Most parents are excited about taking an active role in their child’s education, but they also want to make sure to keep it engaging—and even fun. Here are some creative tips I have shared with families that take advantage of the benefits of virtual school to keep learning exciting:

Social Studies: Why not turn that social studies assignment/project into a family virtual field trip? Depending upon the assignment, either start your morning or take the afternoon to visit that location across the world online. Some Web sites that offer great virtual trips are:

• Visit the Statue of Liberty
• Walk the streets of 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia
• Explore an Ancient Roman Villa
• Experience camp life during the Civil War

On a large bulletin board or in an empty photo album, keep track of the virtual cities/countries you visit throughout the school year. Finally, have your younger child create a postcard sharing one cool thing your family discovered or learned about.

Language Arts: Your student has to write a persuasive essay. Uggghh!! No need to panic; this can be fun. First, get online and go to your child’s favorite online store and do some “shopping.” Give him ten minutes to find five items/toys he feels he just has to have. Next, ask him to provide three reasons why his life would be better with these ...

Math...math...math...

Does the thought of doing a math lesson send chills down your spine? Or do you love math so much you look for free math lessons online just for the fun of it? 

No matter what your learning style, there is one quick way to sweeten up a math lesson in a hurry - CANDY!

Candy can help make numbers jump off the page.  Throughout the year, you can buy candy in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes (watch for them to go on sale). Put some in a bag in the back of the freezer and bring it out to spice up a lesson. 

Use for:

• Learning to count
• Lessons dealing with addition & subtraction
• Reinforcing place value
• Exploring fractions
• When a lesson suggests using a math counter (such as beans or beads)
• Plotting points on a number line or graph
• Have your student tell you a math story ("Dan has 8 pieces of candy.  He wants 10. How many more...")
• Practice measuring lengths

We would love to have you share your favorite candy math stories here.  There's nothing like sharing sweet success with friends.