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Real Life Math


Stella Bock, a third grade teacher from Orange Avenue School in Cranford, New Jersey

I have a math activity that I just started and it's been very successful so far. I recently had to purchase a major appliance, so I did some comparison-shopping. I talked to my class about this, and when I finally did make the purchase, I told them what I saved. I started thinking about all the real life examples of how we use math every day, so we've started a regular part of our math lesson called 'Real Life Math'. I tell my children how I used math during the previous 24 hours, and they volunteer ways they've used math too. We chart the results and we've gone through 2 pages of chart paper already! They actually remind me to ask them when I forget. One day they helped me figure out what I saved by catching a mistake on my shopping receipt. I feel it's very important for children to see a practical application of what they learn in school, and this activity has been a winner!

COMMENTS:

1 - 3 out of 3 Comments | Add your comment

abby gonzaga | 2010/01/02

I want to leran more about different formulas of arithmetic in real life...

Buffy Rogers | 2009/09/23

I teach Art and we are constantly using arithmetic to calculate the division of a space, use rulers to divide a space as well as calculate enlargements of images from small drawings to fit a larger paper. Sometimes we may even intentionally distort an image by changing the ratio of our grid dimensions.

Debby | 2009/09/22

Great idea. One of my coworkers did this last year with her students with the exception of purchasing a car. They received blank invoices from a dealership and the students had to figure tax and the best deal they could find.

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