Summer Math

Sharing Math in Everyday Life
Games to Play
Websites for Math Games & Help
WMS Practice Packets by Grade
(Download this Summer Math Intro in a printable PDF format )

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Dear Parents:

Through the years many parents have asked what can be done over the summer to maintain skills and develop mathematical thinking. There are a couple of options for families.

1. The Middle School math teachers have created a practice calendar to help your child retain his/her skills and to provide valuable practice over the summer. You should feel free to discuss the work with your child. Math discussions are an important way for students to remember and retain concepts. Students may enjoy working with peers or parents as they practice. Again, this calendar is simply an opportunity for your child to maintain skills. The calendar and answer key are here on the Wayland Middle School website (see links at the top of this page) and can be downloaded and printed at your convenience.

A few things to note:

1. -Our goal is to provide work for students seeking to keep their math skills sharp over the summer.
2. 1. -Teachers hope that everyone attempts the problem-set.
-There may be a few problems on your grade-level packet that you actually haven't seen before. These are great extension questions for you to try and talk about with your family.

-Summer Math will not be graded.
-There is no penalty for not doing the problems.
-Students may get help from sibling, parent, etc.
-If a student doesn’t know how to do a certain problem, it’s OK to try it and move on to another problem.
-It is OK to use extra paper if more space is needed to work the problems.

$Ruler And Calculator.png$ Rather do your WMS Summer Math
calendar on the computer? Check this out!

In the middle school we use a web-based program called ASSISTments to help students with math problems. The summer math questions can be completed on paper or using ASSISTments. Your child may do either one. To sign up for ASSISTments follow these simple directions.

1. Go to www.Assistments.org and Sign In for Version 1.0.
2. Click on Create an Account
3. Select ‘Student’ as the role. Use the following registration codes: Entering 6th - 5zxbrz
Entering 7th - 7mk8ns
Entering 8th - 3d8q59
4. Follow the prompts to answer the questions to fill-in your state, district, Wayland Middle School and personal information. When prompted for the grade, select the grade that you will start in this fall. We suggest using "1234" for your password.
5. Click on the ‘Class Assignments’ link to see each week's problem set.

***Already have an ASSISTments account?***
Simply sign-in and enter the appropriate Enrollment Code listed above.
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Curious About Math Mindset? Another option this summer is for parents and students together to enroll in the free online course, How to Learn Math, offered through Stanford University. This is a self-paced course appropriate for both children and adults, focusing more on math mindset than on specific skills. Each of the six sessions is geared to be approximately 10-20 minutes long. Parents of children under age 13 should register themselves (i.e., parent's name, email, username) and preview the material before sharing with their child.

Below are some ideas of activities you can do every day with your child. On the reverse side of this letter is a list of games and websites that you can use with your child to assist the development of good math skills; such as spatial recognition, sequencing, patterns, logical deduction, visual memory and number facts. These games can help strengthen a mathematical foundation that is further developed within the math classroom. Most of the items on the list are commercial games. They are motivational and, with parent involvement, these games are an excellent way to get your child to communicate concepts while sharpening thinking skills. They also provide an opportunity for discussion and questions; encouraging your child to evaluate answers, draw conclusions and strengthen reasoning skills. Games are a low stress way to engage your child in math while developing necessary skills. Something as simple as playing cribbage daily will improve your child's number sense, addition skills and number recognition. We hope you will find time to use some of these suggestions and that you enjoy playing them.

We hope that at least one of these options appeals to you and your child and that you can both enjoy doing some math this summer. Thank you for your support. We are looking forward to an exciting and enriching year with your child.

Sincerely,
The Wayland Middle School Math Department

SHARING MATH IN EVERYDAY LIFE

+ Budget Share the budget (household, food, clothing, phone, vacation etc.) with your child.

+ Banking Explain and share interest rates with your child.

+ Shopping

Have your child estimate the total bill.

Share any money saving techniques with your child (coupons, percent discounts, etc).

Have your child compare unit prices to find the better deal.

+ Purchasing Gasoline

Have your child predict the cost of gasoline and how far you can travel on one full tank based on your car’s mileage.

+ Going on Vacation

Car: Before the vacation, ask your child to predict how long the drive will take based on an average speed of 60 miles per hour (no more “are we there yet!”).

Airplane, Bus, Train: Have your student practice elapsed time (time of arrival versus time of departure).

+ Going out to Eat Have your child help figure out the tip.

+ Baking Have your child follow a recipe (dividing a recipe in half practices fraction operations).

+ Construction Project

Have your child help you plan and measure prior to construction.

+ Sports Share sport statistics with your child (shooting percentages, golf scores, baseball averages, etc)

GAMES

The following list of games, excerpted from Games and Their Uses in Mathematics Learning (Sharma, 2008), will help your child sharpen thinking skills, makes inferences, draw conclusions, evaluate answers and strengthen reasoning. Beside each title are the skills and concepts which are reinforced.

Simon or Mini Wizard (sequencing, following multi-step directions, visual and auditory memory)
Battleship (spatial orientation, visualization, visual memory)
Cribbage (number relationships, patterns, visual clusters)
Quarto (spatial orientation/space organization, patterns, classification)
Concentration (visualization, pattern recognition, visual memory)
Chinese Checkers (patterns, spatial orientation/space organization)
Pachisi (sequencing, patterns, number relationships)
Checkers (sequencing, patterns, spatial orientation/space organization)
Othello (pattern recognition, spatial orientation, visual clustering, focus on more than one aspect, variable or concept of time)
Score Four or Connect Four (pattern recognition, spatial orientation, visual clustering, geometric patterns)
Qubic (pattern recognition, spatial orientation, visualization, geometrical patterns)
Pyraos (spatial orientation/space organization)
Krypto (number sense, basic arithmetical facts)
Go Muko (pattern recognition, spatial organization)
Kalah or Mankalah (sequencing, counting, estimation, visual clustering)
Master Mind (sequencing, logical deduction, pattern recognition)
Four Sight (spatial orientation, pattern recognition, logical deduction)
Black-Box (logical deduction)
Reckon (number facts, estimation, basic operations)
Card Games (visual clustering, pattern recognition, number facts)
Dominos (visual clustering, pattern recognition, number facts)
Hex (pattern recognition)
British Squares (pattern recognition)
Stratego (spatial recognition, logical deduction, graphing)
Number Safari (number facts, a paper/pencil game)
Pinball Wizard (number facts, a paper/pencil game)
Number War Games (visual clustering, arithmetic facts, mathematics concepts)