My Life in Numbers

Here's an idea for getting your math year off to a great start...

When I posted about Math Journals & Notebooks, I mentioned that I loved the idea of having children make covers relating math to themselves as Courtney shares at A Middle School Survival Guide. Ideally, I'd begin the lesson by reading aloud a book that relates math to everyday life. (I mention several suggestions here.)

When I first considered what might go on a cover, I didn't have a lot of ideas. I just thought about # of siblings or children, year of birth or age, height or weight, etc. But the more I considered, the more ideas multiplied! I'd definitely want to do this as a brainstorming activity with students rather than giving them a list. See what your collective brain energy can come up with! How is math related to our daily life? Here are some of the things we thought of:

• time you wake up/go to sleep
• # of favorite ____________ (sports, colors, hobbies)
• # of years _____________ (teaching, being a student, playing an instrument or sport)
• time each day that you ___________ (exercise, go to school, watch tv, read, play video games)
• # of _____________ that you own (pets, video games, books)
• # of years until you (finish school, turn 21, want to get married or have kids)
• cost of your favorite (restaurant meal, soda, candy bar)
• amount you spent per week on (lunch, snacks, coffee)

The possibilities are endless!

A follow-up post will show you how to turn this into a problem solving activity!!