With all the snow that winter brings, it’s the perfect season to learn through play. That’s why we’re proposing some fun math activities that you can do outside. It’s true that games make learning more fun. And it’s been proven that fun boosts motivation and interest, which are both essential to learning. Here are some outdoor games that will help your child understand the importance of math and improve their arithmetic skills.
Building a snow fort is the perfect opportunity to practise multiplication. For instance, you could ask your child to figure out how many blocks of snow they’d need to build the following:
- A fort with 3 walls that are 10 blocks long and 10 blocks high (answer: 300 blocks)
- A fort with 2 walls that are 10 blocks long and 10 blocks high, and 2 walls that are 5 blocks long and 5 blocks high (answer: 250 blocks)
- A rectangular floor that is 8 blocks long and 5 blocks high (answer: 40 blocks)
- Etc.
Sticky snow makes the best snowballs, and everybody loves a good snowball fight. For this activity, your kid gets rewarded with a snowball for each math problem they solve correctly. Here’s how:
- Make a whole bunch of snowballs
- Stack them in a huge pile
- Each time your kid solves a math problem correctly (e.g., 5 X 5 = 25), hand them a snowball
- Your kid then gets to throw their snowball at a target
Building a snowman is a merry way to teach your child about counting and sorting. For instance, you could ask your child to gather the following items:
- 8 stones to use as buttons
- 2 large twigs for the arms
- 40 pieces of pasta to make a crown
- Etc.
You can also use snow to teach your child about calculating distance and testing a hypothesis. Here’s how:
- Throw a ball as far as you can
- Have your child guess how many steps it will take to get to the ball
- Have them test their hypothesis
Switch things up by counting the number of baby steps, giant steps, jumps, somersaults, etc.
Did you know that you can use a stick to draw in the snow just like you do in the sand? The following drawing projects will help teach your kid about shapes:
- Draw a house using 1 square, 1 triangle, and 1 rectangle
- Draw a car using 1 rectangle, 1 square, 2 small triangles, and 2 circles
- Draw a snowman using 3 big circles, 2 small circles, 1 rectangle, 1 square, and 1 triangle
- Etc.
No matter what game you play, the important thing is to have fun and to make the most of these precious moments with your family. After all, beyond a few math concepts, these times are what your child will remember for the rest of their life.
Have fun in the snow!
Writing : The Alloprof Parents’ team