Friday, July 20, 2007

Sidewalk Chalk = Teacher's Helper

There were four teens at the summer program today. After doing the worksheet -- 16 problems involving "How much money did you save on #w of x item if it's regularly $y and it's on sale for $z? -- as a group, the general consensus was that none of us felt like sitting at a desk and doing more math.

Unfortunately, the teens still needed to work on their addition/subtraction with money; most of them are lacking that skill, and it's needed for their work in the LC Store.

A suggested that we go outside for a while. I took one look at the pouring rain, and shooed everyone out to the patio connected to the building. R drew the short straw, and got sent back in to dig some chalk out of the sports closet.

We spent the next half an hour doing "Math Relays." I put them into groups of two, facing away from me at the other end of the patio, and drew two sets of math problems on the floor (i.e. $1.50 + $.75), gave them chalk, and had them tag-team the problems.

It was great, and fun, and being outside meant I could shout "3 ... 2... 1... Math!" and not feel like a complete dork :-D. Once the rain stopped, we extended the running part of the relay to the length of the sidewalk ^-^

By the time we ran out of room to write (and chalk), the teens were more willing to come indoors and do store inventory, which was a great perk!

No comments: