How to Use Movement to Help Teach Math

Anything that gets kids up and moving is a great thing, and connecting learning and moving is even better because it helps make connections in the brain that might not happen when learning at a desk. Plus, it’s just more fun for everyone.

These games that help teach kids about math while getting them moving around from Homegrown Friends are great to do with one or a couple of kids at once. They include:

number line scavenger hunt

addition or subtraction races

counting while moving (such as while doing jumping jacks)

The great thing about these is they don’t require a lot in terms of materials or setup, though the scavenger hunt could take a while if you use a lot of numbers. And I think they would be a lot of fun for kids, too.

Do you incorporate movement while learning? I’d love to hear your ideas!

[Photo via Homegrown Friends.]

Looking for more resources? Check out these board games for learning Math and Multiplication?

Several countries have a day set aside to honor and recognize their inventors, but Nov. 9 is a special one that’s known as Tag der Erfinder in German. It’s celebrated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and it falls on Nov. 9 because that’s the birthday of Hedy Lamarr.

Hedy Lamarr is widely known as an actress but there’s a lot more to her story. You can get a little of it geared to little kids in the Little People, Big Dreams book Hedy Lamarr (32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Frances Lincoln Childrens Books, suggested retail price $15.99).

The book explores her birth in Austria and how she spent time when she was young coming up with inventions. She became an actress, married an arms dealer, made her escape to America and became an actress again.

But she also helped develop a frequency-hopping signal device for airplanes that was used by the Americans and their allies during World War II. That technology became the basis for wireless technology such as wifi and GPS.

While Inventor’s Day is a great time to learn about Hedy Lamarr, you can take this opportunity to check out books and do little studies on lots of different inventors. If there’s an inventor or an invention your child is particularly interested in, that’s a great place to start. It’s fun to think about all the things we use every day that didn’t always exist; someone had to invent them!

For a start here at Craft Gossip you can learn more about Garrett Morgan, who invented traffic lights; Maria Oroso, who developed a clay oven that could cook food without electricity; and more female inventors and scientists.

And for more general inventors’ fun, check out this inventors word search from Fun Findery (and another from Let’s Do Puzzles) or take a quiz on inventors and their inventions from Flanders Family Home Life.

Have you read?

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