“Gearing Back to Fall 2016 Series”

Integrated Math, Reading, and Writing Based on Logic

Summer is counting down; I am starting a series of integrated academic activities that you could use with your children to prepare them in going back to school in the Fall and (or) to have some thinking exercises with fun. I am publishing the series weekly. This is meant to be an interactive process, hence please do not hesitate to write comments or questions either through the NewportMommy website or directly to my inbox at: itworks@urlitworks.org.

In each part, I am including the purpose of the activity for parents to be more confident in empowering the child and in taking the full advantage of the exercises. Most of the exercises are written with an intention to integrate between two or more academic concepts reading and mathematics, or mathematics and writing, or reading, writing, and mathematics. Integration makes learning more impactful and meaningful; it encourages the “thinking” rather than just the “doing” of learning, in other words, we encourage children to think of what they are learning rather than just doing what they are learning. The thinking will lead to an understanding, and an understanding will lead to successful learning. 

I am hopeful that this series will be fun and meaningful for your family. I purposefully do not put the age nor grade as I believe that it is more important to pay close attention to the child’s readiness rather than to worry about age nor grade. Learning ought to put as less limitations as possible and open up as much possibilities as possible. 

Week One (8/14 through 8/20 of 2016)

Number 1 through Number 3 focus on Number Sense and Reading Comprehension. Encourage your child to underline the important information that could lead him/her to solve the problem. It is also good to encourage your child to write a list of the numbers. The students are also learning the process of trial and error to solve a problem.

1. I am a number; I am located in between of numbers 20 and 43. My tens digit is half than my ones digit. If you add the two of my digits together, the answer is 9.  What number am I?
2. I am an odd number. I am located in between of numbers 50 and 60. If you subtracted my ones digit from my tens digit, the answer is 2. If you add my two digits together, the answer is two numbers before 10. What number am I?
3. This one is for beginners ( Pre-K and Kindergarten). 

     I am a number in between 1 and 10. If you look at me carefully, I definitely like Frosty The Snowman sometimes. Or, some think that I am a stack of two balls. What number am I?

Number 4 through 8 focus on spelling and logic. The exercise is also useful to expand vocabulary and to learn beginning reading.

Unscrambling Words

When the words are unscrambled, they do not make any sense. What we can do is to arrange the letters in the correct pattern so that it makes sense. Some letters stay still, some letters need to be moved around. We start with easy ones; some words have "clue" on the side, and  all letters are purposefully written in upper case form to reduce sense of overwhelming. 

1. H   M   E   O     it becomes  ___  ____  ____  ____  ( the first letter is H)

1. R  E  T  W  I     it becomes  ____ ____  ____ ____ ____  ( the first letter is W)

1. H  S  O L C O   it becomes ____ _____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ( the first letter is S)

1. N  P C L  I  E     it becomes  ____  _____ _____ _____ ____ ____ 

1. S  R  E  A  R  E  it becomes _____  _____ _____ _____ ____ _____.

The next two problems, number 9 and 10, are mathematical word problems; it strengthens thinking process plus reading comprehension and the mathematical concept of  additions. One  of the word problem could be solved directly, and the other one is a multi-step word problem. 

For Beginners-- you are more than welcome to use any kind of manipulative around your house such as spoons, stickers, etc to help explained the problem to your child. If your child is a beginner reader, please encourage your child to read the problem on his/her own. I purposefully use very familiar and easy words plus a bigger font size to make it more readable and less overwhelming. When your child feels that he/she can read the problem, understand it, and do it on his/her own, your child will feel mighty industrious and it will give wonder to his/her self-confidence :)

1. We have 2 cats and 3 dogs at home. How many pets do we have at our home?

The next problem is the kind of problem that a student needs to ask himself or herself as “what information is not needed or is not so important for us to solve the problem.” The ability to “omit” the unnecessary information is an important skill that is related with logic or thinking process. To understand the difference between the relevant and the not so relevant information leads a student to a more logical and clarity in thinking of and solving the problem. 

1. a. Uncle Rob has six ducks, four dogs, three cats, eight cows, 7 pigs, 8 sheep, ten chickens, and two canaries. How many four-legged animals does Uncle Rob have? 

1. b. If Uncle Rob wants to group his animals to two groups: pet and farm animals, how many animals does he have for each group? If your child is still having a good time with this, perhaps the next question should be: "How many legs does each group have in total?" 

--- End of Problems--Week One---

I hope you are having fun with these problems. 

About Me

My name is Dr. Chandra Budi; I have spent many years in education both teaching and researching, and received my doctoral degree with specialization in Early Childhood Education in combinations with Family Studies and Philosophy of Education.  I am the founder and educator of Unconventional and Resourceful Learning, LLC, an educational institution that focuses on two important teaching pedagogies:

1. Holistic Learning approach, i.e.  partnering with parents in building each child’s emotional and cognitive development.
2. Logic Based Learning approach, i.e. the thinking of learning is equivalently important as the doing of the learning, so that children gain meaningful understanding of academic materials. 

For more information on the services offered and on myself, please refer to the website:

www.urlitworks.org

For questions or comments, please feel free to write me at:

itworks@urltutoring.org