A Little Slice of Thanksgiving Pi

The months of November and December are often very busy months for families. Despite that the days are shorter and nights are longer, there are lots of events surrounding the holidays that can lead to routine disruptions. As fun as they can be, the months tend to fly by and sometimes school can be put on the back burner. Thanksgiving, in particular, is a time of reflection and gratitude, which nearly everyone can relate to. It can then be a great holiday to incorporate into math fun. Wondering just how to incorporate a little whimsy into your household with Thanksgiving activities that can double as math practice? Read on!

I Am Thankful for Math Because

Math has a huge part in so much of our society. Cooking, building, telling time, gardening, baking etc. all revolve around math. Yet, many people talk negatively about math. Perhaps they have had bad experiences as students, where they were never taught math in a way that they could relate to, or maybe they never learned the basics of numerical fluency and competency. Either way, Thanksgiving is a great time to reverse negativity about math by having your child come up with a list of reasons why they’re grateful for math. Here are some examples to fuel math gratitude: 

I am thankful for math because….

• it teaches me to solve problems
• without it, cookies would taste bad.
• I like my math teacher.
• it allows me to show up to soccer practice on time.
• it’s my favorite class in school.

Notice how some of these are creative and funny, like the cookies example? Having your kid write a list of reasons they’re grateful for math will help them think of all the ways that math is important societally in more practical ways than what they might be using math for. Once your student has completed a list, you can put the list somewhere visible in your house, like your refrigerator. It’s a great way to add a little grateful holiday spirit that reminds kids to think about the relevance of math in their lives. 

Coordinate Graphing with Thanksgiving Art

The use of coordinates for graphing is a math skill that shows up a lot in middle school math and beyond and one of the best ways to practice plotting points is with pictures. It adds some fun for students to be able to make a picture using math! So, have them coordinate graphing pictures of turkeys. Remember those little handprint turkeys that a lot of kindergarteners make? It’s like that, but for older kids. Here is where you can download a worksheet to plot a turkey. 

Plan a Thanksgiving Dinner

This one is another fun way for kids to bridge the gap between math and real life, because when you can show real world applications for math, your child will better learn lessons. Here are some steps for this activity to see just how savvy your little shopper is! 

1. Come up with a fictitious budget for a Thanksgiving Dinner, the number of people that will be joining you for Thanksgiving dinner and an average portions each person will eat.
2. Have your kids determine what they want to eat at Thanksgiving and look up all recipes to make a list of what they need to buy.
3. Let your kids browse a grocery store websites, like King Soopers, WholeFoods, Safeway etc. to come up with the most economical way to buy their fictitious Thanksgiving dinner items. If they want a bonus challenge, they can also plan the most expensive dinner they can, or they can run some different scenarios to see how much dinner would cost depending on how many people are coming. 

Several math concepts are covered by doing this, including multiplication of money, addition with money and decimals, greater than and less than, and decision making. In addition, it’s diving into adulting. 

Thanksgiving Themed Word Problems

Many math concepts can be covered with word problems. Word problems are often the attempt to bridge real life scenarios with math so that kids using math in an applicable way. Fractions, circumference, proportions, unit rate, Pythagorean Theorem and so much more can all be practiced with word problems. So why not involve word problems in Thanksgiving? Things like dinner, travel and pies can all be wrapped up in word problems. Education.com is a good place to go to find free word problem ideas. You can take the problems they have and make them more applicable to your family’s Thanksgiving, to give them a personal and potential funny touch. 

Whether you’re staying at home or traveling this Thanksgiving, have a great holiday from Mathnasium of Littleton. We are appreciative of your community support and grateful to be able to see your children flourish in their journey to master math!