Practice math skills in association with every day life to show children that math based story problems surround us all the time! Lots of opportunity exists to bring math into every day situations by talking about anything from setting the table, grocery shopping, to the family˙ýs daily schedule. Here are a few examples of how to turn every day activates into story problems to practice:

Grocery store example: We need 3 bananas; I˙ýve got one in my hand. How many more do we need?

Meal example: Tonight your friends Ben and Sarah are coming over for dinner. Since there are 3 in our family, how many more place settings do we need?

Schedule example: You get home from school at 3:30pm and dinner will be at 5:30pm. You want to do your homework and play outside. How much time do you have to do both before we eat?

A follow up process to use once solving story problems can be done well, ask students you know to create story problems that then are worked out together. This will help create a link between reading the math problem to understand the pieces and being able to figure out the parts needed when solving math story problems.

Parent Tip: work math story problems into special request by children and their chores.

Teacher Tip: Engage students to create story problems and trade them with another class

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Jane Hampstead received a nomination from her six-year-old daughter Amy. She works all day, is the leader of Amy˙ýs Girl Scout Brownie troop, and actively reviews homework with her three children.

Amy likes to read and she loves when her mom practices spelling with her while they make dinner and clean the house. The spelling words revolve around what they are working on.

Jane and Amy live in South Carolina.