Geography Race -- State Abbreviations and Capitals

This is a very active way to learn and review state abbreviations and capitals. First I printed up cards with the state capital on one side and the 2-letter abbreviation on the other side. Then we scattered the cards around the frontroom floor so the abbreviations were facing up. Then the girls would stand by the door, listen for the name of the state, then race to find the card. They had a blast, and it was a lot more fun than simply filling out a worksheet.


 

To practice the capitals, we did the same thing, but turned the cards over so the name of the capital was face up. Then we played the game the same way racing for the capitals.

Floor Geometry -- Yarn shapes, Length, Width and Side

This activity was an introduction to finding the area of rectangles, triangles, and squares. First, we had fun creating large shapes with yarn on the floor. Then we labeled the sides, width, and length of each shape. The label cards were colored differently. For example, the length cards were orange, the width cards were blue, and the side cards were red, for the square, and yellow, for the triangle. Then we traded the word cards for cards with the beginning letter of the word so the girls would get familiar with the letters used in the formulas for finding the area.

M & M Decimal Multiplication

We had fun multiplying decimals by using M&Ms as the decimal points. First, I gave each girl 3 M&Ms. They placed the M&Ms in the spot where the decimal goes in each of the decimals they were multiplying. Then, after they completed the multiplication, they had to place the third M&M in the correct place in the answer.

We played a dice game with decimals and M&Ms. The girls started with a blank M&M Decimal Multiplication worksheet (below), three M&Ms, and three dice. Here's what they did. They rolled the three dice and wrote the numbers down in the first row in any order they chose. Then they did the same for the second row. Then they placed an M&M in any position in the numbers in each row to create a decimal point. Then they completed the multiplication, writing the answers in the squares below. When they got the final answer, they counted up the decimal places of the two decimals they multiplied, and they counted over that many places in the answer and placed their third M&M in that spot to represent the decimal in the answer. If the answer was correct, they got to eat the M&M in the answer.Then they got another M&M so they started with three again, and they did it three more times, until the worksheet was completed.