Outdoor Math Activities

Skill: Geometric Reasoning/Spatial Sense – students use directions and scale to draw a map and locate treasures!

Materials Needed: Paper, pencil, 4 treasures

Choose an area such as a playground, floor of the house, park, etc. Have your student draw a map of the area. They collect and 4 different treasures, and mark where they are with an x on their map.  Then Swap maps with another pair and search for each other’s treasure!

Skill: Measurement

Materials Needed: Ruler or other measuring device, paper, pencil

Find a variety of outdoor objects. Ask your child to estimate how long the object is, then measure – how close can they get? Watch their estimation skills improve the more they do this activity! Spatial sense is an important foundational skill in math!

Variation: for younger children, use non-standard units of measure such as hands, feet or stride length.

Skill: Addition within 20, Odd/Even numbers

Materials Needed: Chalk or something to mark increments on the pavement.

This can be played as a 2-player game or with larger groups. Mark 10 increments on the pavement in a straight line. Player A (or team A) represents odd numbers, Player B (or team B) represents even numbers. Two players start in the middle of the ten increments, facing each other. They begin with both hands behind their back and at the same time they show their hands to each other displaying how many fingers they want (zero to ten). Both players add the total of all fingers between player A and player B to determine a sum. If the sum is odd, Player B (representing even numbers) backs up one increment on the line and Player A (representing odd numbers) moves up one increment on the line. Play continues until one player or team moves their opponent all the way off the line.

Skill: Addition

Materials Needed: Chalk to draw targets on pavement, beanbags or similar item to toss.

Draw a target or bullseye on the pavement using chalk. Insert different amounts into the various circles and label each circle with a number which will be added to the score. Write larger amounts toward the center (bullseye). Partners use beanbags and get 3 tosses each. Add all 3 numbers to determine a sum. Highest sum wins first round. Continue playing for designated number of rounds.

Variations:

· Change the complexity of the numbers using different whole numbers, fractions, decimals, integers

· Make a certain colour beanbag a special multiplier (e.g. the number it lands on will be multiplied by 2!)

· Add a line further back from the target as a special multiplier

· Change the game to subtraction where students begin from a given whole number and have to subtract to zero in order to win

· Have your child design their own game!

Skill: Counting, Adding/Subtracting within 10

Materials Needed: 10 objects each (can find objects outside) player, die.

In partners, collect 10 objects each. One person rolls die and collects that many objects from the other person. Keep switching until someone runs out of objects.

Skill: Spatial Sense, Symmetry

Materials needed: chalk or string

Draw a line on the ground. Students work in pairs to find objects OR decide to draw using chalk. Partner A builds 1/2 shape using objects (or chalk) using the line of symmetry and Partner B must complete the shape so that it is symmetrical (exactly the same on either side of the line). Switch roles when done.