Home Math Connection

Course 1 Chapter 1

    As we continue a wonderful year at Cross Middle School we will focus in each unit on why it is important to learn math.

    Make a math journal at home keeping track of all the times you use math for a week or a month.

    Areas of math might include: algebra, averaging, calculators (use of) Computer (use of spreadsheet or calculation) decimals, estimation, formulas, fractions, geometry, measurement, percent, probability, ratio and proportion, statistics (creating and interpreting graphs), and many more.

Course 1 Chapter 2

Have a family member help you count the number of cans of food, glass jars of food, boxes of food, and bags of food you have in your pantry.

1) Create a table to record your findings.

2)  Make a bar graph to represent the data.

3)  Name the type of container of which you have the most (can, glass jar, box, or bag).

4) Do you have more cans of food or more bags of food?

5) Make a line graph for the data.

6) Do you think a line graph or a bar graph is better for answering the questions? Why?

Course 1 Chapter 3

Money is a great way to apply decimals.  The next time you are at the grocery store ask help your parents out by keeping an estimate of what the bill will be when you reach the cashier.  If you pay with cash have an estimate of what your change should be.  Talk to your parents about your estimates.  Were you close?  Do you think it is a good idea to do this every time you shop?

Course 1 Chapter 4

Work with a family member to answer the following questions.  Visit a favorite restaurant or recall a past visit to a restaurant.

1)  Estimate the total cost of the food and beverages.

2) What is your local sales tax rate? Convert the rate to a decimal. For example a tax rate of 5 1/2 % is written as 0.055.

3) Calculate the amount of tax you should be charged for the meal.

4) What is the total amount of the bill (food, beverages, and tax)?

5) Now suppose that you want to leave a 15% tip.  Calculate the amount of the tip.

Visit a local retail store.  Select three items that you would like to purchase. Use the tax rate from Exercise 2 to estimate the total cost of each item.

Course 1 Chapter 5

Practice the divisibility rules with a family member.  See if you can stump them with some really big numbers.

Course 1 Chapter 6

Work with a family member to answer the following questions.

1) How long does it take you to travel from your home to your school? Record the time you leave home and the time you arrive at school. Calculate how many minutes it takes to get from your home to school.

2) How long does it take you to travel from your school to your grocery store? Record the time you leave school and the time you arrive at the grocery store.  Calculate how many minutes it takes to get from your school to the grocery store.

3) How long does it take you to travel from your home to a movie theater? Record the time you leave home and the time you arrive at the theater.  Calculate how many minutes it takes to get from your home to a movie theater.

4) How long does it take you to travel from the movie theater to a favorite restaurant? Record the time you leave the theater and the time you arrive at the restaurant. Calculate how many minutes it takes to get from the movie theater to a favorite restaurant.

5) Using your answers from above, how many minutes would it take you to travel from your home to school to the grocery store?

6) Using your answers from above, how many minutes would it take you to travel from home to the movie theater to a favorite restaurant?

Course 1 Chapter 7

Have a family member help you to find a recipe. You can find recipes in cookbooks, the newspaper, or maybe someone's memory. Write the amount of each ingredient of the recipe.

Suppose you want to triple the recipe. Calculate how much of each ingredient you will need to use.

Suppose you want to cut the recipe in half. Calculate how much of each ingredient you will need to use.

Course 1 Chapter 8

Work with a family member to answer the following questions. Ask ten family members or friends what kind of cars they drive: sports utility, truck, sedan, van, convertible, or other. Record the results.

1a. What percent of these people drive sports utility vehicles?

b. Express the percent as a decimal.

2a. What percent of these people drive trucks?

b. Express the percent as a decimal.

3a. What percent of these people drive sedans?

b. Express the percent as a decimal.

4a. What percent of these people drive vans?

b. Express the percent as a decimal.

Course 1 Chapter 8B

Work with a family member to answer the following questions. You will need a yardstick to do this activity. You may also need the following facts.

1 foot = 12 inches, 1 yard = 3 feet or 36 inches, 1 mile = 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards

1) Measure the height of one of the doors in your home. What is the height of the door in inches? In feet?

2) Measure the height of a family member. What is the family member's height in inches? in feet?

3) Pick something else to measure. What did you choose? How long is it in inches? In feet?

4) Approximate the distance in miles from your house to your school. About how many feet is your house from your school?

5) Approximate the distance in miles from your house to the nearest store. About how many yards is your house from the store?

Work with a family member to answer the following questions.  Decide what unit of length, millimeter, centimeter, meter, or kilometer, that you would use to measure each of the following items. Then estimate each measure. When you can, use a centimeter ruler or a meter stick to test the accuracy of your estimate.

1) the width of your yard or a neighbor's yard

2) the height of a member of your family

3) the distance from your house to school

4) the height from the floor of your kitchen to the ceiling

5) the thickness of a pen in your home

6) the length of a box of cereal

7) the width of a dollar bill

Course 1 Chapter 9

Have a family member name four letters of the alphabet. Write each capital letter down.  Then draw all lines of symmetry.  Check the lines with your family member.

Find instances of symmetry in the natural world.

Course 1 Chapter 10

Work with a family member. Find three triangle in your home. For example, you might find triangles of a food container, in a tile pattern, in a wallpaper pattern, or even in a painting. You can also create triangles by drawing the diagonal of a rectangular object. You will need a ruler or tape measure to complete this activity.

1. Describe the first triangle you found. Use a ruler to measure the height and the base  of the triangle.

2. The area of a triangle is 1/2 its base times its height. What is the area of the first triangle?

3. Describe the second triangle you found. Use a ruler to measure the height and the base of the triangle.

4. What is the area of the second triangle?

5. Describe the third triangle you found. Use a ruler to measure the height and the base of the triangle.

6. What is the area of the third triangle?

Course 1 Chapter 11

Work with a family member to answer the following questions.  Name a positive or negative integer to describe the following situations.

1. How many minutes does it take you to travel to school?

2. What was today's low temperature in Tucson?  What was today's low temperature in the country?

3. What is the amount of your last withdrawal from the bank?

4. How many different kinds of vegetables are in your refrigerator?

5. How much money did you spend today?

6. How much time do you spend cleaning your room each week?

7. Give the approximate distance in miles from your house to the movie theater.

8. How much money did you spend on your last trip to the mall?

Course 2 Chapter 1

Working with area:

Your family wants to plant a garden. You have decided that it will be a rectangular garden that is 5 feet long and 3 feet wide.

1. Make a sketch of your garden. Label the dimensions.

2. Calculate the area of your garden.

Use a tape measure or ruler to measure the lengths of two walls in your bathroom. (Measure the lengths of two walls that intersect to form a corner- not two opposite walls.)

3. Record the lengths of the two walls and their height.

4. Use the formula for finding the area of a rectangle to approximate the total area of all the walls in your bathroom.

5. A gallon of paint covers 375 square fee. How many gallons of paint would you need to paint your bathroom?

Choose another room in your home and calculate the total area of all the walls and how much paint you would need.

Course 2 Chapter 2

Ask a family member how much they get paid for one hour of work.

1. How would you calculate their pay before deductions?

2. How much money does he or she earn for 0.75 hours of work?

3. How much money does he or she earn for 1.25 hours of work?

4. How much money does he or she earn for 40 hours of work?

5. Ask a family member how much it costs to live in your house or apartment for one month. How many hours does he or she need to work to pay for it?

Course 2 Chapter 3 

Work with a family member to answer the following questions. Consult a newspaper, search the Internet, or watch a news program to gather the necessary information.

1. Construct a graph that shows the closing level of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) for the last five weekdays. Predict the closing number for the DJIA on the next weekday.

2. Construct a graph that shows the anticipated low temperature for the next five days. Predict the low temperature for the sixth day.

3. Select a favorite sports star. Research his/her career statistics and make a graph. Predict how the athlete will perform next season.

Course 2 Chapter 4

Work with a family member to answer the questions below.  Purchase a small bag of colored candies such as m&m's or a small box of colored paperclips.  Separate by color.

Count the total number of pieces in the bag or box. Count the number of each color. Find the fraction of the total amount for each color.  Find the decimal equivalent.

Write the fractions from least to greatest.

Which color had the largest fractional part? the smallest?

Course 2 Chapter 5

Consult a newspaper, watch the news, surf the Internet, or watch the weather channel with a family member. Find the high and low temperatures on the same day for eight cities: Buenos Aires, Moscow, Zurich Tokyo, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, and Tucson.

1. Which city has the highest high temperature?

2. Which city has the lowest low temperature?

3. List the cities in order from lowest high temperature to highest high temperature.

4. List the cities in order from lowest low temperature to highest low temperature.

5. Were the cities in the same order in the answers for Questions 3 and 4?  Why or why not?

Course 2 Chapter 6

Write an equality for each phrase with a parent or family member.  Then try to come up with some of your own.

1. kids 7 and under eat free

2. no one under the age of 21 allowed

3. must be 18 or older to win

4. must be taller than 4 feet to ride the roller coaster

Course 2 Chapter 7

Work with a family member. Select four cans of food, four boxes of food, and two beverages. Find the net weight on each item. It is usually located at the bottom of the container. Convert the unit on your food to a different unit.  For example an individual serving of apple sauce is 4 ounces.  4 ounces = 1/2 cup.

Course 2 Chapter 8

Work with a family member to find the exchange rates for the currency of six countries. Consult the business section of a newspaper, do a search for foreign exchange rates on the Internet, or call a bank. Express each ratio as a fraction in simplest form.

Course 2 Chapter 9

Work with a family member to answer the following questions:

1. Name an object in your house or yard that contains the shape of a right triangle.

2. Name an object in your house or yard that contains the shape of a quadrilateral.

3. Name an object in your house or yard that contains the shape of a scalene triangle.

4. Name an object in your house or yard that contains the shape of a trapezoid.

5. Name an object in your house or yard that contains the shape of a parallelogram.

6. Find a pattern in your house that contains rectangles. Draw a portion of the pattern.

7. Find a pattern in your house that contains triangles. Draw a portion of the pattern.

Course 2 Chapter 10

With a family member find several small shapes around the house. Put each one on centimeter graph paper and draw an outline of the one side of the object. Estimate the area of the outline.

Choose one of your objects. Give a reason why you might want to find the area of the object. Work with your family member to get ideas.

Course 2 Chapter 11

Work with a family member to answer the following questions. Visit a favorite clothing or grocery store and select three items that are on sale. Also, find the percent of sales tax in your area.

1. Record the name and the original price of the first item. Find the percent of discount to the nearest percent. For example, if a shirt that was originally $30.00 was marked down to $27.00, then the percent of discount would be :

$30-$27=$3

$3 /$30 x 100 % = 10 %

Using the percent of sales tax for your area, find the amount of sales tax to the nearest cent. For example, if the sales tax was 8.25 %, then the amount of the sales tax would be:

0.0825 X $27 = $2.23

2. Record the name and the original price of the second item. Find the percent of discount to the nearest percent. Then, using the percent of sales tax for your area, find the amount of ales tax to the nearest cent.

3. Record the name and the original price of the third item. Find the percent of discount to the nearest percent. Then, using the percent of sales tax for your area, find the amount of ales tax to the nearest cent.

4. Which of your three items has the greatest discount? On which item will you pay the greatest sales tax?