Did you get a good look at that picture?
Look again.
What a big group I have!
Twelve kids may not seem like that large of a group, but for Mathletes, it is HUGE! The really exciting part is that there are 4th graders and 8th graders and everything-in-between graders on the team this year.
Each week I email three word problems to each participating family on Mondays. The level one problem is "easy". I would not have thought these problems were easy when I was in the 4th grade, but that's what the math folks say, so I'll go with it. The level two problems fall in the medium to difficult category; however, I did not see math like these problems until eighth grade. The level threes... well, OUCH!
Each member emails his or her answers to me on Fridays. I award each attempted problem one point. If a level one problem is correct, it earns an additional point. For each correct level two problem, I award two extra points, and I add three points for a correct level three.
I also give them one point per meeting they attend and one point per problem they attempt during each meeting. I give additional points for correct answers to these problems. 100 points= this gold medal.
We had our first monthly meeting last week. I divided the group into four teams and gave each team a sheet of five challenging word problems. They worked collaboratively to solve and when they arrived at the right answer to each problem, I told them one letter of a clue word. When they had solved all five problems correctly and had all the letters, they unscrambled the clue which revealed their prize was "candy". I find problems to give them here and here.
Next month, we will complete an Educaching activity. I will have lots to write afterward. They will also take the first Math Olympiad test. I believe the team will do very well this year as they are off to a great start!
2 comments:
Do you ever do virtual matheletes?
Sounds like a fun program! Is Mathletes a national thing? Do you do it through a homeschool group?
Post a Comment