Mathletes has begun.

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!