Math in Nature: Enrichment Curriculum for Ages 8-12
Looking for engaging, hands on lessons to help your kids see and explore math in the world around us? Try getting outside and playing with math in nature!
With this curriculum, kids will explore 5 different math in nature topics:
- Math in outer space
- Fibonacci sequence
- Hexagons
- Fractals
- Concentric Circles
Within each of these topics, kids also practice and apply important math skills, seeing them in a meaningful context. Some of these math concepts include:
- Seeing & using decimals on a number line
- Working with integers on a number line
- Understanding number patterns & sequences
- Composing shapes & repeating shapes
- Exploring repeated multiplication as an introduction to exponents
- Measuring circles & using/applying circle vocabulary
The curriculum consists of these components for each theme:
- Math in nature posters to use as an opening 'Notice & Wonder' prompt, plus a Notice & Wonder journal where they can record their ideas and questions each day.
- 3-4 hands on activities and math lessons to complete along with each theme
- Printable picture book lists so you can include literature in your study
- Links to fun math art projects to go along with each theme (as time allows)
- Printable 'Fun Facts' pages to send home with kids, summarizing the big ideas from each theme so they can review and remember what they learned
When you purchase, your download includes a zip file with all the curriculum materials including:
- Teacher Manual with directions, explanations, pictures, answer keys and extension ideas (pdf file)
- Student Handout Pages (pdf file)
- Math in Nature Posters (pdf file)
- Notice & Wonder Student Journal (pdf file)
How to Use This Curriculum:
There are lots of ways to incorporate these lessons into your math plans, but here are a few ideas for you:
- As a DIY Summer Math Camp
- As a once a week 'math enrichment' lesson
- As an after school math enrichment
- As a 'STEM' night (set up each theme as a different 'station')
- Before a break, such as Christmas or summer when you want to keep kids learning, but they've started to 'check out'
- Or any other time that works for you!
PLEASE NOTE: This resource is in a zip file which includes 4 pdf files. You will have to open the .zip file on your computer to access the pdf files. Please be sure you are comfortable doing this before you purchase.
IN ADDITION: This curriculum is intended for personal, individual use in the home or classroom only. You may not share or distribute the materials in any way. You may not alter the files in any way, and you may not store them on a file sharing site or link directly to the pdf files. If you need to purchase for multiple teachers, you can use the 'multiple license' purchase option. Thank you for your honesty!