Fun Elementary Math and Science Activities

Summer is the perfect time to observe and explore nature in our gardens, while camping, and when traveling to various vacation destinations. As we enjoy nature explorations, we can reinforce our children’s learning by adding these fun math/science academic enrichment activities:

Visit a local park that includes farming and vegetable gardening (e.g. see Martial Cottle Park in San Jose at the scc.gov.org website listed under parks). At these working farms, students can learn about food production, explore insects, see a bee house, and visit edible food plants.
Plant seeds and measure their growth under different growing conditions. The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle provokes thought about the advantages of being small and What Do Roots Do? by Kathleen V. Kudlinski provides children with added information about planting and seed growth.
When taking short trips to the store, have children add and subtact mileage. Younger children can watch the speedometer and identify your speed on different roads. Older children can calculate the mileage on long trips.
Children can virtually select school supplies to fill their backpack on the online Target website and calculate their total. They can determine what they can spend for a $20 back-to-school supply budget.
We can also have children plan for food meals and calculate the cost of purchasing groceries on the Safeway or Whole Foods online shopping website.

Organically integrating your child’s natural curiosity in your daily summer life will make these academic activities feel less like structured learning and more like a more meaningful experience. As your children accomplish these playful learning milestones, they are also learning critical life skills for managing daily activities in the future. Bring joy to your learning explorations!

Danielle