Level: Form II (4th–6th grades)
Description:
Delightful games and healthy competition will help Form 2 students gain speed and accuracy with basic math facts. Students will learn strategies to aid them in deftly solving mental math problems, and the class will read aloud inspiring stories of real-life mathematicians.
This course does not replace the student’s main, traditional math class but rather serves to deepen and enrich the student’s understanding and appreciation of math. This class has no homework. (For information about Bluebonnet’s full course offerings for 4th through 6th-grade math, see here.)
Prerequisites: understanding of the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) with single-digit integers.
Math Club 2a will emphasize learning about the lives of notable mathematicians and their discoveries while cycling through games and activities that reinforce concepts introduced or expanded upon in standard 4th-5th grade mathematics coursework. This class meets every other week, alternating with Handicrafts.
Math Club 2b and 2c will build upon the skills reinforced in the previous level (not a prerequisite) with greater emphasis on solving more complex types of problems and strengthening skills from typical 5th-6th grade mathematics coursework. These classes will also learn about the lives of notable mathematicians and their discoveries. This class has no prerequisites, but students should have a strong foundation in memorization of multiplication tables and multiple-digit addition/subtraction. These classes meet every other week, alternating with Handicrafts.
Materials:
Students will need to allocate one section of a three-ring binder for Math Club with lined paper, pencils, colored pencils, and erasers in a pencil pouch. We will be taking notes on the lives of famous mathematicians on our lined paper and will also need room to keep hole-punched handouts.
Students who have not mastered their times tables are encouraged to practice at home using self-checking multiplication flash cards that show the problem and the solution on the reverse of each card. We recommend the TREND ENTERPRISES brand of self-checking flash cards (Model 53203).
