Koala Coach

The change in season and temperature can also bring on the dreaded negotiations over wearing a jacket. In Koala Coach style, if your child can agree to spend a few seconds thinking about a math problem related to the days temperature, then they earn the right to just carry the jacket, instead of wearing it.

Falling Numbers: A Math Activity for Fall 

As you are getting dressed or leaving the house in the morning take one second to give your child your cell phone and have them check the temperature of the day. Use the temperature number from today (current temperature, high of the day, low of the day…) to generate a quick math problem for any age child.

Younger children can practice reading numbers and understanding that numbers have meaning and that meaning can be felt through temperature.

The daily temperature number, or number line can be written on a wall calendar: 

Watch 'Calendar Classroom', a favorite Koala Coach video to learn how! 

Older Children can think about how numbers are built. It’s 55 degrees today: 55 is built with 5 tens and 5 ones. An equation to make this number is 50 + 5, another equation is 65-10, or 5 X 11.

Want more of a challenge...

Positive and Negative Integers on A Number Line:

You can take the current temperature of the day and another temperature from later in the day or yesterday to figure out the amount of temperature change. Depending on the day there will be a positive change or a negative change. For example, if it is 45 degrees in the morning and 65 degrees at 4:00pm, there is a temperature difference of +20. (65 + - 45 = 20)  But, if it is 23 degrees today, and it was 37 degrees yesterday there is a temperature difference of 14. (37-23 = 14) If you live in a place where the temperature stays relatively the same every day or you would like to think about negative numbers with your child, you can compare your city to one of the coldest cities in the world -- Dudinka, Russia or Harbin, China.

Negative Numbers: Temperature is a good way to understand negative numbers. As the number drops below 0, the numbers seem to get bigger, but really the numbers are getting farther away from zero and it is getting colder.

Watch this quick video to review absolute value,  positive and negative numbers on a number line: