Thanks for showing interest in the RB Math Club. Most everyone on this list has a 4th or 5th grader entering Robinson next year, although some of you just think math is fun. The plan is to meet on Thursdays after school. We'll cover a little bit of math vocabulary, then work through a handful of Math Olympiad problems together. In the last 20 minutes we'll either learn a fun game, trick, or I'll talk about "Math In The Real World." This will be something that everybody can relate to which shows that math in the real world is actually important, fun, and surprisingly easy to understand. Some topics I have lined up include: how Google works, why the Warriors are such a good basketball team, how to be a smart shopper, how noise cancelling headphones work, and many more. I'm very excited about this, so feel free to come early to join the conversation. If your child has a conflict on Thursdays, don't worry, they can follow along at home. On Fridays I'll send around an email with the vocabulary words, olympiad problems and solutions, as well as a write up of the Math In The Real World topic.
Feel free to forward this email to anyone that might be interested in joining. They can either sign up at this link:
for information on next year's program, a few sample problems, and a summer activity for the kids. This was distributed at the final assembly last year.
for another set of Math Olympiad problems with hints and answers. If you're extra motivated.
Summer Reading List - As I build up our Math Club Library, I'll be sending over a few book recommendations that you can borrow or buy yourself. Here are the first three:
- This is a great book for 4th or 5th graders who like to read biographies (such as Who Was Walt Disney, etc). Math is usually pretty boring in school, so this book is great for kids to realize that there are fun stories behind it. There's almost no math here, just easy to digest stories about Archimedes, Newton, Gauss, etc.
- This one's for you parents, or anybody in High School or older. The author is an amazing story teller, and this will be the topic for one of our Math In The Real World talks next year.
- This one is great for the whole family at dinner or bedtime, especially if you have younger kids. Each fun, well illustrated topic has four parts. First, a story that is good reading practice for 4th/5th graders. Next, three questions of increasing difficulty that are aimed roughly at 5 year olds, 7 year olds, and then 9 year olds.
Roadtrip Idea - Podcasts for kids - if you have a multi-hour car ride ahead with the kids, give a family-friendly podcast a try. The favorite of our kids is "
". The characters are slightly over the top, but I think that's helpful so that kids can learn things without even realizing it's educational. Why is wasabi painful? Which insects are edible? Duck duck poop (A Tale of Symbiosis), and many more crazy topics available.
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