Grade 4 Math Activities

Counting goes beyond 1, 2, 3, 4... . There is an entire area of math (called discrete mathematics) that focuses on counting things arranged in different ways. Help your child explore this fascinating world, which begins with everyday questions.

	Paper and pencil

Help your child come up with and answer questions about arranging and ordering things. Here are some examples to get you started:

	A group of campers is waiting to go into the zoo. If there are 8 of them, how many different ways can they line up?

	Aunt Lorraine has 6 sundresses and 4 pairs of sandals. How many different outfits can she wear?

	If the ice cream store carries 11 different flavors, how many kinds of double-dip cones can they make? What if it didn’t matter which flavor is on top? What if it did matter?

	Mr. Vern always plants 3 different types of flowers in his garden. If he has 9 choices of flowers to plant this year, how many different gardens can he plant?

Once your child settles on a question to explore, the challenge is keeping track of her answers. It often helps to give choices specific names, such as the names of campers or the ice cream flavors, and then give each name a code, say V = vanilla. Then your child can use the codes to list all the possibilities. For example, the picture above shows all the ways to make double dip cones from chocolate (C) and vanilla (V) if it matters which flavor is on top.

In addition to listing possibilities, your child needs to organize the information and to be sure she finds it all. You may want to first let her plunge in and “create a mess”; then she may become eager to develop an organizing system. Make sure your child starts with a question that she can manage. If her original question proves too hard, help her come up with one she can successfully pursue.

Gradually moving from simpler to harder problems can help your child notice problem-solving patterns. Ask your child to explain what she notices is happening in each problem and to begin organizing the final totals in systematic ways. Can your child predict the answer to the next problem? Discrete mathematics is an exciting area that involves logic, probability, and algebra. This activity is a first step into a world that your child may one day explore in much more complicated ways.

 Grade 4 Math Activities