I've been writing math problems for a co-op I'm involved in online, and I am reminded that it is important for us to make math fun and interesting.  Now, I'm not saying you should throw your math textbooks away, because most of us need the expertise and security of a good math program.  Others of us would be able to come up with a perfectly lovely math program on our own, but who has the time?  So I'm all for having a well-designed math program with plenty of hands on experiences with manipulatives and plenty of word problems to keep kids thinking about math.

All that said, I think it is also important to work math into other subjects in our curriculum.  When Gracie was doing her Pumpkins unit, there was math naturally worked into the project by the authors.  All I had to do was adapt it to her skill level.  As part of the Pilgrims co-op the past two weeks and the Thanksgiving co-op this week, I've been writing math problems to go along with our unit.  It has been a fun challenge for me and for the kids.  I'll include some of these problems for your enjoyment at the end of the post.   

I've been doing these problems with a 4th grader who is into multiplication in his math program right now and a 1st grader who is learning single digit addition in her math program.  So when I got to a multiplication problem, did I only do it with my 4th grader?  No!  We got out our math manipulatives and I helped my first grader think through the problem with blocks.  There was one problem about six families each having five members and we got out our five bars and set up six of them.  I had intended for her to put them end to end to see that two of them made a ten and how many tens would that be, etc.  But while I was reaching for the ten bars, she just skip counted them and said 30!  Knock me over with a feather...I had forgotten about skip counting.  I did go ahead and show her with the ten bars as well to sneak a little place value learning in there. 

Does she now know that 5x6=30?  I don't know.  But that wasn't really the point.  She spent some time working with and thinking about numbers.  Her brain got a good work out.  And we are building that intuitive side part of her that will allow her to do math in her head. 

Now, here are some math problems to work on with your little Pilgrim!  If you have trouble with any of them, feel free to email me and I can send you the solutions.

1. The Scrooby Separatists moved to the Netherlands in 1608.  If the current year is 2006, use subtraction to find out how many years ago the Separatists moved to Holland.
2. Seven Separatists left the Church of England to form their own church.  If five more people joined them the next week, how many people were attending their church?
3. Six families from Scrooby decided to move to the Netherlands.  If there were five people in each family, how many people were moving to the Netherlands? 
4. Take the year that William Brewster was born.  Add to that the number of passengers that sailed on the Mayflower.  Subtract from that sum the year that Myles Standish died.  What number is left?
5. If it takes 4 yards of fabric to make a skirt like the Pilgrim young ladies typically wore, how many yards of fabric would be required to make a new skirt for the four young ladies in the Brewer family?
6. Can you convert the yardage in #5 to feet?
7. Now try to convert it to meters!
8. Massassoit had 90 warriors who kept close watch on the 102 pilgrims.  Write this as an inequality.
9. How many more pilgrims than warriors were there?
10. If there were 90 warriors and 102 pilgrims, how many people were there all together?
11. What percentage of this group were warriors?
12. At the first Thanksgiving, there were 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoags.  How many people attended the celebration all together?
13. The Pilgrims had prepared food for 60 people total.  How many more people had arrived unexpectedly?
14. Massasoit had his hunters kill 5 deer to feed everyone.  If 140 people were attending the celebration, how many people ate from each deer?
15. If there were 50 pilgrims and they prepared food for 60 people, how many Wampanoags were they expecting?
16. If Prudence is older than Faith, Faith is older than Oceanus. Oceanus is younger than Prudence and Humility is older than Prudence.   List these Pilgrim children in order from oldest to youngest.
17. If the Mayflower could sail about 50 miles per day, how many miles did she sail during the month of October?
18. Take the year that the Mayflower set sail for America and subtract from it the year that the Scrooby Separatists moved to the Netherlands.  Add to that the number of passengers on the Mayflower.  Subtract from that the number of days the Pilgrims were at sea on the Mayflower.  Divide that by the number of babies born during the Mayflower voyage.  What number do you have?
19. Take the following recipe for Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes that serves 6 people and figure out how much of each ingredient you would need to feed your extended family of 24 people.  This recipe is from:  http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=15121

• 3 large sweet potatoes, cooked until tender, or 1 29 oz. can of sweet potatoes
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups mini marshmallows

Try some of these with your kids this week and see how it goes.  Let me know if you get stuck and I'll try to help you out.  I'll have more up for Christmas later.  Now go forth and do math!