MATH NEWSLETTER

Beginning next week, we will be starting a new unit on Measurement and your child will be learning about calculating the area of various regular and irregular shapes using formulas. We will also be learning about surface area a volume of rectangular prisms.

To reinforce the concepts your child is learning at school, you and your child can work on some at-home activities such as these:

1. Look for examples of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids around your home and in the community.

2. Discuss situations in which it would be necessary to calculate the area of a room, garden, patio, or park.

3. Ask your child to explain how he or she would find the surface area and volume of a rectangular prism. Ask what information they would need and what they would do with the measurements.

4. Compare the volume of various boxes around the house, such as the volume of cereal in different shaped boxes. Have your child measure the dimensions of a box, calculate its volume, and compare it to the volume printed on the outside of the box.

5. Ask your child to explain how the dimensions of a rectangular prism affect its surface area and volume.