Supporting Math Learning at Home

There are many ways that you can support your child with math learning at home.

Please see below for activities and resources that may be helpful with math learning in Kindergarten to Grade 3, Grades 4 to 6, and Grades 7 to 10.

If you are looking for additional ideas, please be contact your child's math teacher at their school.

Parent and Child on laptop

Math Resources for Kindergarten to Grade 3

Doing Mathematics with Your Child: Kindergarten to Grade 6

This resource provides many fun everyday activities organized by grade and math topic for you to do at home with your child.

 

Baking and Cooking

When you and your child are baking or cooking together try:

  • comparing temperature (hot, warm, cold)

  • timing how long it takes to prepare, cook or bake

  • cutting a recipe in half (fractions)

  • adding up all of the ingredients in the recipe

  • filling measuring containers to the required amounts

  • comparing measurement sizes

  • determining how much food containers or measuring cups hold (capacity)

 

Car Trips or Walks in the Neighbourhood

Math is all around us and is an important part of our daily lives. Here are some ways you can incorporate math when you're taking a walk in the neighbourhood or in the car:

  • identifying shapes and figures in our world

  • asking “Where do you see symmetry?”

  • talking about seasonal changes, and temperature

  • counting different objects (e.g., houses, cars, trees, stop signs, etc.)

  • recognizing numbers (addresses)

  • reading the numbers on signs, licence plates

  • talking about the distance travelled (e.g., we drove one kilometre to get to the store)

  • looking for shapes in the neighbourhood

 

Shopping

Here are some ways you can incorporate math when you and your child are shopping:

  • comparing the prices of different foods

  • reading price tags

  • counting or adding items as you package them in bags

  • reading measurements on packages

  • comparing the size of items

  • packing the items in the cart or bag

Chika Chika 123 by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson

This book takes readers through numbers 1-10, then skip counts by 10’s all the way to 100.

The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle

This book uses shapes to help readers solve secret messages. It also supports spatial and directional language.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This book allows readers to follow the very hungry caterpillar as it grows from an egg to a butterfly. It also supports readers understanding of the days of the week and counting.

Bookflix

Bookflix pairs classic fictional video storybooks from Weston Woods with nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding. For Grades Pre-K to 3. Login Information: Please see the teacher or teacher-librarian for login information.

Math Storytime

Math Storytime provides interactive storybooks with thinking prompts.

OverDrive

OverDrive eBooks provides fun and informative age-appropriate popular fiction and non-fiction in a permanent always growing York Region District School Board eLibrary. Picture books, read-along books, simple chapter books, graphic novels and much more are available for staff and students to be borrowed. e-Books can be read in any web browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari) on mobile and desktop devices at school and can also be accessed via the Overdrive App on personal devices. Login Information: Enter 0+9 digit student number (example: 0123456789).

Card Games

Card games can be played with different numbers of players and a deck of cards. Some games that support early math skills are "War", "I Spy with My Little Eye", "Over Under", and "In Between".

Where is the math? These games support early number recognition, counting, and developing quantity relationships.

Checkers

Checkers is a strategy board game for two players. Players move their pieces diagonally to try to capture the opponents pieces by jumping over them. The player who has all their pieces captured first loses the game.

Where is the math? This game supports the development and deepening of spatial reasoning, problem solving, as well as reasoning and proving.

Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders is a board game played with two or more players on a gridded, numbered board. The object of the game is to move a piece according to the die roll from the start to the finish.

Where is the math? This game supports learning of counting, counting on, and one-to-one correspondence.

Tenzi

Tenzi is a game that can be played with two or more players. Each player gets ten dice that are rolled at the call of “Go”. Dice are rolled until a player gets all their dice on the same number. There are many different versions of the games to help support different math concepts.

Where is the math? Tenzi supports number recognition and sequencing.

Grid

Grid is a fun game that can support children in learning and reinforcing multiplication facts by visually representing factors and products using grid arrays.

101 Questions

Thought provoking pictures and videos are used to engage your children in thinking mathematically.

CEMC Problem of the Week

Interesting multi-step problems that promote deep thinking skills and application from University of Waterloo. (Grade 3)

Estimation 180

Children work on their estimation skills by talking about their noticings and wonderings about the images of everyday objects.

Inspiring Your Child to Learn and Love Math

This resource supports parents in helping their child in mathematics.

Math Before Bed

This website provides a series of visual images that can promote mathematical discussions with your child.

Math Visuals

Visuals that help support number sense concepts.

nRich

This site offers a variety of fun games, learning tools and activities to support your child in math.

Splat!

The Splat! site can support number sense development.

TVOkids (K-Grade 6)

There are several videos, games, and other activities found here that can support math learning at home.  The TVOkids Power Hour of Learning will air weekdays at 1 pm on TVOkids until September 8, and anytime on TVOkids.com, TVOLearn.com​ and YouTube.

TVO Learn (Grades 1-8)

TVO Learn has expanded to include new adult-guided Learning Activities for Grades 1 through 8 math, language, science and technology and social studies. More are coming soon.

TVO mPower (K-Grade 6)

This Ministry funded online resource provides free online math games for students from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

Which One Doesn’t Belong?

This website offers visuals that promote reasoning and communication skills as children share their thinking about their choice of which one does not belong.

Wild Maths

Meaningful math problems, fun math games and puzzles.

youcubed Parent Resources

Links to articles about supporting math learning.

Zukei Puzzles

Make the shape that is listed at the top of the page. The vertices of the shape must be dots on the graph.

 

 

Math Resources Grades 4-6

Doing Mathematics with Your Child: Kindergarten to Grade 6

This resource provides many fun everyday activities organized by grade and math topic for you to do at home with your child.

 

Grocery Shopping and Financial Literacy

Here are some ways you can incorporate math when you and your child are shopping:

  • comparing the costs of items
  • estimating the bill
  • rounding decimals
  • staying on budget (financial literacy)

 

Baking and Cooking

When you and your child are baking or cooking together try:

  • measuring amounts
  • doubling, tripling, halving a recipe

 

Walking Around the Neighbourhood

Math is all around us and is an important part of our daily lives. Some ways you can incorporate math when you're taking a walk in the neighbourhood is to find math in the world around you ( e.g. arrays in windows, garage doors, apartment building windows, etc.).

 

Travel

You can incorporate math when travelling while:

  • packing
  • determining the time change
  • measuring distance
  • mapping locations
  • budgeting

Sir Cumference and All the King’s Tens by Cindy Neuschwander

This story introduces the concepts of place value using a humorous medieval setting.

A Very Improbable Story by Edward Einhorn and Adam Gustavson

This story introduces readers to the idea of probability, as the main character has to win games with improbable outcomes to make it to his soccer game.

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

In this story, a young girl has a problem - she can’t stop seeing the math problems in everything she does!

OverDrive

​OverDrive eBooks provides fun and informative age-appropriate popular fiction and non-fiction in a permanent always growing York Region District School Board eLibrary. Picture books, read along books, simple chapter books, graphic novels and much more are available for staff and students to be borrowed. e-Books can be read in any web browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari) on mobile and desktop devices at school and can also be accessed via the Overdrive App on personal devices. Login Information: Enter 0+9 digit student number (example: 0123456789).

Blockus

Blokus is an abstract strategy game with Tetris-shaped pieces that players are trying to place onto the board. To win the game, you need to cover the most squares on the board. The only catch to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board.

Where is the math? This game supports the development and deepening of spatial reasoning, problem solving, as well as reasoning and proving.

Rummy-O

Rummy-O is similar to the Rummy you may play with cards, only you are trying to get rid of all your tiles by forming numbers into sets of three tiles or more, or three- to four-of-a-kind. The colours of the numbers on the tiles are like card suits. The longer you play, the more challenging and complex the strategy becomes.

Where is the math? This game supports the development and deepening of problem solving, as well as reasoning and proving.

Qwirkle

Qwirkle is a tile based game for two to four players. Players work with the tiles to build patterns or match shapes and colours to score points.

Where is the math? This game helps to build problem solving skills, along with reasoning and proving.

Battleship

Battleship is a guessing game for two players that uses coordinate grids to place fleets of ships. Partners need to use coordinates to guess the location of their opponents ships.

Where is the math? This game supports spatial reasoning, specifically location and movement, as well as reasoning and proving, and problem solving skills.

Grid

Grid is a fun game that can support children in learning and reinforcing multiplication facts by visually representing factors and products using grid arrays.

101 Questions

Thought provoking pictures and videos used to engage your children in thinking mathematically.

CEMC Problem of the Week

Interesting multi-step problems that promote deep thinking skills and application from University of Waterloo.

Estimation 180

Children work on their estimation skills by talking about their noticings and wonderings about the images of everyday objects.

Illuminations

Meaningful math problems, fun math games, and puzzles.

Inspiring Your Child to Learn and Love Math

This resource supports parents in helping their child in mathematics.

Math Before Bed

This website provides a series of visual images that can promote mathematical discussions with your child.

Math Visuals

Visuals that help support number sense concepts.

Mathies

This website houses Ontario Ministry of Education developed resources to support mathematics learning from Kindergarten to Grade 12. There are links to games, activities, learning tools, additional supports and home supports.

nRich

This site offers a variety of fun games, learning tools and activities to support your child in math.

Splat!

The Splat! site can support number sense development.

TVOkids (K-Grade 6)

There are several videos, games, and other activities found here that can support math learning at home.  The TVOkids Power Hour of Learning will air weekdays at 1 pm on TVOkids until September 8, and anytime on TVOkids.com, TVOLearn.com​ and YouTube.

TVO Learn (Grades 1-8)

TVO Learn has expanded to include new adult-guided Learning Activities for Grades 1 through 8 math, language, science and technology and social studies. More are coming soon.

TVO mPower (K-Grade 6)

This Ministry funded online resource provides free online math games for students from Kindergarten to Grade 6.

TVO Mathify (Grades 4-12)

Free 1:1 online Grade 4-12 math tutoring with Ontario Certified Teachers.  During school closures, tutors are available for fully extended hours to complement existing math learning.  Boost math understanding and confidence with a personalized math coach available when students are set to learn.  They simply need to sign-up, choose a tutor, and get started.​  From September 20 until August 2022, Ontario students in Grade 11 will also be able to use the platform

Which One Doesn’t Belong?

This website offers visuals that promote reasoning and communication skills as children share their thinking about their choice of which one does not belong.

Wild Maths

Meaningful math problems, fun math games and puzzles.

youcubed Parent Resources

Links to articles about supporting math learning.

Zukei Puzzles

Make the shape that is listed at the top of the page. The vertices of the shape must be dots on the graph.

EQAO Junior Sample Test for Language and Mathematics

EQAO has published a sample test that is similar in format to the online EQAO experience. 

 

Math Resources for Grade 7-12

Baking and Cooking

When you and your child are baking or cooking together try:

  • measuring amounts

  • doubling, tripling, halving a recipe

 

Grocery Shopping

Here are some ways you can incorporate math when you and your child are shopping:

  • comparing the costs of items

  • estimating the bill

  • rounding decimals

  • staying on budget (financial literacy)

  • reading nutritional value tables

 

Household Budgets and Financial Literacy

Math is all around us and is an important part of our daily lives. Math can be part of household budgeting when:

  • budgeting for groceries

  • saving up for something they want

  • estimating

 

Travelling

You can incorporate math when travelling while:

  • packing

  • investigating time change and rates of exchange

  • judging and estimating distance

  • applying mapping skills

  • budgeting/estimating costs

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Through the eyes of a boy who hates math, this book introduces readers to a variety of different numbers (i.e., infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that appear in triangles, etc.) to help him understand number in increasing complexity and reduce his math anxiety.

The Pythagoras Series by Julie Ellis

What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras supports students understanding of Pythagorean theorem and Pythagoras and the Ratios helps students explore the Pythagorean ratios using a fun story.

The Sir Cumference Book Series by Cindy Neuschwander

These books use an engaging medieval setting, along with humour, to support the understanding of different mathematical concepts, like lines and angles, circles and pi, place value, fractions, perimeter, area and volume, and so on.

OverDrive

OverDrive eBooks provides fun and informative age-appropriate popular fiction and non-fiction in a permanent always growing York Region District School Board eLibrary. Picture books, read along books, simple chapter books, graphic novels and much more are available for staff and students to be borrowed. e-Books can be read in any web browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari) on mobile and desktop devices at school and can also be accessed via the Overdrive App on personal devices. Login Information: Enter 0+9 digit student number (example: 0123456789).

Abalone

Abalone is a strategy game that involves two players going head to head, ‘pushing’ each other’s marbles off the board. Throughout the game, you and your child can engage in a meaningful dialogue about problem solving (mathematical processes) and spatial reasoning (geometry and spatial sense).

Where is the Math? The game encourages the use of problem solving skills and deepening the understanding of orientation and location/movements.

 

Prime Climb

Prime Climb is a board game that involves the use of arithmetic, knowledge of number properties and relations and creative thinking to propel one player to the centre of the board. Through making sense of the board, you can investigate the connections among prime numbers, factors, and multiples (number sense and numeration) with your child through these beautiful and intuitive visuals.

Where is the Math? This game reinforces the understanding of prime numbers, factors, and multiples.
 

Set

Set is a classic card game that promotes the development of visual perception, logical thinking, and knowledge of geometric attributes (geometry and spatial sense). You and your child can also engage in deep mathematical thinking (mathematical processes: reasoning and proving) throughout the game.

Where is the Math? The game deepens the understanding of geometry attributes, sorting and comparing, as well as the use of reasoning and proving skills.

 

Grid

Grid is a fun game that can support children in learning and reinforcing multiplication facts by visually representing factors and products using grid arrays.

101 Questions

Thought provoking pictures and videos used to engage your children in thinking mathematically.

CEMC Problem of the Week

Interesting multi-step problems that promote deep thinking skills and application from University of Waterloo.

Desmos Graphing Calculator

Free online graphing calculator.

EquatIO Instructional Videos

EquatIO is a digital math tool that allows users to easily add equations, formulas and graphs to Google documents, it is now available for free to all YRDSB students. Students will be prompted in install the tool when they log into their gapps account within the Google Chrome environment. For more information on how to use EquatIO, please view the EquatIO Instructional Videos.

Estimation 180

Children work on their estimation skills by talking about their noticings and wonderings about the images of everyday objects.

Illuminations

Meaningful math problems, fun math games, and puzzles.

Inspiring Your Child to Learn and Love Math

This resource supports parents in helping their child in mathematics.

Math Before Bed

This website provides a series of visual images that can promote mathematical discussions with your child.

Math Visuals

Visuals that help support number sense concepts.

Mathies

This website houses Ontario Ministry of Education developed resources to support mathematics learning from Kindergarten to Grade 12. There are links to games, activities, learning tools, additional supports and home supports.

nRich

This site offers a variety of fun games, learning tools and activities to support your child in math.

SolveMe Mobiles

Solving for the missing values through interactive visuals; great transition to algebraic thinking.

Splat!

The Splat! site can support number sense development.

TVO Learn (Grades 1-8)

TVO Learn has expanded to include new adult-guided Learning Activities for Grades 1 through 8 math, language, science and technology and social studies. More are coming soon.

TVO Mathify (Grades 4-12)

Free 1:1 online Grade 4-12 math tutoring with Ontario Certified Teachers.  During school closures, tutors are available for fully extended hours to complement existing math learning.  Boost math understanding and confidence with a personalized math coach available when students are set to learn.  They simply need to sign-up, choose a tutor, and get started.​  From September 20 until August 2022, Ontario students in Grade 11 will also be able to use the platform

TVO ILC (Grades 9-12)

High school students in Ontario can access 144 courses developed by Ontario Certified Teachers. These not-for-credit courses are designed for independent study or study support.

Which One Doesn’t Belong?

This website offers visuals that promote reasoning and communication skills as children share their thinking about their choice of which one does not belong.

Wild Maths

Meaningful math problems, fun math games and puzzles.

youcubed Parent Resources

Links to articles about supporting math learning.

Zukei Puzzles

Make the shape that is listed at the top of the page. The vertices of the shape must be dots on the graph.

EQAO Online Grade 9 Math Sample Test

EQAO have published a sample test that is similiar in format to the online EQAO experience.