Halloween is finally upon us! In honor of our last post before Halloween (tune in again on Monday for some timely tips on sugar and snack intake and study habits), here's a little activity that serves two purposes: it's a math and computer skills exercise for the kids, and a way for parents to see just how much candy came in from trick-or-treating. I actually do this every year.
Supplies needed:
1) Lots of candy! If you've eaten some of it already, you can just use the empty wrappers, too.
2) A surface to separate candy out to sort and count it (even the floor works for this)
3) A computer with a spreadsheet program loaded up. If you have the MS Office Suite, Excel will do the trick; you can download the OpenOffice.org Suite for free and use OpenOffice Calc; or you can just go online and create a new Google Docs spreadsheet (from the link, click "Create New" and pick "Spreadsheet"). Alternatively, this will work on graph paper with a pencil and crayons for coloring in charts!
Step 1: Picking categories and sorting. Sort all the candy into categories. You can pick your categories: sort of color of wrapper, by type of candy (candy bar, fruit drop, etc.), by specific candy brand, or by company making the candy (M&M/Mars, etc.). Count up how many are in each category.
Step 2: Typing up your results. Create a spreadsheet. In the first column (A), list your categories. In the second column (B), list how many you have of each.
Step 3: Making a chart. Make a bar chart or pie chart comparing how many you have of each. Use the "chart wizard" to do this in MS Excel, or by going to the Insert menu and selecting "Chart" in either OpenOffice Calc or Google Docs, and following the on-screen directions. The chart will show you what type of candy, of your categories, was most popular to hand out.
Step 4: Calculating your total stash. After you've finished your chart, you can also figure out the total number of pieces of candy using the spreadsheet's auto-sum feature. In any of the programs I've listed, you can pick a cell (box on the spreadsheet) off to the right somewhere and type in "=SUM(B1:B100)" (without the quotes). Hit enter, and you'll see the total number of pieces of candy. This command adds up all the numbers in column B, from rows 1 to 100 (so unless you've got more than 100 categories, this should more than cover it!). Type "Total Candy" in the box to the right of this number so you'll know what it is later.
Step 5: Figuring out an average. You can also figure out the average number of pieces of candy per category. In the cell under your total number, type in "=AVERAGE(B1:B100)" (without quotes). Hit enter to see the average. You can label this as the average by typing "Average" in the cell to the right of this formula.
Step 6: Figuring out the mode. The mode is the most likely number to find in a group of numbers - the one that occurs most often. If all your numbers of pieces of candy listed are different, you'll get an error message for this formula, but if one number is more common than others, the spreadsheet software can find it. Under your average, type "=MODE(B1:B100)" (without the quotes). Hit enter to see the mode. If you have 5 pieces of bubble gum AND 5 Babe Ruth bars, but all the other categories have different numbers, your mode will be 5. If there are two possible modes, the software will pick one. If no number is more common than the others, there's no mode and you'll get an error message. Label this as the "Mode" in the cell to the right.
Step 7: Making adjustments. Feel like eating a piece of candy? Subtract it from the correct category and see your total and average (and maybe your mode) change! This is the real beauty of spreadsheets - that the formulas can keep updating as you update the information in the spreadsheet.
If your child is struggling in math - or any other subject - we're here to help at A Quantum Leap Tutoring. We're here for all your tutoring needs, any subject, any time of year, all over the state of Florida. Please give us a call so we can figure out the best plan to help your child with his or her own needs - while keeping your child's strengths in mind, too.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Halloween crafts!
Welcome back! At A Quantum Leap Tutoring, just like everywhere else, we're continuing to gear up for Halloween. Maybe you've been decorating for weeks now, or maybe some of you, like me, are crossing your fingers that you'll find some spare time to dig out the cobwebs and blacklight this Saturday... or to run out to the store to buy some decorations when last year's turn out to have gone missing.
But not all Halloween decorations need be purchased, nor do you have to be Martha Stewart - or even an adult! - to make great-looking decorations. Today, we've rounded up some links to super-easy Halloween crafts for kids to do, with you or even on their own, to spruce up the house to an appropriate level of spookiness by Sunday.
I'm not a gifted crafter myself, so I loved all the free craft patterns and instructions on allfreecraft.com's Halloween craft page. Every project (scroll down) has its own step-by-step instructions - with photos, so everyone can look at the project before you go finding supplies and decide if it would be something worth making. My favorites are the Halloween in a Jar "snowglobe" and the CD Pumpkin. I'm always a fan of reusing things for crafts; of the three "R"s, recycle, reduce, and reuse, people most often forget about reusing, or it just doesn't occur to us! There's no need to go out and buy a bunch of supplies for any of these crafts; use what you've got. For instance, the Egg Carton Bat (another great craft for using something you've already got lying around) says you need black paint, but even a black marker would do.
Along the same lines, familyfun.go.com has a lot of great ideas for Halloween decorations. One I think is great and unique is the House-o'-Lantern, which gives instructions for making your whole house into a pumpkin of sorts! Even without the orange tissue paper this would be pretty neat-looking, I think. Best of all, this site has 40 last-minute costume ideas.
When the decorating and preparation are easy, that means no stress about getting everything done on top of studying. It's a great celebration, but it also comes at the time of year when lots of students are starting to really struggle in school. The review at the beginning of the year is over, and we're getting deep into the new material, and it's a time when we often need to reevaluate plans for students. Tutoring can be a great option to supplement when students are struggling with background concepts necessary for their schoolwork. Remember, A Quantum Leap Tutoring is always here for all your tutoring needs, so give yourself a little peace of mind and enjoy the spooky season!
But not all Halloween decorations need be purchased, nor do you have to be Martha Stewart - or even an adult! - to make great-looking decorations. Today, we've rounded up some links to super-easy Halloween crafts for kids to do, with you or even on their own, to spruce up the house to an appropriate level of spookiness by Sunday.
I'm not a gifted crafter myself, so I loved all the free craft patterns and instructions on allfreecraft.com's Halloween craft page. Every project (scroll down) has its own step-by-step instructions - with photos, so everyone can look at the project before you go finding supplies and decide if it would be something worth making. My favorites are the Halloween in a Jar "snowglobe" and the CD Pumpkin. I'm always a fan of reusing things for crafts; of the three "R"s, recycle, reduce, and reuse, people most often forget about reusing, or it just doesn't occur to us! There's no need to go out and buy a bunch of supplies for any of these crafts; use what you've got. For instance, the Egg Carton Bat (another great craft for using something you've already got lying around) says you need black paint, but even a black marker would do.
Along the same lines, familyfun.go.com has a lot of great ideas for Halloween decorations. One I think is great and unique is the House-o'-Lantern, which gives instructions for making your whole house into a pumpkin of sorts! Even without the orange tissue paper this would be pretty neat-looking, I think. Best of all, this site has 40 last-minute costume ideas.
When the decorating and preparation are easy, that means no stress about getting everything done on top of studying. It's a great celebration, but it also comes at the time of year when lots of students are starting to really struggle in school. The review at the beginning of the year is over, and we're getting deep into the new material, and it's a time when we often need to reevaluate plans for students. Tutoring can be a great option to supplement when students are struggling with background concepts necessary for their schoolwork. Remember, A Quantum Leap Tutoring is always here for all your tutoring needs, so give yourself a little peace of mind and enjoy the spooky season!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A Safe (and Not So Scary) Halloween
Though we all know that Halloween is all about spookiness and fright, and big kids really relish it, for both the younger and older folks, it can be a little TOO scary. Little kids can find the emphasis on startles and scares overwhelming, and as parents, it can be scary letting kids out to roam around the neighborhood. With that in mind, we have a couple of tips on staying safe, and on fun, less scary activities for those kids not loving the spooky atmosphere.
First, to put parents' minds at ease, a couple of short reads on Halloween trick-or-treating safety, one from Education.com and one from AlphaMom. The Education.com link has some great tips for older kids who might be trick-or-treating on their own, and the link from AlphaMom article has some excellent tips on safety gear.
But now for the younger crowd who might be feeling a bit apprehensive about the holiday, here are a couple of useful links I found for a less scary Halloween celebration:
Playing Halloween Bingo. The version in that link is all about finding images in printed media in the week leading up to Halloween, but for younger kids it could be a fun opportunity for them to look for Halloween-related images just around in their day-to-day lives - grocery shopping, in the car, etc. - and cross off anything they see!
Not-So-Scary Halloween Books for younger readers. Nothing like a good book to get into the spirit of the season without getting the shivers!
Come back next Monday evening for more great links! Or, subscribe to our RSS feed to get automatic updates in your browser (look for the little orange symbol that looks like a signal being transmitted in your browser's toolbar).
First, to put parents' minds at ease, a couple of short reads on Halloween trick-or-treating safety, one from Education.com and one from AlphaMom. The Education.com link has some great tips for older kids who might be trick-or-treating on their own, and the link from AlphaMom article has some excellent tips on safety gear.
But now for the younger crowd who might be feeling a bit apprehensive about the holiday, here are a couple of useful links I found for a less scary Halloween celebration:
Playing Halloween Bingo. The version in that link is all about finding images in printed media in the week leading up to Halloween, but for younger kids it could be a fun opportunity for them to look for Halloween-related images just around in their day-to-day lives - grocery shopping, in the car, etc. - and cross off anything they see!
Not-So-Scary Halloween Books for younger readers. Nothing like a good book to get into the spirit of the season without getting the shivers!
Come back next Monday evening for more great links! Or, subscribe to our RSS feed to get automatic updates in your browser (look for the little orange symbol that looks like a signal being transmitted in your browser's toolbar).
Monday, October 18, 2010
Pumpkins and Costumes and Newsletters, oh my!
Halloween is just around the corner! Most people are familiar with their local traditions here in the U.S. for Halloween, but how much do you know about the history of Halloween, or about how other people around the world celebrate the holiday? Education.com has some great articles on these topics if you want to know more.
Here's a little of what I learned from those articles. For one thing, it turns out that turnips, not pumpkins, were traditionally carved to be used as candle holders. And although Halloween as it is celebrated in the U.S. is pretty uniquely American, a lot of countries have similar holidays for honoring the dead or partying in costumes - Great Britain even celebrates with fireworks!
If you subscribe to our newsletter, you'll have seen a link to a great set of activities about pumpkins over at EducationWorld.com. My favorite is called Predicting Pumpkins, a hands-on science activity for all ages. All you need is a couple of different-sized pumpkins and the instructions from that page (printing a couple of copies of the PDF worksheet can't hurt). At the end you get to carve your pumpkins just as you normally would, and your front porch will look even better for having diverse sizes of pumpkins carved on it!
The whole activity is written as a lesson plan for a classroom - but remember, the real world and home are both great classrooms! It might be reasonable to adapt activities written as lesson plans for home use, but there are so many lesson plans available online that can be a lot of fun to do at home, even if you don't fill out worksheets or get graded like in school.
If you missed that link because you don't subscribe to our newsletter yet, please sign up! It's free and comes out once a month, full of great tips, contests, and fun education resources. You can sign up on our website, http://www.tutoringbycity.com - just scroll down and put your information in. We won't be selling your email address - you'll just get a monthly email with all kinds of useful information (and the occasional tutoring discount) in it!
Come back Wednesday for some more useful tips about making Halloween a safe and less scary holiday! We're so used to Halloween being about screams and fright - but the holiday can be more friendly for the younger crowd, or for any of us not looking to be scared out of our wits.
Here's a little of what I learned from those articles. For one thing, it turns out that turnips, not pumpkins, were traditionally carved to be used as candle holders. And although Halloween as it is celebrated in the U.S. is pretty uniquely American, a lot of countries have similar holidays for honoring the dead or partying in costumes - Great Britain even celebrates with fireworks!
If you subscribe to our newsletter, you'll have seen a link to a great set of activities about pumpkins over at EducationWorld.com. My favorite is called Predicting Pumpkins, a hands-on science activity for all ages. All you need is a couple of different-sized pumpkins and the instructions from that page (printing a couple of copies of the PDF worksheet can't hurt). At the end you get to carve your pumpkins just as you normally would, and your front porch will look even better for having diverse sizes of pumpkins carved on it!
The whole activity is written as a lesson plan for a classroom - but remember, the real world and home are both great classrooms! It might be reasonable to adapt activities written as lesson plans for home use, but there are so many lesson plans available online that can be a lot of fun to do at home, even if you don't fill out worksheets or get graded like in school.
If you missed that link because you don't subscribe to our newsletter yet, please sign up! It's free and comes out once a month, full of great tips, contests, and fun education resources. You can sign up on our website, http://www.tutoringbycity.com - just scroll down and put your information in. We won't be selling your email address - you'll just get a monthly email with all kinds of useful information (and the occasional tutoring discount) in it!
Come back Wednesday for some more useful tips about making Halloween a safe and less scary holiday! We're so used to Halloween being about screams and fright - but the holiday can be more friendly for the younger crowd, or for any of us not looking to be scared out of our wits.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Welcome to A Quantum Leap's blog!
Hello, everyone! Whether you're familiar with A Quantum Leap Tutoring already or not, thanks for stopping by our blog!
For those of you not familiar with A Quantum Leap, we're an educational services company providing personal tutoring and educational consultation throughout the state of Florida. We are headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, but we also have regional offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, and West Palm Beach. But we don't just do tutoring at our regional offices - we have tutors in all areas of the state, and can tutor at your local library, at a nearby community center, or even in your home! You can find the address of your local regional office here, visit our website at http://www.tutoringbycity.com to find out more about our services, or call us toll-free at (877) 295-LEAP to start figuring out the best option for you or your child. We can help you find a tutor in Florida just about anywhere!
Here on the blog, each week we'll be bringing you some useful thoughts and resources on a couple of topics relevant to education... not just in Florida, but everywhere!
The Internet is full of great information, but a quick search for information on tutoring services or any other topic can quickly get bogged down in information overload. Our goal is to bring you some of the best information we've found out there, plus wisdom from our own educational professionals right here at A Quantum Leap. Our company hires certified teachers, paraprofessionals, and other experienced educators for a reason - they know what they're talking about! So we'd like to help share their collective wisdom and that of educators, parents, and students all over.
One of the most helpful pages I've come across in my research has been a little vocabulary list useful to students, parents, and educators alike - Education.com's Educational Terms Study Guide.
You know the face of education has changed in the last few years - well, so has the way we talk about it. Schools, politicians, and the media use a lot of terminology to describe education and how we determine whether or not our educational systems are working that's either new, or newly applied to education. This list gives a great overview of some of the most commonly-used terms in education these days, with a clear explanation of each. You've probably seen lots of these words before in some context or another, but if you've ever found yourself wondering, "What does accountability mean for my child?" or "Exactly what ARE benchmarks?" this is a great, short read.
Thanks for stopping by! We'll be back next week with a new topic. What would YOU like to read about?
For those of you not familiar with A Quantum Leap, we're an educational services company providing personal tutoring and educational consultation throughout the state of Florida. We are headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, but we also have regional offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando, Pensacola, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, and West Palm Beach. But we don't just do tutoring at our regional offices - we have tutors in all areas of the state, and can tutor at your local library, at a nearby community center, or even in your home! You can find the address of your local regional office here, visit our website at http://www.tutoringbycity.com to find out more about our services, or call us toll-free at (877) 295-LEAP to start figuring out the best option for you or your child. We can help you find a tutor in Florida just about anywhere!
Here on the blog, each week we'll be bringing you some useful thoughts and resources on a couple of topics relevant to education... not just in Florida, but everywhere!
The Internet is full of great information, but a quick search for information on tutoring services or any other topic can quickly get bogged down in information overload. Our goal is to bring you some of the best information we've found out there, plus wisdom from our own educational professionals right here at A Quantum Leap. Our company hires certified teachers, paraprofessionals, and other experienced educators for a reason - they know what they're talking about! So we'd like to help share their collective wisdom and that of educators, parents, and students all over.
One of the most helpful pages I've come across in my research has been a little vocabulary list useful to students, parents, and educators alike - Education.com's Educational Terms Study Guide.
You know the face of education has changed in the last few years - well, so has the way we talk about it. Schools, politicians, and the media use a lot of terminology to describe education and how we determine whether or not our educational systems are working that's either new, or newly applied to education. This list gives a great overview of some of the most commonly-used terms in education these days, with a clear explanation of each. You've probably seen lots of these words before in some context or another, but if you've ever found yourself wondering, "What does accountability mean for my child?" or "Exactly what ARE benchmarks?" this is a great, short read.
Thanks for stopping by! We'll be back next week with a new topic. What would YOU like to read about?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)