During the mentoring hour, students and mentors can spend time practicing their math and counting skills through everyday activities. Math is everywhere, which is why it is so important that students can understand and apply it in their everyday lives. It is a skill that students need to master to be successful in their future, whether they are buying something from the store or baking their favorite cake. Even if your student doesn’t enjoy doing traditional math in school, there are so many activities that students enjoy that can sneak in ways to advance their math and counting skills.
Strengthening your Student’s Math Skills
Scrabble, a game most often played to enhance spelling and word comprehension, has another layer that allows students to practice their addition skills. Each letter corresponds with a number in the corner of the tile, which is how the score is kept during the game.
Next time you play Scrabble with your student, challenge them to keep both your scores! This will strengthen their math skills by having them count and add up the numbers on each tile. Scrabble Math is a Mentor Resource available on your mentor portal that you can use while playing.
Refining Understanding of Geometry
Coloring a picture or creating a craft may seem like just creative fun, but it can also enhance a student’s math skills. Geometry, the study of shapes, is an important concept for students to understand. By coloring in a picture with certain shapes, students are familiarizing themselves with the shapes. Challenge your student to tell you each shape that is a part of your next coloring page or craft. This is a fun way to get your student engaged in their arts and crafts. If you would like to learn more about how arts and crafts can help promote valuable life skills, read our blog post, “Beyond Arts and Crafts: How Creative Activities Support Life Skills.”
Practicing Counting Abilities
Counting can be taught in many ways. Card games are a great way to continue to practice this skill. Games like UNO and Skip-Bo are effective games to enhance young student’s counting skills. UNO puts colors and numbers together and encourages players to count cards when you get a “Draw 2” or “Draw 4.” card.
If you are looking for a more advanced game for your student, try out Skip-Bo. This game can help students learn to count in order up to 12. An interesting rule of this game includes the card “Skip-Bo” which replaces numbers in the count. This can help students connect the dots and skip numbers while counting. Read more about how games help develop important skills in our blog post, “Beyond Games: How Games Strengthen Life Skills.”
At Kids Hope USA, students and mentors meet one-on-one for one hour each week. This school-based mentoring program allows students to connect with a consistent and caring adult who shows up just for them.
Are you interested in learning more about what mentoring looks like through a Kids Hope USA program? Visit our program page!
