• View
• Edit
• History
• Attach
• Print

Math Tacular 4 Student Workbook Introduction

Welcome to the MathTacular 4 Workbook!

We created this workbook to accompany the MathTacular 4 DVD. It includes each problem Detective Justin Time and Amber Waves encounter on the DVD, with room on the page for you to try to solve the word problems on your own. When you’re finished, you can watch our heroes work through them on the DVD. After each Sample problem in this book, you will find 5 similar Practice Problems that will help you hone your new word problem solving skills.

How to use this workbook with the MathTacular 4 DVD:

In order to understand the MathTacular 4 story, we recommend you begin by watching the first few scenes on the DVD. We’ll introduce you to our hero, Detective Justin Time, and the task before him: to assist Amber Waves with her Word Puzzler woes, and eventually rescue her pork-napped pig, Polly Esther.

As each chapter of the story unfolds, our heroes encounter word problems—the same Sample word problems found at the beginning of each chapter in this book. Before we solve the problem on the DVD, Detective Time will first ask you to try to solve the problem on your own in your book. Keep in mind that the DVD will stop on its own (unless you’ve selected “Play All”) to give you time to do so. Even if you’ve never done this type of word problem before, give it your best shot. When you’re done, go back to the DVD, press “Continue” and the heroes in our story will walk you through the solution to the word problem.

Once you’ve solved the Sample problem, Detective Time will give you an opportunity to work on the Practice Problems that complete each chapter in this book. Use the skills and techniques you just learned to solve the Sample Problem to tackle each Practice Problem. When you’re finished, compare your answers to the answers you’ll find in the Answer Key. When you’re done with all of the additional word problems in a particular section, continue watching the DVD and move on to the next type of word problem—and the next part of the adventure! Can you help Detective Time and Amber Waves solve the mystery?

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the handy Tool Kit that starts on page 165 to find lists of Clue Words, Units and Measurements and other nuggets that will help you solve the problems in this book.

Note to Parents

Do you remember word problems in math class when you were growing up? Did you love them, or did you sometimes find yourself staring at the page until the words blurred together, wondering where to begin? If only someone had given you a “plan of attack” that worked every time…

Well, that’s what we’ve done here. We hope the instruction in this program will give you and your children the tools you need to overcome Word Problem Intimidation. Take a few minutes to review the Simple Steps to Solve Word Problems on page 168 of the Tool Kit (or on the inside back cover of this book). These steps will teach you how to determine what each problem is asking, and how to pull the relevant information out of that daunting block of words. The more you and your children work through these steps, the more second-nature they will become, and before long, it will seem as though those pesky word problems have finally met their match.

We hope the word problem solving doesn’t end with the last page of this book. With that goal in mind, we have not limited the “size” and “shape” of these stories to the strict, dry variety you will commonly find in math books. This program gives your children the opportunity to practice these new skills on word problems that may be a little longer, may contain a little extra information, and are guaranteed to be sillier than the ones about Susie and her 5 apples. But through the structured approach, the demonstrations on the DVD, and even the silliness, we gently and intentionally teach your children how to be “comfortable with the hard stuff.” This program will give your children the confidence to tackle more complicated word problems than those they will find in any math book.

A Wide Range of Skills: Since we believe that anyone can learn to conquer word problems, we have designed this program to cover a very wide scope of mathematical skills. While there’s a good chance that younger students haven’t yet studied, say, fractions or ratios in their math curriculum, they will probably still enjoy watching our heroes work through the word problems to find the clues that lead them to Polly Esther, and they may absorb some of the mathematical concepts they’ll experience along the way. If you’d like to take it a step further, you can read through the solutions to the tougher problems in the Answer Key, and then see if your children can work out the problem independently. Keep in mind that if you still have many more years of math study in your future, you’ll be able to use this program again and again. You’ll be able to introduce more of the extra problems in this workbook as your children learn to master new topics in their math curriculum. Whether MathTacular 4 is one of your fun Friday activities or you simply revisit it periodically as you learn new skills in your own math curriculum, we hope this program will become one of your favorite learning tools for years to come.

Final Important Fact About word Problems: Please remind your children that, regardless of length, most word problems are like newspaper articles—they present the facts. If a word problem didn’t specifically give certain information, you probably don’t need to know it in order to solve the problem. So, say a problem only gives information about Bernardo belly dancing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s safe to assume, then, that Bernardo did not belly dance the rest of the week. Help your children succeed by encouraging them to take these problems at face value.

Calculators? Of course, it is always your choice whether you’d like your children to use a calculator when they’re working on mathematical computations. While it’s always good “mental exercise” for your children to practice basic math facts, remember that pulling the right information out of a word problem and then correctly building a math problem with that information (that will take you to the right answer) is a daunting and complicated task in itself. We encourage you to use this program to first mold the problem solving skills it takes to tackle word problems, and only require calculator-free math when it isn’t an added burden. (How much “chicken-scratching” does it take to solve $265.30 ÷ 14? Or are you reaching for your calculator too?)