Review of Scholastic 100 Math Activities Kids Need to Do By 3rd Grade

Color! Wonderful Color! If your kids need bright, attention snaring, grab-your-eyeballs-and-look-at-this! graphics on each page, this volume might be the one for you.

At over 200 actual worksheets, the Scholastic 100 Math Activities books have a heft and girth to them. And, let's not forget the advertised "nearly 500 full-color illustrations and photographs." There's a lot going on here. It borders on too much for this Dad, but my oldest was enamored by the full color turkey photograph that augmented one of the subtraction activities.

The workbook content covers a wide range, including basic arithmetic operations, introductory fractions, measurement, geometry, time and money problems. Some worksheets are weak in terms of educational value, but there are a lot of gems. The actual mechanics of basic arithmetic operations are explained on some sheets, which is a real plus. The end section on probability and data organization is particularly well done. Topics are grouped by chapter with individual answer keys. Each chapter also includes a game activity of some sort to reinforce the skills learned... We haven't found the games particularly useful since you need one someone else at the same level to play against. If you have twins maybe?

The book is printed on newsprint type paper with perforated tear-out pages. You'll still want to use a ruler to get a sheet cleanly out of the book. Some of the activities are two pages, so be sure to look forward a page before ripping one out or the you'll get to play find-the-missing-half-of-this-worksheet later.

There's a sheet of "reusable math stickers" in the center of the book, but they're just numbers and operations. The stickers don't actually stick to paper, and probably are meant for windows or dry erase boards. Dad recommends removing this perforated page before presentation to young ones who may not fully appreciate your time to remove shredded bits of fine plastic from the roller brush on the vacuum cleaner.

The Scholastic 100 Math Activities Kids Need to Do series provides a solid assortment of exercises, especially if you're looking for something more colorful than the Dorling Kindersley materials. It's not a hard-core arithmetic volume, but does make a friendly complement to work coming from other sources. And did I mention the turkey? Recommended.