Today’s post is another extension of our series on flash cards. Since we made our multiplication flash cards last, the division flash cards were easy to make by reversing the multiplication answers:
We basically need double the flash cards since 20 divided by 5 and 20 divided by 4 are two different problems, whereas 4×5 and 5×4 are effectively the same.
Download the printable division flash cards spreadsheet here:
Today we’ll build a dedicated division spreadsheet, where we set parameters for the problems and print an unlimited number of different division worksheets.
The inputs we’ll allow the user to enter are the maximum dividend (number to be divided) size, the maximum divisor, and whether or not we want to have the answers be able to have remainders.
So if the user selects yes or “y” for the remainder, the problem is relatively simple – we’ll have a random number for the answer between (1,100) for the dividend, and then a random number between (1,10) for the divisor.
If the user selects “n”, we’ll have a random number between (1,10) for the divisor, and then a random number between 1 and the max dividend/current divisor for the answer, then we’ll multiply the answer by the divisor to get the dividend.
Here’s how it looks like in full:
You can download the printable Microsoft Excel file here:
Today’s printable math work sheet generator will center around the concept of time.
We’ll have two types of questions – one will ask the student to draw in the hands on a blank clock face for a random time. The other type of question will be a word problem that provides a start time and a time increment and asks the student to calculate the finish time. We would have loved to generate a random clock face time and ask what time it is but that turns out to be incredibly difficult in a spreadsheet.
To create the random times, we use the formula =RANDBETWEEN(1,12) for the hours, and then =RANDBETWEEN(0,59) for the minutes, then use the formula =TIME(hours, minutes, 0 seconds) for the time to display. We also added in some logic to allow for the times to round to 5’s if the user puts in a “y” in cell E2.
Check out the spreadsheet here:
Here’s how the final product looks:
Now that are kids are getting older, we want to start getting them into good daily habits. This usually requires quite a bit of encouragement / threatening, but what might work best at the end of the day is bribery.
We created this customizable check off calendar that allows the user to pick their “tasks”, the number of days (up to 30), and the prize (we recently introduced our kids to Dave & Busters and they love it). The spreadsheet then lists the tasks with a check box for the number of days selected. The key logic here was the IF() Function.
The spreadsheet can be downloaded here. Enjoy! Habits Calendar Spreadsheet
Well, we’ve officially lost count of how many weeks of quarantine have passed. For us, quarantine started with a nice streak of weeks posting educational kids activities spreadsheets. Now our time is mostly filled with work, kids, trying to stay sane, and streaming video services.
Today’s spreadsheet generates a unique math pattern recognition spreadsheet for kids. It refreshes each time the key F9 is pressed. You can adjust the difficulty level of this sheet by setting inputs, such as the size of the numbers and increments, the number of blank spaces to fill in with more blanks adding more challenge, and whether to use addition, subtraction or multiplication.
Feeling way too lazy to walk step by step through how this was built, we include the link of the spreadsheet below. Feel free to download and click through the formulas yourself! (Hint – the formulas are hidden in the four rows after each question, change the cell formatting back to “General” to see it)
Download the spreadsheet: Math Pattern Recognition Worksheet
Today’s spreadsheet may help you introduce the concept of multiplication to your kids. Rather than walk through how to build the sheet step-by-step, we’ll include the download link and focus on how it works and how we tried (only semi-successfully with the bribe of TV) to use it.
Download the spreadsheet here: Multiplication Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet includes 2 tables – a visualization grid and a traditional times-table.
First, input any two numbers (from 1 to 20) you wish to multiply. In our example, we entered 5 x 5 by putting 5 in the input cells B4 and B5 (highlighted in yellow). You can go as low as 1 x 1 and up to 20 x 20.
Now let’s explore the visualization grid (on the left) and the traditional times-table.
For our example, you will see a a 5 x 5 block of 25 pink cells. As a start, the kids can count the cells. Next, you can direct them to the blue row on top across the top of the grid. Here you can see that 5 x 5 is broken out into a more familiar addition problem of 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 +5 = 25.
You’ll notice that if you try different combinations, you may see more than one cell in yellow. For instance, if we used 4 x 5, then every cell with 20 will be in yellow (this is a conditional formatting nightmare).
Let us know if you tried this sheet out with your kids or if have some elegant solution for formatting the right table!
Coronavirus lockdown week 11? – Let’s continue with what has now become a series of posts on educational kids activities spreadsheets. As a reminder, Part 1 was a Math Dice spreadsheet game and Part 2 was a Custom Math Worksheet Generator. Today’s spreadsheet will hop over to the English language part of elementary education and help you quiz your kids on their sight words.
Our goal is to take a list of sight words and randomly pull one word every time the sheet is refreshed so you can quiz your child. Sight words are frequently occurring words that kids should memorize rather than sound out.
Spreadsheet Inputs
Spreadsheet Output
Once you pick a grade level, the spreadsheet will use the Randbetween() function to generate a random number between 1 and the maximum number of words in that grade level. Then it uses a vlook function to return the word with which you can torture test your child.
Try it out yourself by downloading the spreadsheet here: Dolch Sight Words quiz spreadsheet. Remember to hit the F9 key to recalculate the worksheet and generate a new random sight word.
Now two months into lockdown, we’re already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to kids’ activities. No one wants to play our Math Dice Spreadsheet anymore. Why not torture educate them with a potentially never-ending stream of repetitive math reinforcement? Kidding aside, a mastery of arithmetic is a prerequisite for the (only slightly) more advanced problem solving examples that we provide here at spreadsheetsolving.com…
We basically want to create a spreadsheet that creates a bunch of random arithmetic problems that looks like this and can be printed:
Spreadsheet Inputs
Spreadsheet Outputs
This is another relatively simple spreadsheet – we’ll again use the randbetween() function to generate random numbers between 0 and the maximum values. The challenge with this spreadsheet is the formatting and making things look presentable. I’ll save you the gory details and just post the file here:
Download the Excel .xls file by clicking here: Custom Math Worksheet Generator
For another spreadsheet that combines both addition and subtraction on the same sheet, click here: Custom Math Worksheet Generator 2
Subtitle 1: Get your son into Harvard through the backdoor of sports! (The other backdoor of legacy is significantly more difficult)
Subtitle 2: Why I might not have chosen baseball if I knew I’d end up weighing 155 pounds
Continue reading “Pick your son’s sport based on predicted height and weight”
Or, “How to get your five-year old recruited into Stanford or Harvard for sports in 2027”…Or, “It helps to be tall”
