January 2022 – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math

Math Game Monday: Radar

Posted on January 31, 2022February 8, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

In this game players race around a circular gameboard. But watch out! The player who finishes the race loses the game.

“Radar” is an excerpt from Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.

The Math Game Monday posts will be available for one week only. If you missed this one, explore the links in the sidebar. There are more than forty free games scattered around the blog. Have fun playing math with your kids!

Playful Math #152: Auld Lang Syne Edition

Posted on January 31, 2022February 3, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 152nd edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.

Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing. There’s so much playful math to enjoy!

We didn’t have a volunteer host for January, so I’m squeezing this in between other commitments. This is my third no-host-emergency carnival in the last year, which is NOT sustainable. If you’d like to help keep the Playful Math Carnival alive, we desperately need hosts for 2022!

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle or activity in honor of our 152nd edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.

Math Journaling with Prime Numbers

Cool facts about 152: The eighth prime number is 19, and 8 × 19 = 152. When you square 152, you get a number that contains all the digits from 0–4. You can make 152 as the sum of eight consecutive even numbers, or as the sum of four consecutive prime numbers.

But 152 has two real claims to fame:

It’s the smallest number that is the sum of the cubes of two distinct odd primes.
And it’s the largest known even number you can write as the sum of two primes in exactly four ways.

So here’s your math investigation prompt:

Play around with prime numbers. Explore their powers, their sums, and anything else about them you like.

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

What’s the most interesting number relationship you can find?

Continue reading Playful Math #152: Auld Lang Syne Edition

Math Game Monday: Coin Chain

Posted on January 24, 2022January 31, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

This game helps young children master the value of coins, while also providing a delightful strategic challenge to players of any age.

“Coin Chain” is an excerpt from Math You Can Play Combo: Number Games for Young Learners, available as an ebook at my publisher’s store (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.

Math Game Monday: Secret Number Codes

Posted on January 17, 2022January 25, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

This game challenges players to think flexibly so they can interpret clues and deduce their opponent’s secret numbers.

“Secret Number Codes” is an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, available as a special pre-publication ebook edition at my publisher’s store or for preorder through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.

Math Game Monday: Spill the Beans

Posted on January 10, 2022January 17, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

This game offers a hands-on reason for children to practice adding numbers up to 1,000 — or whatever target you wish.

“Spill the Beans” is an excerpt from 70+ Things To Do with a Hundred Chart, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.

Playful Math Carnival 151 via Math Hombre

Posted on January 6, 2022January 5, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Would you like some great ideas to launch a new year of playful math?

John Golden put together a delightful collection of games, activities, and inspiration in the latest Playful Math Carnival:

Playful Math Education 151

You’ll find a fantastic collection of maker math, games, puzzles, activities, inspiration, and other mathematical delights.

What are you waiting for? Come join the fun!

Click Here to Read the Carnival Blog

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

Each monthly Playful Math Carnival brings you a great new collection of puzzles, math conversations, teaching tips, and all sorts of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

The carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash.com.

Math Game Monday: Math Model War

Posted on January 3, 2022January 17, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

This game helps children develop a strong foundation for understanding multiplication and fractions. Play it frequently until your students become so familiar with the pictures that they can use them to model any problem they encounter.

“Math Model War” is an excerpt from Multiplication & Fractions: Math Games for Tough Topics, available as an ebook at my bookstore (Thank you for cutting out the middleman!) and in ebook or paperback through many online retailers. Read more about my playful math books here.