Math Game Monday: Greater Than

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Learn a new math game every week, for free

This game helps students make sense of those confusing rules about multiplication with inequalities.

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s play some math!

Greater Than

Math Concepts: integer addition, integer multiplication, working with inequalities.

Players: two players or two teams.

Equipment: printed gameboard or sheet of paper, one deck of playing cards, pencils or markers.

Continue reading Math Game Monday: Greater Than

Math Game Monday: The Number That Must Not Be Named

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Learn a new math game every week, for free

This challenging game stretches everyone’s working memory and offers children the delightful possibility of stumping an adult.

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s play some math!

The Number That Must Not Be Named

Math Concepts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, integers, fractions, factoring, powers and roots, prime numbers, and other number properties.

Players: two or more (a cooperative game).

Equipment: none.

Continue reading Math Game Monday: The Number That Must Not Be Named

Math Game Monday: Coordinate Gomoku

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Learn a new math game every week, for free

This is a fun and challenging logic/strategy game for upper-elementary and middle school. One of my favorites!

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s play some math!

Coordinate Gomoku

Math Concepts: ordered pairs, coordinate graphing (four quadrants).

Players: two players or two teams.

Equipment: dotty or lined square grid paper, different colored pencils or markers.

Continue reading Math Game Monday: Coordinate Gomoku

Math Game Monday: Prism Power

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Learn a new math game every week, for free

This game encourages players to reason about the relationships between length dimensions and volume in a 3-D shape.

Many parents remember struggling to learn math. We hope to provide a better experience for our children. And one of the best ways for children to enjoy learning is through hands-on play.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s play some math!

Prism Power

Math Concepts: rectangular volume, cubic units.

Players: two or more.

Equipment: printed gameboard or plain paper, pencils or markers, one six-sided die, 40–50 cubic blocks per player.

Continue reading Math Game Monday: Prism Power

Homeschool Memories: Bill Gates Proportions II

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Woman on a shopping spree to buy books

Once upon a time, when my kids and I were young…

Later the same year, not too long after our discussion of the Bill Gates proportions, I stumbled on some more data. I discovered that the median American family’s net worth was $93,100 in 2004, most of that being home equity.

This gave me another chance to play around with proportions. And since I was preparing a workshop for our regional homeschooling conference, I wrote a sample problem:

The median American family has a net worth of about $100 thousand. Bill Gates has a net worth of $56 billion. If Average Jane Homeschooler spends $100 in the vendor hall, what would be the equivalent expense for Gates?

In the last post, I explained that a proportion sets two ratios equal to each other, like equivalent fractions. Each ratio must compare similar thing to similar thing in the same order.

In this case, we are interested in the ratio “Expense compared to Net Worth.”

Continue reading Homeschool Memories: Bill Gates Proportions II

Homeschool Memories: Putting Bill Gates in Proportion

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Money Bag, dollar banknotes and stacked coins on wooden table

Once upon a time…

We were getting ready for the annual homeschool co-op speech contest, and a friend emailed me for help.

“Can you help us figure out how to figure out this problem?

    “This is related to C’s speech. I think we have all the information we need, but I’m not sure:

      “The average household income in the United States is $60,000/year. And a man’s annual income is $56 billion.

        “Is there a way to figure out what this man’s value of a million dollars would be, compared to the person who earns $60,000/year? In other words, I would like to say—$1,000,000 to us is like 10 cents to Bill Gates.”

        We found out later that her son’s numbers weren’t exactly right. He hadn’t understood the difference between income and net worth, so he made Gates sound richer than reality.

        But the basic math principles never change, and it’s fun to play with big numbers.

        Continue reading Homeschool Memories: Putting Bill Gates in Proportion

        Musings: Math is Communication

        Posted on by Denise Gaskins
        Young boy writing math expressions

        The question came up on a homeschool math forum:

        “My first grader and I were playing with equivalent expressions. We were trying to see how many ways we could write the value ‘3.’

          “He wrote down 10 – 2 × 3 + 1.

            “When I tried to explain the problem with his calculation, he got frustrated and didn’t want to do math.

              “How can I help him understand order of operations?”

              [If you think this sounds like too complex of a math expression for a first grader, you may want to read my blog post about math manipulatives and big ideas.]

              Order of operations doesn’t matter in this instance. What matters is communication.

              The mother didn’t know how to read what her son wrote.

              He could help her understand by putting parentheses around the part he wanted her to read first.

              He doesn’t need to know abstract rules for arbitrary calculations, or all the different ways we might possibly misunderstand each other. He just needs to know how to say what is in his mind.

              Continue reading Musings: Math is Communication

              Happy Pythagorean Triple Day!

              Posted on by Denise Gaskins
              Pythagorean Theorem demonstrated with tangrams

              Thursday is Pythagorean Triple Day, one of the rarest math holidays.

              The numbers of Thursday’s date: 7/24/25 or 24/7/25, fit the pattern of the Pythagorean Theorem: 7 squared + 24 squared = 25 squared.

              Any three numbers that fit the a2 + b2 = c2 pattern form a Pythagorean Triple.

              Continue reading Happy Pythagorean Triple Day!

              Math Journal: Playing with My Own Ignorance

              Posted on by Denise Gaskins
              photo of a girl wondering about math

              Mary Everest Boole, wife of English mathematician George Boole, once described algebra as “thinking logically about the fact of our own ignorance.”

              This definition made me chuckle. Like any human being, I am ignorant on many things, but I usually avoid thinking about that.

              So I wondered what would happen if I took Mrs. Boole’s advice and tried thinking logically about my ignorance.

              How far could I go?

              Perhaps you’d like to try this experiment with your children. All you need is a pen and paper or a whiteboard and markers and a bit of curiosity.

              Math Journaling Adventures series by Denise GaskinsAnd if you enjoy this exploration, check out my Math Journaling Adventures project to discover how playful writing activities can help your students learn mathematics. Preorder your books today!

              Continue reading Math Journal: Playing with My Own Ignorance

              The Best Math Game Ever

              Posted on by Denise Gaskins

              The Substitution Game features low-floor, high-ceiling cooperative play that works with any age (or with a mixed-age group) — and you can use it while distance learning, too. It’s great for building algebraic thinking.

              Excerpted from my new book, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School. Look for it at your favorite online bookstore.

              The Substitution Game

              Math Concepts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations, integers, fractions, equivalence and substitution.

              Players: any number (a cooperative game).

              Equipment: whiteboard and markers (preferred) or pencil and paper to share. Calculator optional.

              Continue reading The Best Math Game Ever