“Black Friday” Shopping Season Discount

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

‘Tis the season for discount sales. I usually ignore the annual Black Friday push, because NOT shopping is an even better way to save money.

But this year, my publishing company Tabletop Academy Press has decided to join in the fun.

So if you’re looking for new math activities to play with your kids, I’ve just added several new books and discount bundles to our online store — including a huge variety of math journaling resources.

And for the next week or so, you can get 15% off anything in our store by using the coupon code TABLETOP15 at checkout.

But act fast! The discount code expires December 5th.

Carnival 150: Keeping Playful Math Alive

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 150th 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 October, so I’m squeezing this in between extended-family situations that require my time. If you’d like to help keep the Playful Math Carnival alive, we desperately need hosts for 2022!

Try These Sum-Difference Puzzles

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle/activity in honor of our 150th edition. This puzzle comes from the archives of Iva Sallay’s delightful Find the Factors blog.

Copy the puzzle diagrams below. Write numbers in the boxes to make true statements going uphill, and use the same numbers to make true statements going downhill:

Six has two factor pairs. One of those factor pairs adds up to 5, and the other one subtracts to 5. Can you place those factors in the proper boxes to complete the first puzzle?

150 has six factor pairs. One of those factor pairs adds up to 25, and another one subtracts to 25. If you can identify those factor pairs, then you can complete the second puzzle!

How are the two puzzles related?

Iva also posts one of my favorite multiplication puzzles, her scrambled times tables. Check out puzzle #150 in this post (it’s Level 3, or medium difficulty) and then browser her site for plenty more.

Click here for all the mathy goodness!

Running Out of Time

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Help your children discover how much fun thinking hard can be!

You have slightly more than 24 hours left to grab the early-release 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal book on Kickstarter and pick up some great discounts on the rest of my playful math journaling books — including the popular Math Prompt Task Card sets.

Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter

But act fast! The deal disappears Thursday evening, U.S. Central Time.

“It doesn’t matter whether your students are homeschooled or in a classroom, distance-learning or in person. Everyone can enjoy the experience of playing around with math.”

—Denise Gaskins
Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter

[Side note: The free Math Journaling Sampler file will remain available on the Kickstarter page even after the campaign ends.]

Playful Math Carnival 149 via Nature Study Australia

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Check out the latest carnival of playful math:

Each monthly Playful Math Education Blog 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.

Johanna put together a beautiful collection of mathematical resources and activities for studying math in nature, biometric data, journaling, math poetry, and other delights.

Click Here to Read the Carnival Blog

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

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.

Playful Math Journaling: Try It for Yourself

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Math journaling helps students enjoy the adventure of learning math through playful exploration.

In a math journal, children explore their own ideas about numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing in response to a question. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes. Not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.

All they need is a piece of paper, a pencil, and a good prompt to launch their mathematical journey.

Give It a Try

You can launch your family’s math journaling adventure today. Download the free 16-page printable (pdf) Math Journaling Sampler, which includes:

  • “Five Types of Journaling Prompts,” a short excerpt with example prompts from my new book 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal
  • Four sample task cards from the accompanying series of printable Math Prompt Task Card books
  • And a few pages from my Adventurous Student Journals (also known as the Math Rebel journals) to get kids writing

Click here for the Math Journaling Sampler

Back the Kickstarter

And if you like what you see, I’d love to have your support for my Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter project. Check it out:

Playful Math Journaling with a Cat

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

As queen of the house, Cimorene insists on being involved in anything that happens in her domain. This includes promoting the Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter.

So she created a cat math journaling prompt to help your children experience the fun of playing around with math.

But first, she encourages you to visit the Kickstarter page and download the free 16-page printable Math Journaling Sampler file. Your kids will love solving Cimorene’s puzzle on one of the parchment-style pages!


[The free download will always be there, even after the Kickstarter project ends.]
Visit the Kickstarter

Here is Cimorene’s Puzzle

“The Princess of Cats has a luxuriously soft tail about 12 inches (30 cm) long. Her tail is three times the length of her noble head. Her beautiful, furry body is as long as head and tail together. How long is the Princess from her delicate nose to the tip of her majestic tail?”

So, how does math journaling work? What do children do with a problem like this?

They may want to make a list of the things they know from the story. Perhaps they will draw a picture of the cat and label the proportions. Each will take their own approach to figure it out.

And then the best part of any math journal prompt is when kids make their own math.

  • Can they write a new puzzle about their own pet?
  • Or about their favorite animal?

Encourage your children to share their math creations with their friends and family.

Cimorene would love to read it, too! If you share your story in the comments section below, I will be sure to show it to her.

And remember to back the Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter so your whole family can enjoy the adventure of playing with math!

Math Play for All Ages

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Are you looking for new ways to explore math with your kids?

Would you like an easy, no-prep resource for creative problem-solving, number play, math art, word problems, mini-essays, math poetry, geometry investigations, research projects, and much more?

I’ve just launched a Kickstarter project for people to preorder my new book, 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal. It just might transform your child’s experience of math.

Visit the Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter

In a math journal, children explore their own ideas about numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing in response to a question. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes. Not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.

Scroll down the Kickstarter project page to download the free 16-page printable “Math Journaling Sampler” file. It includes one of my all-time favorite math activities. [The Sampler will remain available after the Kickstarter campaign ends.]

If you like what you see, I’d love to have your support. Please help share the project and encourage everyone to play math with their kids!

For more math journaling tips and information, scroll through the Math Journals posts on my blog.

Playful Math Journaling: Preorder on Kickstarter

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Are you looking for new ways to explore math with your kids?

Would you like an easy, no-prep resource for creative problem-solving, number play, math art, word problems, mini-essays, math poetry, geometry investigations, research projects, and much more?

I’ve just launched a Kickstarter project for people to preorder my new book, 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal. It just might transform your child’s experience of math.

In a math journal, children explore their own ideas about numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing in response to a question. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes. Not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.

Scroll down the Kickstarter project page to download the free 16-page printable “Math Journaling Sampler” file. It includes one of my all-time favorite math activities.

If you like what you see, I’d love to have your support. The more people we can get to share the project in the early days, the more likely Kickstarter will join in and promote it to new readers.

Have fun playing math with your kids!

Visit the Playful Math Journaling Kickstarter page

Coming Soon! Playful Math Journaling

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Are you a parent who wants to help your children learn math?

Or a teacher looking for new activities to try with your students?

Or perhaps you’d like to discover for yourself the playful side of math that school never showed you?

Tune in next week to discover how to help children explore their own ideas about numbers, shapes, and patterns. Or go to the Kickstarter Preview page, where you can sign up to be notified as soon as the project launches.