There’s a new Math Game Monday this week.
Have your kids tried it yet?
This week’s game is one of my favorites for early elementary grades, a logic game that makes children think about numbers and strategy.
Or, if you’re reading this post later and missed that one, there’s another great new game this week for you to play.
Check it out:
How to Homeschool Math: A long page full of my best tips on homeschooling math in a low-stress, creative, playful way. No matter which curriculum you use—unschoolers, too!
Get my email series “8 Weeks of Playful Math” plus regular activity ideas and other updates when you join my email newsletter.
My Let’s Play Math Sampler ebook contains short excerpts from my most popular books. Find out how to get it for free, no strings attached!
“Fraction Catch” is free on this website for one week only. It’s 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.
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.
This game builds number sense with fractions on an invisible number line.
Math Concepts: proper and improper fractions, comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, number line, numerical order.
Players: any number.
Equipment: one set of double-six or double-nine dominoes.
“Prompt #65 Pixel Graphics” is an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, 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.
Do you want your children to develop the ability to reason creatively and figure out things on their own?
Help kids practice slowing down and taking the time to fully comprehend a math topic or problem-solving situation with these classic tools of learning: See. Wonder. Create.
See: Look carefully at the details of the numbers, shapes, or patterns you see. What are their attributes? How do they relate to each other? Also notice the details of your own mathematical thinking. How do you respond to a tough problem? Which responses are most helpful? Where did you get confused, or what makes you feel discouraged?
Wonder: Ask the journalist’s questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how? Who might need to know about this topic? Where might we see it in the real world? When would things happen this way? What other way might they happen? Why? What if we changed the situation? How might we change it? What would happen then? How might we figure it out?
Create: Create a description, summary, or explanation of what you learned. Make your own related math puzzle, problem, art, poetry, story, game, etc. Or create something totally unrelated, whatever idea may have sparked in your mind.
Math journaling may seem to focus on this third tool, creation. But even with artistic design prompts, we need the first two tools because they lay a solid groundwork to support the child’s imagination.
“Chomp” is free on this website for one week only. It’s an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, 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.
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.
This game pushes students to think ahead and deduce their opponent’s strategy.
Math Concepts: logic and strategic thinking.
Players: two players.
Equipment: pencil and paper.
Are your students doing anything special for Pi Day?
Back when we were homeschooling, my kids and I always felt stir-crazy after two months with no significant break. We needed a day off — and what better way could we spend it than to play math all afternoon?
I love any excuse to celebrate math!
Pi Day is March 14. If you write dates in the month/date format, then 3/14 at 1:59 is about as close as the calendar can get to 3.14159etc.
(Otherwise, you can celebrate Pi Approximation Day on July 22, or 22/7.)
Unfortunately, most of the activities on teacher blogs and Pinterest focus on the pi/pie wordplay or on memorizing the digits. With a bit of digging, however, I found a few puzzles that let us sink our metaphorical teeth into real mathematical meat.
In math, symmetry is beautiful, and the most completely symmetric object in the (Euclidean) mathematical plane is the circle. No matter how you turn it, expand it, or shrink it, the circle remains essentially the same.
Every circle you can imagine is the exact image of every other circle there is.
This is not true of other shapes. A rectangle may be short or tall. An ellipse may be fat or slim. A triangle may be squat, or stand upright, or lean off at a drunken angle. But circles are all the same, except for magnification. A circle three inches across is a perfect, point-for-point copy of a circle three miles across, or three millimeters.
What makes a circle so special and beautiful? Any child will tell you, what makes a circle is its roundness. Perfectly smooth and plump, but not too fat.
The definition of a circle is “all the points at a certain distance from the center.” Can you see why this definition forces absolute symmetry, with no pointy sides or bumped-out curves?
One way to express that perfect roundness in numbers is to compare it to the distance across. How many times would you have to walk back and forth across the middle of the circle to make the same distance as one trip around?
The ratio is the same for every circle, no matter which direction you walk.
That’s pi!
For all ages:
Sarah Carter created this fun variation on the classic Four 4s puzzle for Pi Day:
Using only the digits 3, 1, 4 once in each calculation, how many numbers can you make?
You can use any math you know: add, subtract, multiply, square roots, factorials, etc. You can concatenate the digits, putting them together to make a two-digit or three-digit number.
For older students:
1. Imagine the Earth as a perfect sphere with a long rope tightly wrapped around the equator. Then increase the length of the rope by 10 feet, and magically lift it off the Earth to float above the equator. Will an ant be able to squeeze under the rope without touching it? What about a cat? A person?
2. If you ride a bicycle over a puddle of water, the wheels will leave wet marks on the road. Obviously, each wheel leaves a periodic pattern. How the two patterns are related? Do they overlap? Does their relative position depend on the length of the puddle? The bicycle? The size of the wheels?
3. Draw a semicircle. Along its diameter draw smaller semicircles (not necessarily the same size) that touch each other. Because there are no spaces in between, the sum of the diameters of the small semicircles must equal the diameter of the large one. What about their perimeter, the sum of their arc lengths?
4. Choose any smallish number N. How can you cut a circular shape into N parts of equal area with lines of equal lengths, using only a straight-edge and compass? Hint: The lines don’t have to be straight.
[Solutions at Alexander Bogomolny’s Pi Page. Scroll down to “Extras.”]
It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know.
— Edward Titchmarsh
Here are a few pi-related links you may find interesting:
Or for pure silliness:
Have fun playing math with your kids!
“Prompt #26 Colored Paper and Metal Disks” is an excerpt from Math Journal Task Cards Mega-Bundle: 312 Ways To Play with Math, available as a digital printable activity guide at my bookstore. Read more about my playful math books here.
Do you want your children to develop the ability to reason creatively and figure out things on their own?
Help kids practice slowing down and taking the time to fully comprehend a math topic or problem-solving situation with these classic tools of learning: See. Wonder. Create.
See: Look carefully at the details of the numbers, shapes, or patterns you see. What are their attributes? How do they relate to each other? Also notice the details of your own mathematical thinking. How do you respond to a tough problem? Which responses are most helpful? Where did you get confused, or what makes you feel discouraged?
Wonder: Ask the journalist’s questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how? Who might need to know about this topic? Where might we see it in the real world? When would things happen this way? What other way might they happen? Why? What if we changed the situation? How might we change it? What would happen then? How might we figure it out?
Create: Create a description, summary, or explanation of what you learned. Make your own related math puzzle, problem, art, poetry, story, game, etc. Or create something totally unrelated, whatever idea may have sparked in your mind.
Math journaling may seem to focus on this third tool, creation. But even with artistic design prompts, we need the first two tools because they lay a solid groundwork to support the child’s imagination.
Continue reading Thinking Thursday: Colored Paper and Metal Disks
“Hide-and-Seek Zoo” is free on this website for one week only. It’s 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.
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.
This game builds familiarity with the patterns in 2-digit numbers as players search for the secret squares on a hundred chart.
Math Concepts: hundred chart, strategy.
Players: two players.
Equipment: printed gameboard, pencils or felt-tip markers.
“Prompt #48 Two Truths and a Lie” is an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, 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.
Do you want your children to develop the ability to reason creatively and figure out things on their own?
Help kids practice slowing down and taking the time to fully comprehend a math topic or problem-solving situation with these classic tools of learning: See. Wonder. Create.
See: Look carefully at the details of the numbers, shapes, or patterns you see. What are their attributes? How do they relate to each other? Also notice the details of your own mathematical thinking. How do you respond to a tough problem? Which responses are most helpful? Where did you get confused, or what makes you feel discouraged?
Wonder: Ask the journalist’s questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how? Who might need to know about this topic? Where might we see it in the real world? When would things happen this way? What other way might they happen? Why? What if we changed the situation? How might we change it? What would happen then? How might we figure it out?
Create: Create a description, summary, or explanation of what you learned. Make your own related math puzzle, problem, art, poetry, story, game, etc. Or create something totally unrelated, whatever idea may have sparked in your mind.
Math journaling may seem to focus on this third tool, creation. But even with artistic design prompts, we need the first two tools because they lay a solid groundwork to support the child’s imagination.
This game challenges players to think ahead so they don’t get trapped.
“Nim & Tsyanshidzi” is an excerpt from 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal, 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 Topic Tag links in the sidebar. There are more than forty free games scattered around the blog. Have fun playing math with your kids!
“Quotation from Ian Stewart” is an excerpt from Reflections on Mathematics 2: 28 More Quotation Cards, available as a digital printable activity guide at my bookstore. Read more about my playful math books here.
Do you want your children to develop the ability to reason creatively and figure out things on their own?
Help kids practice slowing down and taking the time to fully comprehend a math topic or problem-solving situation with these classic tools of learning: See. Wonder. Create.
See: Look carefully at the details of the numbers, shapes, or patterns you see. What are their attributes? How do they relate to each other? Also notice the details of your own mathematical thinking. How do you respond to a tough problem? Which responses are most helpful? Where did you get confused, or what makes you feel discouraged?
Wonder: Ask the journalist’s questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how? Who might need to know about this topic? Where might we see it in the real world? When would things happen this way? What other way might they happen? Why? What if we changed the situation? How might we change it? What would happen then? How might we figure it out?
Create: Create a description, summary, or explanation of what you learned. Make your own related math puzzle, problem, art, poetry, story, game, etc. Or create something totally unrelated, whatever idea may have sparked in your mind.
Math journaling may seem to focus on this third tool, creation. But even with artistic design prompts, we need the first two tools because they lay a solid groundwork to support the child’s imagination.
We have less than 36 hours to go on the Tabletop Math Games Collection Kickstarter.
Thank you so much to everyone who has backed these fun books. Your encouragement and support keep me going!
For procrastinators, get thee to the Kickstarter:
Most of my books eventually show up in the regular online bookstores, making it easy to delay purchasing.
But these are not typical paperback or hardcover books. Instead, they’re designed to lay flat so players can use the gameboards or easily refer to rules as they play.
I don’t know whether the online bookstores will stock these titles.
But I do know we’re counting down the hours on our Tabletop Math Games Collection Kickstarter campaign.
Do you really want to miss out?
Scroll down for a peek at what other people say about my math games.
Then order your copy today, and have fun playing math with your kids!
👍 “When I’m asked about resources for math games, Denise Gaskins is one of the first names I mention.”
—Dan Finkel, creator of the Prime Climb math board game
❤️ “If I could go back in time, I would play a lot more games.”
—Carla Roesler, homeschooling parent
👍 “The directions are clear, it is easy for parents to pick up and use, yet it gets to the heart of mathematical thinking in a fun, engaging way.”
—Casey Maupin, homeschooling parent
❤️ “The games are easy to put into practice (even for a mom of 4 with 2 toddlers) and something my daughter would participate in willingly or even enjoy (which is saying a lot for a teen who doesn’t always appreciate a challenge). Clever, helpful, and creative in ways I’d never come up with.”
—Casey Baldwin, homeschooling parent
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 