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Christmas Math Puzzles and Activities

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
by HikingArtist.com via flickr

UPDATE: Some of the links below have gone missing, as internet sites tend to do. Check out my *huge* new blog post:

We interrupt our regularly scheduled math program to bring you the following Christmas links…

First, A to Z Home’s Cool offers some fun for older students and teachers:

Also check out the annual Price of Christmas Index to see what the “12 Days of Christmas” gifts would cost you this year. Or explore the Nrich Advent Math Calendars to play with a new math activity every day until Christmas.

You can find just the song here: http://vihart.com/music/gauss12days.mp3.

Continue reading Christmas Math Puzzles and Activities

Pre-Algebra Picture Puzzles

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Balance problem

Maria at Homeschool Math Blog has posted a fun set of worksheets:
Pan balance problems to teach algebraic reasoning.

Princess Kitten, at nearly 9yo, keeps telling me, “I hate math, but I like algebra.” So I printed all four pages for her to try. These get pretty complicated, and the 2-variable problems had her flummoxed for awhile. But after an explanation and bit of pouting (I think she hates math because she’s such a perfectionist that she can’t bear to get something wrong, even the first time), she came back and conquered the toughest ones.

A-Hunting They Will Go

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Alexandria Jones and her family piled into the car for a drive in the country. This year, they were determined to find an absolutely perfect Christmas tree at Uncle William Jones’s tree farm.

“I want the tallest tree in Uncle Will’s field,” Alex said.

“Hold it,” said her mother. “I refuse to cut a hole in the roof.”

“But, Mom!” Leon whined. “The Peterkin Papers…”

“Too bad. Our ceiling will stay a comfortable 8 feet high.”

Continue reading A-Hunting They Will Go

Carnival of Homeschooling Centennial Edition

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Blog carnival graphic 4

Wow! The Carnival of Homeschooling has reached the 100 mark with this week’s edition at Mom Is Teaching [blog has disappeared]. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Why Homeschool posted the very first CoH. We’ve had an interesting couple of years, full of enlightening, entertaining, and encouraging blog posts. If you’d like to browse, the CoH archive is here.

Continue reading Carnival of Homeschooling Centennial Edition

The Christmas Present Quandary

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Alexandria Jones hated using store-bought wrapping paper at Christmas. She tried to wrap each present as a hand-crafted work of art.

Last year, she did mini-scenes with plastic figures building cotton snowmen or skating on aluminum-foil ponds — and, for her brother Leonhard’s gift, her favorite creation: toy dinosaurs having a snowball fight. But those 3-D scenes got knocked about under the Christmas tree.

This year, she decided, she would wrap the packages flat. But then, how could she make them special?

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Word Problems in Russia and America

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Andrei Toom calls this an “extended version” of a talk he gave a few years ago at the Swedish Mathematical Society. At 159 pages [2010 updated version is 98 pages], I would call it a book. Whatever you call it, it’s a must-read for math teachers:

Main Thesis: Word problems are very valuable in teaching mathematics not only to master mathematics, but also for general development. Especially valuable are word problems solved with minimal scolarship, without algebra, even sometimes without arithmetics, just by plain common sense. The more naive and ingenuous is solution, the more it provides the child’s contact with abstract reality and independence from authority, the more independent and creative thinker the child becomes.
…

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Fraction Models, and a Card Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Fraction cards

Models give us a way to form and manipulate a mental image of an abstract concept, such as a fraction. There are three basic ways we can imagine a fraction: as partially-filled area or volume, as linear measurement, or as some part of a given set. Teach all three to give your students a well-rounded understanding.

When teaching young students, we use physical models — actual food or cut-up pieces of construction paper. Older students and adults can firm up the foundation of their understanding by drawing many, many pictures. As we move into abstract, numbers-only work, these pictures remain in our minds, an always-ready tool to help us think our way through fraction problems.

Continue reading Fraction Models, and a Card Game