Check out my new printables for playing math with your kids:
The free 50-page PDF Hundred Charts Galore! file features 1–100 charts, 0–99 charts, bottom’s-up versions, multiple-chart pages, blank charts, game boards, and more. Everything you need to play the activities in my new 70+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart book.
Download Hundred Charts Galore
Or you can use these charts with the activities in my all-time most popular blog post:
Math Concepts: number symbols, numerical order, thinking ahead.
Players: two or more.
Equipment: one math deck of playing cards (remove face cards and jokers), or a double deck for more than four players; additional cards to use as train cars.
Give each player four to six miscellaneous cards (such as the face cards and jokers you removed from the card deck) to serve as the cars of their number trains.
Lay these cards face down in a horizontal row, as shown. Shuffle the math card deck and spread it on the table as a fishing pond.
On your turn, draw one card and play it face up on one of your train cars. The numbers on your train must increase from left to right, but they do not need to be in consecutive order. If you do not have an appropriate blank place for your card, you have two choices:
• Mix the new card back into the fishing pond.
• Use the new number to replace one of your other cards, and then discard the old one.
The first player to complete a train of numbers that increases from left to right wins the game.
House Rule: Decide how strict you will be about the “increases from left to right” rule and repeated numbers. Does “1, 3, 3, 7, 8” count as a valid number train? Or will the player have to keep trying for a card to replace one of the threes?
For older players: You can adapt Number Train to play with more advanced students:
One of my favorite stores, Rainbow Resource Center, is offering several of my books at a great discount.
Check them out!
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“Math Game: Number Train” is an excerpt from my book Counting & Number Bonds: Math Games for Early Learners, available now at your favorite online book dealer.
This blog is reader-supported.
If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.
If you liked this post, and want to show your one-time appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal: paypal.me/DeniseGaskinsMath. If you go that route, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
“Math Game: Number Train” copyright © 2018 by Denise Gaskins.
This fall, my homeschool co-op math class will play with math journaling.
But my earlier dot-grid notebooks were designed for adults. Too thick, too many pages. And the half-cm dot grid made lines too narrow for young writers.
So I created a new series of paperback dot-grid journals for my elementary and middle school students.
I hope you enjoy them, too!
Click here for more information
So, what can your kids do with a math journal?
Here are a few ideas:
I’m sure we’ll use several of these activities in my homeschool co-op math class this fall.
Learning math requires more than mastering number facts and memorizing rules. At its heart, math is a way of thinking.
So more than anything else, we need to teach our kids to think mathematically — to make sense of math problems and persevere in figuring them out.
Help your children learn to see with mathematical eyes, noticing and wondering about math problems.
Whenever your children need to learn a new idea in math, or whenever they get stuck on a tough homework problem, that’s a good time to step back and make sense of the math.
Kids can write their noticings and wonderings in the math journal. Or you can act as the scribe, writing down (without comment) everything child says.
For more tips on teaching students to brainstorm about math, check out these online resources from The Math Forum:
Problem-solving is a habit of mind that you and your children can learn and grow in. Help your kids practice slowing down and taking the time to fully understand a problem situation.
Almost anything your child notices or wonders can lead to a math experiment.
For example, one day my daughter played an online math game…
A math journal can be like a science lab book. Not the pre-digested, fill-in-the-blank lab books that some curricula provide. But the real lab books that scientists write to keep track of their data, and what they’ve tried so far, and what went wrong, and what finally worked.
Here are a few open-ended math experiments you might try:
Create math art. Check out my math doodling collection on Pinterest and my Dot Grid Doodling blog post. Can you draw an impossible shape?
I’d love to hear your favorite math explorations or journaling tips!
Please share in the comments section below.
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P.S.: Do you have a blog? If you’d like to feature a math journal review and giveaway, I’ll provide the prize. Send a message through my contact form or leave a comment below, and we’ll work out the details.
This blog is reader-supported.
If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please head to my Patreon page.
If you liked this post, and want to show your one-time appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal: paypal.me/DeniseGaskinsMath. If you go that route, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
“Math Journals for Elementary and Middle School” copyright © 2018 by Denise Gaskins. Photos of children © original artists / Pixabay.
I don’t know who comes up with these holidays. But according to my Dover Publications newsletter, tomorrow (August 2nd) is National Coloring Book Day.
Sounds like a good excuse to play some math!
If you know of any other free math coloring resources, please share a link in the comments below.
CREDITS: “School Crayons” photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.
Welcome to the 115th edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of links to bloggers all around the internet who have great ideas for learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to pre-college.
In honor of Women’s History Month, this carnival features quotes from fifteen women mathematicians.
If you would like to jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.
Let the mathematical fun begin!
They came from many countries and followed a variety of interests.
They conquered new topics in mathematics and expanded the world’s understanding of old ones.
They wrestled with theorems, raised children, published articles, won awards, faced discrimination, led professional organizations, and kept going through both success and failure.
Some gained international renown, but most enjoyed quiet lives.
They studied, learned, and lived (and some still live) as most of us do — loving their families and friends, joking with colleagues, hoping to influence students.
I think you’ll find their words inspiring.
“What I really am is a mathematician. Rather than being remembered as the first woman this or that, I would prefer to be remembered, as a mathematician should, simply for the theorems I have proved and the problems I have solved.”
—Julia Robinson (1919–1985)
“All in all, I have found great delight and pleasure in the pursuit of mathematics. Along the way I have made great friends and worked with a number of creative and interesting people. I have been saved from boredom, dourness, and self-absorption. One cannot ask for more.”
—Karen Uhlenbeck (b. 1942)
Continue reading Playful Math Education Carnival 115—Women of Mathematics
Let’s resolve to have fun with math this year. Ben has posted a preview of 2018’s mathematical holidays. Iva offers plenty of cool ways to think about the number 2018. And Patrick proposes a new mathematical conjecture.
But my favorite way to celebrate any new year is by playing the Year Game. It’s a prime opportunity for players of all ages to fulfill the two most popular New Year’s Resolutions: spending more time with family and friends, and getting more exercise.
So grab a partner, slip into your workout clothes, and pump up those mental muscles!
For many years mathematicians, scientists, engineers and others interested in mathematics have played “year games” via e-mail and in newsgroups. We don’t always know whether it is possible to write expressions for all the numbers from 1 to 100 using only the digits in the current year, but it is fun to try to see how many you can find. This year may prove to be a challenge.
Use the digits in the year 2018 to write mathematical expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100. The goal is adjustable: Young children can start with looking for 1-10, middle grades with 1-25.
This lovely puzzle (for upper-elementary and beyond) is from Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky’s 1895 painting “Mental Calculation. In Public School of S. A. Rachinsky.” Pat Ballew posted it on his blog On This Day in Math, in honor of the 365th day of the year.
I love the expressions on the boys’ faces. So many different ways to manifest hard thinking!
Here’s the question:
No calculator allowed. But you can talk it over with a friend, as the boys on the right are doing.
You can even use scratch paper, if you like.
And if you’d like a hint, you can figure out square numbers using this trick. Think of a square number made from rows of pennies.
Can you see how to make the next-bigger square?
Any square number, plus one more row and one more column, plus a penny for the corner, makes the next-bigger square.
So if you know that ten squared is one hundred, then:
… and so onward to your answer. If the Russian schoolboys could figure it out, then you can, too!
Simon Gregg (@Simon_Gregg) added this wonderful related puzzle for the new year:
I’ve been following Sonya’s Arithmophobia No More blog for a couple of years, and I love the work she is doing. But this month, she’s teamed up with Lacy at Play, Discover, Learn (another great blog to follow!) to offer a humongous bundle of playful math.
You get math journaling pages, games, creative task cards, thought-provoking worksheets, and video training resources to help you build your child’s understanding of math from arithmetic to early algebra. Wow!
These activities are perfect for homeschooling families or anyone looking to supplement their child’s current math curriculum with effective discovery-based activities. If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those Cuisenaire rods you picked up on sale way back when, this bundle is for you.
I’m so looking forward to using some of these ideas with my elementary homeschool co-op kids next year!
Sale price is $30 from December 2-15.
Cuisenaire Rod Activities Blowout Bundle
If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you’ve probably seen how much I love the blog, books, and classes available from the Natural Math folks.
Their newest book is just off the presses — Funville Adventures, a math adventure chapter book.
And until December 20, they’re having a holiday sale. Make your own bundle of any Natural Math books. Playful algebra, calculus for 5-year-olds, inquiry problems and more: Great deal!
Finally, if you’ve been wanting to pick up a paperback copy of Let’s Play Math or some of my game books, or maybe a set of dot-grid math journals, I’m currently offering a discount on bulk orders.
Bundle ANY assortment of titles. Stock up on books for your family, friends, or homeschool group.
Bulk Order Playful Math Paperbacks
(US customers only: We’re sorry we can’t offer bulk discounts for our international readers, but the complexities of international duties and tax laws are too much for this very small family business.)
If you’ve seen a great deal or holiday price on a math resource you love, please share!
Add your deal to the comment section below, so we can all take advantage of the math joy this season.
A friend shared this video, and I loved it! From Kent Haines, a father who happens to also be a math teacher…
“I hope that this video helps parents find new ways of interacting with their kids on math topics.”
If you enjoyed Kent’s video, you’ll love Christopher Danielson’s book and blog.
It’s a short book with plenty of great stories, advice, and conversation-starters. While Danielson writes directly to parents, the book will also interest grandparents, aunts & uncles, teachers, and anyone else who wants to help children notice and think about math in daily life.
“You don’t need special skills to do this. If you can read with your kids, then you can talk math with them. You can support and encourage their developing mathematical minds.
“You don’t need to love math. You don’t need to have been particularly successful in school mathematics. You just need to notice when your children are being curious about math, and you need some ideas for turning that curiosity into a conversation.
“In nearly all circumstances, our conversations grow organically out of our everyday activity. We have not scheduled “talking math time” in our household. Instead, we talk about these things when it seems natural to do so, when the things we are doing (reading books, making lunch, riding in the car, etc) bump up against important mathematical ideas.
“The dialogues in this book are intended to open your eyes to these opportunities in your own family’s life.”— Christopher Danielson
Talking Math with Your Kids
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This blog is reader-supported.
If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.
If you liked this post, and want to show your one-time appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal: paypal.me/DeniseGaskinsMath. If you go that route, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
“How to Talk Math With Your Kids” copyright © 2017 by Denise Gaskins. “Kids Talk” photo (top) by Victoria Harjadi via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). “Parent Rules” by Kent Haines.
Today we have a guest post from Lucy Ravitch, author of the new Kickstarter picture book Trouble with Monkeys: A math concept story of place value. She’s sharing a few ideas from her Math Activity Thursday (M.a.Th.) video series. Enjoy!
Hello, math fans and enthusiasts! Each week I try to give you and your family a fun math activity to try. Two months ago I posted this video with ten ways to turn play dough into an engaging activity for lower and upper elementary math.
If you want to make your own dough from scratch here are a few simple recipes. I encourage you to let your children play freely at first, before trying these activities.
Below I have identified some of the math concepts that your kids will experience as they play.
Practice counting. With older children, record your results and make a graph of the data.
Make several small balls or pieces. Then play as you smash them.
Have fun molding your play dough. Roll it out to cut shapes.
Find small objects around the house and enclose them inside play dough.
Show off your design skills and observe textures.
Use a butter knife or the edge of a ruler to cut your play dough. Discuss findings as you play and explore.
Pull out a kitchen scale or balancing scales to use with dough.
Use a ruler or measuring tape while you play. There are several ways you can measure your dough — height, width, and length.
Make sure you have plenty of room for this activity. Playing outside or on smooth floors works best.
Compare similarities and differences between dough colors and types. Consider comparing the previously listed activities
May you and your students have fun as you play with dough!
Lucy blogs at kidsmathteacher.com and is the author/creator of Kids Menu Books. The first book in that series is The Pancake Menu, an interactive book that lets kids practice math as they play restaurant.
And be sure to visit Lucy’s Kickstarter project! She’s teamed up with artist Trav Hanson to create the delightful picture book Trouble with Monkeys: A math concept story of place value.
