Activities – Page 35 – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math

Euclid’s Game on a Hundred Chart

Posted on January 26, 2008September 29, 2023 by Denise Gaskins

Math concepts: subtraction within 100, number patterns, mental math
Number of players: 2 or 3
Equipment: printed hundred chart (also called a hundred board), and highlighter or translucent disks to mark numbers — or use this online hundred chart

Set Up

Place the hundred chart and highlighter where all players can reach them.

How to Play

Allow the youngest player choice of moving first or second; in future games, allow the loser of the last game to choose.
The first player chooses a number from 1 to 100 and marks that square on the hundred chart.
The second player chooses and marks any other number.
On each succeeding turn, the player subtracts any two marked numbers to find and mark a difference that has not yet been taken.
Play alternates until no more numbers can be marked.

Continue reading Euclid’s Game on a Hundred Chart

2008 Mathematics Game

Posted on January 4, 2008May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Are you ready for a challenge? Join us for the 2008 Mathematics Game. Here are the rules:

Use the digits in the year 2008 and the operations +, -, x, ÷, sqrt (square root), ^ (raise to a power), and ! (factorial) — along with parentheses, brackets, or other grouping symbols — to write expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100.

All four digits must be used in each expression.

Only the digits 2, 0, 0, 8 may be used.

Multi-digit numbers such as 20, 208, or .02 MAY be used this year.

The square function may NOT be used.

The integer function may NOT be used.

By definition:
$0! = 1$
[See Dr. Math’s Why does 0 factorial equal 1?]

For this game we will accept the value:
${0}^{0} = 1$
[See the Dr. Math FAQ 0 to the 0 power.]

Continue reading 2008 Mathematics Game

Puzzles for the New Year

Posted on January 3, 2008May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

As we all head back to school, here are some interesting calendar puzzles:

2008 is a leap year. Why do leap years happen? If we didn’t add a leap day every so often, would January eventually come in the summer?
Today is Thursday. What day of the week will it be exactly one year from today?
January 1, 2008, came on a Tuesday. When will be the next year that begins on Tuesday?
My birthday (in March) lands on a Monday this year. When is the next year my birthday will come on a Monday? How about YOUR birthday — when is the next time it will happen on the same day of the week as this year?
Can you find a pattern in the way dates move from one day of the week to another, year after year?

Continue reading Puzzles for the New Year

Leon’s Christmas Gift

Posted on December 24, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

Lo-shu turtle

Here is the simplest puzzle from the November/December 1998 issue of Alexandria Jones stories. The answer (and more puzzles) will follow.

Christmas gift for Leon (pdf, 68KB)

Edited to Add

More puzzles are now here:

Magic square puzzles

Answers are also posted:

Christmas puzzle answers

To Be Continued…

Read all the posts from the November/December 1998 issue of my Mathematical Adventures of Alexandria Jones newsletter.

Alexandria Jones and the Christmas Present Quandary

Christmas Math Puzzles and Activities

Posted on December 14, 2007May 21, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

christmas tree 04 ink — 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:

Holiday Math Puzzles and Activities for Christmas, Winter Break

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:

An Engineer Calculates Santa’s Trip
14 Days of Homeschooling and other Holiday Jokes
The math blog 360 posts some more advanced Christmas fun here and here.

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 December 10, 2007May 13, 2022 by Denise Gaskins

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.

Game: Hundred Chart Nim

Posted on November 12, 2007September 29, 2023 by Denise Gaskins

Photo by Håkan Dahlström via flickr.

Math concepts: addition and subtraction within 100, logical strategy
Number of players: 2 or 3
Equipment: printed hundred chart (also called a hundred board) and beans, pennies, or other tokens with which to mark numbers — or use this online hundred chart

Set Up

Place the hundred chart and a small pile of tokens where both players can reach them.

Continue reading Game: Hundred Chart Nim

Egyptian Math: The Answers

Posted on August 31, 2007February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Remember the Math Adventurer’s Rule: Figure it out for yourself! Whenever I give a problem in an Alexandria Jones story, I will try to post the answer soon afterward. But don’t peek! If I tell you the answer, you miss out on the fun of solving the puzzle. So if you haven’t worked these problems yet, go back to the original posts. Figure them out for yourself—and then check the answers just to prove that you got them right.

Continue reading Egyptian Math: The Answers

Writing to Learn Math

Posted on August 21, 2007September 9, 2023 by Denise Gaskins

2009 Challenge - Day 72: Pencil — Image by ☼zlady via Flickr

Have you considered experimenting with writing in your math class this year? It seems that math journals are a growing fad, and for good reason:

Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own.

—William Zinsser
Writing to Learn

Math journal entries can be as simple as class notes, or they can be research projects that take hours of experimentation and pondering. Students may use the journal to store their thoughts as they work several days to solve a challenge problem of the week, or they might jot down quick reflections about what they learned in today’s math class.

Continue reading Writing to Learn Math