New Printable Puzzle Books: Diffy Inception

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The best way to practice math is to play with it—to use the patterns and connections between math concepts in your pursuit of something fun or beautiful.

Diffy Inception puzzles have their own symmetric beauty, but mostly they are just plain fun. Students can practice subtraction and look for patterns in the difference layers.

I just published four new activity books to our online store:

Notes to the teacher include puzzle instructions, game variations, journaling prompts, and more. Plus answers for all puzzles.

Available with 8 1/2 by 11 (letter size) or A4 pages.

Click for a Preview

My publishing company runs this online store, so you can find all my playful math books there — including an exclusive pre-publication ebook edition of my newest title, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School. Click here to browse the Tabletop Academy Press store.

Exciting New Homeschool Math Program

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Homeschooling friends, check out this new homeschool math program that’s fun, rigorous, and engaging — a delightful, hands-on course that helps parents (and their children) understand math.

Introduction to Cuisenaire Rod Structures Course

I had the privilege of previewing this class as Sonya and Lacy put it together. I highly recommend it to anyone who struggles with math, or who wants to take a non-traditional approach.

By focusing on making sense of number relationships, and by teaching algebra before arithmetic, this course provides a stress-free path to rich mathematical mastery.

And for all they provide, including weekly live workshops and a slew of printable math journal pages that prompt deep thinking, the price is a steal!

Continue reading Exciting New Homeschool Math Program

More Dover Samples

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

“Without mathematics you can’t do anything! Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.”

—Anna Claybourne, I Can Be a Math Magician


Dover Publications sent out a new email today with fun coloring and craft samples. And several puzzles from I Can Be a Math Magician: Fun STEM Activities for Kids by Anna Claybourne.

Enjoy!

If you’d like to receive future Dover Sampler emails, you can sign up here.

THE FINE PRINT: I am an Amazon affiliate. If you follow the book link above and buy something, I’ll earn a small commission (at no cost to you).

Free Number Sense Resources from Steve Wyborney

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

If you teach children in the primary grades, you’ll enjoy this new series from the wonderful Steve Wyborney. Every day for the rest of the school year, Steve will post a new estimation or number sense resource for grades K–8 (or any age!) at his blog:

“This is my way of providing support and encouragement – as well as bringing math joy to your classroom… I’m going to stick with you all year long.”

—Steve Wyborney

Click to visit Steve’s blog

FAQ: I’ve Ruined My Daughter

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

My daughter is only eleven, but I’m afraid I’ve ruined her chance of getting into college because she is so far behind in math. We’ve tried tutors, but she still has trouble, and standardized testing puts her three years below grade level. She was a late reader, too, so maybe school just isn’t her thing. What else can I do?

Standardized tests are not placement tests. They cannot tell you at what level your daughter should be studying. They aren’t designed that way. The “placement” they give is vague and general, not indicative of her grade level but rather a way of comparing her performance on that particular test with the performance of other students.

There can be many different reasons for a low score. I’ve listed a few of them in my post In Honor of the Standardized Testing Season.

Continue reading FAQ: I’ve Ruined My Daughter

Playing Math with Michael and Nash

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Michael and Nash have been creating and posting new math games with astonishing regularity throughout the pandemic. Their YouTube channel is a great resource for parents who want to play math with elementary-age children.

Today’s entry: Closest to Ten, a quick game for addition and subtraction fluency with a tiny bit of multiplication potential.

And here’s one of my favorites for older players: Factor Triangles, a card game for 2-digit multiplication.

Check out their channel, and have fun playing math with your kids!

Visit Michael and Nash on YouTube

Kenken is Mathematical Play

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

It’s back-to-school time here in the States. And that means it’s time for the Kenken Classroom Newsletter. Yay for math puzzles!

KenKen arithmetic puzzles build mental math skills, logical reasoning, persistence, and mathematical confidence.

Free via email every Friday during the school year.

What a great way to prepare your children for success in math!

Sign up anytime:

Click Here for KenKen Classroom Newsletter

Continue reading Kenken is Mathematical Play

A New Take on Multiplication Flash Cards

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Dan Finkel, creator of the Tiny Polka Dot and Prime Climb games, is running a new Kickstarter campaign.

If your children struggle with multiplication math facts, or if you’re planning to teach the times tables next year, you may want to check it out.

And do it today — Kickstarter campaigns are limited-time deals!

Continue reading A New Take on Multiplication Flash Cards

A Puzzle for Palindromes

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

If you haven’t seen the meme going around, this is a palindrome week because the dates (written American style and with the year shortened to ’19) are the same when reversed.

Here’s a math puzzle for palindrome week — or any time you want to play with math:

  • Print a 100 chart.
  • Choose a color code.
  • Play!

What do you think: Will all numbers eventually turn into palindromes?

Links

You can find all sorts of hundred charts on my Free Math Printable Files page.

Read about the history of palindromes on Nrich Math’s Palindromes page.

Find out more about the Palindromic Number Conjecture in Mark Chubb’s article An Unsolved Problem your Students Should Attempt.

Or play with Manan Shah’s advanced palindromic number questions.

Get Your Weekly KenKen Puzzles for Kids

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

KenKen6x6

KenKen arithmetic puzzles build mental math skills, logical reasoning, persistence, and mathematical confidence.

Free via email every Friday during the school year.

What a great way to prepare your children for success in math!

Sign up anytime:

Click Here for KenKen Classroom Newsletter

How to Play

For easy printing, right-click to open the image above in a new tab.

Place the numbers from 1 to 6 into each row and column. None of the numbers may repeat in any row or column. Within the black “cages,” the numbers must add, subtract, multiply, or divide to give the answer shown.