A fun exploration for upper elementary or middle school students, from Numberphile:
Addition Games with Cuisenaire Rods
Education Unboxed has posted some playful addition games for young learners. And there’s much more on their website. Be sure to click around and explore!
Six is Having a Party! – Math Facts with Cuisenaire Rods
PUFM 1.3 Addition
Photo by Luis Argerich via flickr. In this Homeschooling Math with Profound Understanding (PUFM) Series, we are studying Elementary Mathematics for Teachers and applying its lessons to home education.
The basic idea of addition is that we are combining similar things. Once again, we meet the counting models from lesson 1.1: sets, measurement, and the numberline. As homeschooling parents, we need to keep our eyes open for a chance to use all of these models — to point them out in the “real world” or to weave them into oral story problems — so our children gain a well-rounded understanding of math.
Addition arises in the set model when we combine two sets, and in the measurement model when we combine objects and measure their total length, weight, etc.
One can also model addition as “steps on the number line”. In this number line model the two summands play different roles: the first specifies our starting point and the second specifies how many steps to take.
— Thomas H. Parker & Scott J. Baldridge
Elementary Mathematics for Teachers
Tell Me a (Math) Story
[Feature photo above by Keoni Cabral via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).]
My favorite playful math lessons rely on adult/child conversation — a proven method for increasing a child’s reasoning skills. What better way could there be to do math than snuggled up on a couch with your little one, or side by side at the sink while your middle-school student helps you wash the dishes, or passing the time on a car ride into town?
As soon as your little ones can count past five, start giving them simple, oral story problems to solve: “If you have a cookie and I give you two more cookies, how many cookies will you have then?”
The fastest way to a young child’s mind is through the taste buds. Children can easily visualize their favorite foods, so we use mainly edible stories at first. Then we expand our range, adding stories about other familiar things: toys, pets, trains.
Leap Years and the Number 29
Astronomer Dr Meghan Gray explains how messed up our calendar is. The mis-match between the length of a day and the time it takes the earth to travel around the sun makes a leap year necessary. From Numberphile.
Fibonacci Numbers and Plants
Have you ever wondered why so many plants grow in Fibonacci Numbers? Vi Hart offers a great explanation (with hands-on activities) in these three videos — and she introduces a new species called the slugcat, which my daughter thinks is adorable.
Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant [1 of 3]
Christmas Math from Vi Hart
You can find just the song here: http://vihart.com/music/gauss12days.mp3.
Carnival Reminder
Send in your submission for the Math Teachers at Play blog carnival by Wednesday night.
While you’re waiting for Friday’s carnival, check out the new Carnival of Mathematics.
Advent Math via Nrich.Maths.org
These advent calendars feature a new math puzzle or game for each day of December until Christmas. Many of the activities are designed to be done in a group, but they work fine for home school families who play with math together. Enjoy!
For Primary Students
For Secondary Students
What to Do with a Hundred Chart #27
[Photo by geishaboy500.]
It began with a humble list of 7 things to do with a hundred chart in one of my out-of-print books about teaching home school math. Over the years I added a few new ideas, and online friends contributed still more, so the list grew to its current length of 26. Recently, thanks to several fans at pinterest, it has become the most popular post on my blog:
Now I am working several hours a day revising my old math books, in preparation for publishing new, much-expanded editions. And as I typed in all the new things to do with a hundred chart, I thought of one more to add to the list:
(27) How many numbers are there from 11 to 25? Are you sure? What does it mean to count from one number to another? When you count, do you include the first number, or the last one, or both, or neither? Talk about inclusive and exclusive counting, and then make up counting puzzles for each other.
Share Your Ideas
Can you think of anything else we might do with a hundred chart? Add your ideas in the Comments section below, and I’ll add the best ones to our master list.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 