Playful Math Education 162: The Math Games Carnival

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 162nd edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.

Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing.

There’s so much playful math to enjoy!

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle/activity in honor of our 162nd edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.

Try This Puzzle/Activity

The number 162 is a palindromic product:

162 = 3 x 3 x 2 x 3 x 3
and 162 = 9 x 2 x 9

  • How would you define palindromic products?
  • What other numbers can you find that are palindromic products?
  • What do you notice about palindromic products?
  • What questions can you ask?

Make a conjecture about palindromic products. (A conjecture is a statement you think might be true.)

Make another conjecture. How many can you make? Can you think of a way to investigate whether your conjectures are true or false?

Click here for all the mathy goodness!

Playful Math Carnival #161 via Nature Study Australia

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

If you’re into math education — or just curious about how learning math could possibly be fun — you’ll definitely want to check out the latest edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival. It’s a collection of awesome blog posts curated by Johanna Buijs and published on the Nature Study Australia website:

The whole point of the carnival is to show that math doesn’t have to be tedious or repetitive. Through a bunch of fun and engaging posts, we celebrate math that’s playful, creative, and totally relevant to everyday life. Because what could be more relevant that having fun while we learn?

In this edition, you’ll find everything from creative math art and music to incorporating nature and the outdoors into your lessons — and even a few racing turtles!

So if you want to mix up your math teaching and make it more enjoyable for your students (and for you!), definitely check out the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival. Happy reading!

Go Visit the Carnival

Wanted: Hosts for 2023

The Playful Math Blog Carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up.

Check the details on the carnival’s home page, and then leave a comment here or email me directly to let me know which month fits your schedule.

Playful Math Carnival Instructions

The Colors-of-Fall Carnival: Playful Math #160

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 160th edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.

Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing.

There’s so much playful math to enjoy!

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle/activity in honor of our 160th edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.

Try This Puzzle/Activity

Appropriately for an October carnival, 160 is an evil number.

A number is evil if it has an even number of ones in binary form. Can you find the binary version of 160? (Hint: Exploding Dots.)

160 is also a polyiamond number. If you connect 9 equilateral triangles side-to-side, a complete set of 9-iamond shapes would have 160 pieces.

But sets that large can be overwhelming. Try playing with smaller sets of polyiamonds. Download some triangle-dot graph paper and see how many different polyiamond shapes you can make.

What do you notice? Does it make you wonder?

What designs can you create with your polyiamonds?


Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

Click here for all the mathy goodness!

Don’t Miss Playful Math Carnivals #158 and #159!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Here is SOOOOO MUCH GREAT MATH!

Each monthly carnival brings you a new collection of ideas for playing math from preschool to high school. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

Explore with your kids or on your own:

Alexa Kapor-Mater put together an awesome carnival, with fun facts, activity ideas, puzzles, videos, problem-solving tips, and interesting stuff you should know. Wow!

John Golden found a delightful assortment of playful tidbits from around the internet, fun songs, games, activities, puzzles, math art, and the #Mathober challenge prompts. Love it!

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up.

Check the details on the carnival’s home page, and then leave a comment here on the blog or email me directly to let me know when you want to host.

Playful Math Carnival Instructions

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Count Chris on Unsplash.com.

Playful Math 157 via Math Mama Writes

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Would you like some great ideas for reading and playing math with your kids?

Sue VanHattum put together a delightful collection of books, geometric constructions, activities, and inspiration in the latest Playful Math Carnival:

What are you waiting for? Come join the fun!

Click Here to Read the Carnival Blog

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

Each monthly Playful Math Carnival brings you a great new collection of puzzles, math conversations, teaching tips, and all sorts of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

The carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Iva Sallay.

Don’t Miss Playful Math Carnivals #155 and #156!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Here is SOOOOO MUCH GREAT MATH!

Each monthly carnival brings you a new collection of ideas for playing math from preschool to high school. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

Explore with your kids or on your own:

John Golden put together an awesome carnival, featuring puzzles, games, slow-reveal graphs, geometry, algebra, math art, puzzles, videos, mobius strips with zippers, and lots more fun. Wow!

Johanna Buijs found a delightful assortment of math tidbits from around the world, inspirational quotations, games, activities, videos, books to check out, and all sorts of mathy fun. Love it!

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

The carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash.com.

Playful Math Carnival #154: The Math Journaling Edition

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 154th edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.

Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing.

There’s so much playful math to enjoy!

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle/activity in honor of our 154th edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.

Try This Puzzle/Activity

Since 154 is a nonagonal number, I think you might enjoy visiting some of my old “Adventures of Alexandria Jones” posts about figurate numbers:

And then try this math journaling prompt: Build or draw your own nonagonal numbers — numbers built from 9-sided polygons.

How many nonagonal numbers can you find? What do you notice? Does it make you wonder?

Click here for all the mathy goodness!

Playful Math Carnival 153 via Find the Factors

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Would you like some great ideas for playing math with your kids?

Iva Sallay put together a delightful collection of games, activities, and inspiration in the latest Playful Math Carnival:

You’ll find a fantastic collection of maker math, games, puzzles, activities, inspiration, and other mathematical delights.

What are you waiting for? Come join the fun!

Click Here to Read the Carnival Blog

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

Each monthly Playful Math Carnival brings you a great new collection of puzzles, math conversations, teaching tips, and all sorts of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

The carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Iva Sallay.

Playful Math #152: Auld Lang Syne Edition

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Welcome to the 152nd edition of the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival — a smorgasbord of delectable tidbits of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to high school.

Bookmark this post, so you can take your time browsing. There’s so much playful math to enjoy!

We didn’t have a volunteer host for January, so I’m squeezing this in between other commitments. This is my third no-host-emergency carnival in the last year, which is NOT sustainable. If you’d like to help keep the Playful Math Carnival alive, we desperately need hosts for 2022!

By tradition, we start the carnival with a puzzle or activity in honor of our 152nd edition. But if you’d rather jump straight to our featured blog posts, click here to see the Table of Contents.

Math Journaling with Prime Numbers

Cool facts about 152: The eighth prime number is 19, and 8 × 19 = 152. When you square 152, you get a number that contains all the digits from 0–4. You can make 152 as the sum of eight consecutive even numbers, or as the sum of four consecutive prime numbers.

But 152 has two real claims to fame:

  • It’s the smallest number that is the sum of the cubes of two distinct odd primes.
  • And it’s the largest known even number you can write as the sum of two primes in exactly four ways.

So here’s your math investigation prompt:

  • Play around with prime numbers. Explore their powers, their sums, and anything else about them you like.
  • What do you notice? What do you wonder?
  • What’s the most interesting number relationship you can find?

Continue reading Playful Math #152: Auld Lang Syne Edition

Playful Math Carnival 151 via Math Hombre

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Would you like some great ideas to launch a new year of playful math?

John Golden put together a delightful collection of games, activities, and inspiration in the latest Playful Math Carnival:

You’ll find a fantastic collection of maker math, games, puzzles, activities, inspiration, and other mathematical delights.

What are you waiting for? Come join the fun!

Click Here to Read the Carnival Blog

Help Us Keep the Carnival Going

The Playful Math Blog Carnival wants you!

Each monthly Playful Math Carnival brings you a great new collection of puzzles, math conversations, teaching tips, and all sorts of mathy fun. It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures, helpful and inspiring no matter when you read them.

The carnival is a joint effort. We depend on our volunteer hosts to collect blog posts and write the carnival each month.

Putting together a blog carnival can be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity to share the work of bloggers you admire and to discover new math-friends online. I love that part of being a host!

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash.com.