The Kickstarter is done, and today I’m kicking back and resting a bit. (And running into town for some errands, because life never stops.)
But even as I’m taking it easy around here, I know many of you are looking for ways to help your children learn to play with math.
So click the button below to go see all the games I’ve posted on my blog over the years. All free for your family’s use, and most of them don’t require anything more than a deck of cards or some paper and pencil.
The Substitution Game features low-floor, high-ceiling cooperative play that works with any age (or with a mixed-age group) — and you can use it while distance learning, too. It’s great for building algebraic thinking.
Excerpted from my new book, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School. Look for it at your favorite online bookstore.
The Substitution Game
Math Concepts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations, integers, fractions, equivalence and substitution.
Players: any number (a cooperative game).
Equipment: whiteboard and markers (preferred) or pencil and paper to share. Calculator optional.
One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to always be learning ourselves.
Here are a few stories to read with your morning coffee this week…
Sara VanDerWerf serves up a hearty feast in her post What is Math? What do Mathematicians do? And there’s a quick video, if you don’t have time for the full meal.
“We are all mathematicians. We all have the power to notice, describe, and generalize patterns. You have all had this ability since birth. If we believe this then every day we must plan lessons that allow students to act as mathematicians. We must put something in front of our students to notice. We must put something in front of our students to describe, to generalize.”
This afternoon, I’ve been working on the printable pdf math activity booklets I’ll be sending out as stretch goals to the backers of my Math You Can Play Kickstarter campaign.
Some of the booklets include dot grid pages for student journaling.
I love dot grid pages for writing because I can start a line anywhere on the page, and the dots help me keep things in line. (They’re also great for doodling.)
As students wrestle their thoughts into shape and create explanations, they do the same sort of work that mathematicians do every day. It’s difficult for children (or anyone) to pin down a thought and put it into words. But it’s great practice for life.
Journaling is a great practice for adult learners, too — and don’t we all want to be lifelong learners?
So I thought I’d share the journaling pages with you all, in case you’d like to get your children writing about math. There are three styles, ranging from plain to ornate parchment. Enjoy!
UPDATE: The Kickstarter deals have ended, but my playful math books are still available through your favorite online store or by special order at your local bookshop. (Except for the Prealgebra & Geometry Games book, scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my email list to get the latest news.)
Make a conjecture. A conjecture is a statement that you think might be true.
For example, you might make a conjecture that “All odd numbers are…” How would you finish that sentence?
Make another conjecture. And another. Does thinking about your conjectures make you wonder about math?
Can you think of any way to test your conjectures, to discover if they will always be true?
This is how mathematics works. Mathematicians notice something interesting about certain numbers, shapes, or ideas. They play around and explore how those relate to other ideas. After collecting a set of interesting things, they think about ways to organize them. They wonder about patterns and connections. They make conjectures and try to imagine ways to test them.
And mathematicians talk with one another and compare their ideas. In real life, math is a very social game.
—Denise Gaskins
Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School
Excerpted from my new book, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School. Look for it at your favorite online bookstore.
Running out of time on my Math You Can Play Kickstarter, so I better get to work on that Kickstarter Special Edition math-art book I promised to all the backers as a bonus reward.
Today I’m working on the Isometric Drawing and Impossible Figures section, because my co-op math classes had so much fun learning how to draw those.
Here’s a starter image on how to draw Minecraft blocks. At first I called them “isometric blocks” — but changing the name to “Minecraft” made the students really excited to learn. I’m not sure whether I like the pencil sketch, or if I should remake the illustrations on the computer…
Key steps:
Make a Y.
Turn it into an M.
Slant down for the bottom.
Slant up for the top.
Student drawings from my co-op classes.
The most common problem for beginners is that they try to make the base straight. They know a block can sit on a table, so the bottom has to be flat, right? But once students get a feel for how it goes, they can really take off and have fun.
UPDATE: The Kickstarter deals have ended, but my playful math books are still available through your favorite online store or by special order at your local bookshop. (Except for the Prealgebra & Geometry Games book, scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my email list to get the latest news.)
One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to always be learning ourselves.
Here are a few stories to read with your morning coffee this week:
Pam Harris explains how to use Strategies vs. Models in helping students clarify their thinking.
“A strategy is how you mess with the numbers, how you use relationships and connections between numbers to solve a problem. A model is a representation of your strategy, the way the strategy looks visibly. Modeling your strategy makes your thinking more clear to others because they can see the thinking and the relationships that went into your process.”
Do you have preschool or elementary students? Michael Minas has a great collection of games on his blog. Easy to learn and full of mathematical thinking.
“Doing mathematics like this deprives students of, well, let’s be honest, mathematics itself. We need to get to the answer faster. We need to move on. No time to stumble around rabbit holes. There is a curriculum to cover.”
When we give students a rule, we give them permission not to think. All they need to do is remember our instructions.
But it is only by thinking — by struggling their way through mental difficulties — that our students can build a foundation of mathematical knowledge strong enough to support future learning.
Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School, scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates.
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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.
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The Kickstarter is done, and today I’m kicking back and resting a bit. (And running into town for some errands, because life never stops.)
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 
