[Photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom.]
One of the things I meant to do with my elementary math class (the one that got canceled due to low enrollment):
And then we would play around with Tangram puzzles, and perhaps make up a few of our own.
April showers have ushered in May flowers — and a second Math Calendar, with daily puzzles from my homeschool co-op students. Get your copy here:
[Photo by Kuzeytac.]
Several people enjoyed the April calendar and asked if there would be a May version. Unfortunately, my homeschool co-op classes are out until next fall, so I don’t have enough kids to make up problems for me. But if your children would like to send in some puzzles, I will be glad to put another calendar together. If we get enough participation, we could have calendars every month for the rest of the year!
My high school class ended the year with a review of multiplying and factoring simple polynomials. We played this matching game, and then I gave them a puzzle worksheet. I liked this idea, but I didn’t like the decoded answer. In my opinion, puzzles should give the student a “reward” for solving them — maybe a joke or riddle or something — but that answer seemed almost like nagging.
So I changed things around to make my own version:
My homeschool co-op classes had a lot of fun creating this April calendar to hand out at our end-of-semester party on Friday. It’s not as easy to read as a traditional calendar — it is more like a puzzle. The expression in each square simplifies to that day’s date, so families can treat each day like a mini-review quiz: “Do you remember how to calculate this?”
Download your own copy:
If you’ve been wanting to start your own math club, you will find plenty of helpful ideas here:
Check out my May Math Calendar post for more ideas about how to use these puzzles.
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Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
“April Math Calendar” copyright © 2009 by Denise Gaskins.
[Graph created at Draw Function Graphs.]
Kate at f(t) took my popular Math War game to a new level by making a set of Logarithm War cards. Cool! Download a deck for yourself:
Logs and Trig War—Jim Pai extended Kate’s logarithm war to include trig functions. Double the cards, double the fun! Download from Jim’s blog: War: what is it good for?
[Photo by reubenaingber.]
If you collected stacks of $100 bills, could you fit a trillion dollars into your bedroom?
In your house?
In a warehouse?
If you spent a dollar a second, how long would it take to spend a trillion dollars?
[HT: Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds.]
[Photo by arsheffield.]
Check it out:
And coming soon: Pi Day.
Edited to add: Jonathan‘s class enjoyed extending the concept to include other products. Using the m/d/yy format (not the 4-digit year), how many times in your life has it been true that 
[Feature photo above by Tom@HK.]
One of my favorite warm-up exercises for Math Club is “Today is ______.” Each student invents one or more mathematical expressions for today’s date and writes his or her favorite on the board for all to admire. Answers range from lazy (24×1 — at least it’s an excuse to talk about identity elements) to unnecessarily repetitive (1+1+1+…), but we usually get a few gems as well.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 