Happy Math Storytelling Day

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Feature photo (above) by L. Marie. Math comic by davidd. Both via flickr (CC BY 2.0).
Math-ter and Commander

Hooray for September 25th — it’s Math Storytelling Day!

Celebrate Math Storytelling Day by making up and sharing math stories. Everyone loves a story, so this is a great way to motivate your children to play around with math. What might a math story involve? Patterns, logic, history, puzzles, relationships, fictional characters, … and yes, even numbers.

For inspiration, visit:

Have you and your children created any math stories? We’d love to hear! Please share your links in the comments section below.

Continue reading Happy Math Storytelling Day

Talking Math with Your Kids

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Danielson-Talking Math

Christopher Danielson, one of my favorite math bloggers, has a new book out that is perfect for parents of preschool and elementary-age children:

It’s a short book with plenty of great stories, advice, and conversation-starters. While Danielson writes directly to parents, the book will also interest grandparents, aunts & uncles, teachers, and anyone else who wants to help children notice and think about math in daily life.

“You don’t need special skills to do this. If you can read with your kids, then you can talk math with them. You can support and encourage their developing mathematical minds.
 
“You don’t need to love math. You don’t need to have been particularly successful in school mathematics. You just need to notice when your children are being curious about math, and you need some ideas for turning that curiosity into a conversation.
 
“In nearly all circumstances, our conversations grow organically out of our everyday activity. We have not scheduled “talking math time” in our household. Instead, we talk about these things when it seems natural to do so, when the things we are doing (reading books, making lunch, riding in the car, etc) bump up against important mathematical ideas.
 
“The dialogues in this book are intended to open your eyes to these opportunities in your own family’s life.”

— Christopher Danielson
Talking Math with Your Kids

 
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This blog is reader-supported.

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.

If you liked this post, and want to show your one-time appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal: paypal.me/DeniseGaskinsMath. If you go that route, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.

Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!

“Talking Math with Your Kids” copyright © 2013 by Denise Gaskins.

Math Teachers at Play #66

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Feature photo above by Franz & P via flickr. Route 66 sign by Sam Howzit via flickr. (CC BY 2.0)]
Route 66 Sign

Welcome to the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival — which is not just for math teachers! If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.

By tradition, we start the carnival with a couple of puzzles in honor of our 66th edition.

Let the mathematical fun begin!

Puzzle 1

how crazy 66

Our first puzzle is based on one of my favorite playsheets from the Miquon Math workbook series. Fill each shape with an expression that equals the target number. Can you make some cool, creative math?

Click the image to download the pdf playsheet set: one page has the target number 66, and a second page is blank so you can set your own target number.

Continue reading Math Teachers at Play #66

Sample Chapter from Let’s Play Math Book

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

As I’ve been working on the layout for the paperback edition of Let’s Play Math: How Homeschooling Families Can Learn Math Together, and Enjoy It!, I thought, “Why not post an excerpt?” So here is the introduction and first chapter, free to download:

This excerpt isn’t exactly how the paperback will look, because it’s based on the current ebook edition. For the paperback, I’ll be adding plenty of new illustrations — not quite a picture on every page, but close. (Yes, that’s one reason it’s taking soooo long to finish!)

For Example …

Here is one of the new illustrations, along with its caption:

Fractals are self-similar, which means that subsections of the object look like smaller versions of the whole thing. Your children may enjoy making a Sierpinski triangle with tortilla chips.

Sierpinski-tortillas

Want To Buy the Book?

Let’s Play Math should be available wherever you usually buy books.

WOW – Multiplication! An Open Online Course for Parents and Teachers

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

CombinationsModel

Once again, the authors of Moebius Noodles are teaming up to offer a free course for families, math clubs, playgroups, and others who want to explore adventurous mathematics with kids of any age.

This short course will last only two weeks, and the topic is multiplication:

Both of my homeschool math circles (one with preschool-1st grade, and one with teens) thoroughly enjoyed the month-long problem solving course this summer, and we expect the new one to be just as much fun. Will you join us?

As with most of the Moebius Noodles courses, Maria and Yelena have adapted the activities for all ages from toddlers to adults. Where young ones go on a scavenger hunt for pretty snowflakes and cool truck wheels, older kids build bridges from multiplication to symmetry, spatial transformations, and proportions.

Visit the registration page to sign up no later than September 8. The main course activities will happen September 9th through 22nd. Expect to spend about two hours a week.

Continue reading WOW – Multiplication! An Open Online Course for Parents and Teachers

Back to School Sale

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Princess Kitten, way back in the beginning.
Princess Kitten, way back in the beginning.

Our homeschool runs a bit off-schedule from the rest of the U.S. school system, as we are still finishing up last year’s work. Even so, we’re calling this month the “beginning” of Kitten’s high school years, which seems to me like something to celebrate.

Therefore, I’m launching a one-week sale on my math book:

Please feel free to share the coupon code with your friends.

Update: I’ve just opened up a Ganxy showcase with the sale price, for anyone who would prefer to buy the ebook (in pdf, mobi, and epub) directly from me:

Continue reading Back to School Sale

Puzzle: Algebra on Rectangles

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Gordon Hamilton of Math Pickle recently posted these videos on how to make algebra 1 puzzles on rectangles. As I was watching, Kitten came in and looked over my shoulder. She said, “Those look like fun!”

They look like fun to me, too, and I bet your beginning algebra students will enjoy them:

Continue reading Puzzle: Algebra on Rectangles

Math Teachers at Play #65 via Mathematics and Multimedia

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

photo by Martin Pettitt via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The new Math Teachers at Play blog carnival is up for your browsing pleasure. Featured articles include activities and enrichment from preschool through high school:

Welcome to the 65th edition of Math Teachers at Play. First let us have some trivia about 65.

  • First, 65 is the smallest integer that can be expressed as the sum of two distinct positive squares in two ways:
    65 = 82 + 12
    = 72 + 42.
  • Second, 65 is the length of the hypotenuse of 4 different Pythagorean Triangles:
    652 = 162 + 632
    = 332 + 562
    = 392 + 522
    = 252 + 602.
  • Third, 65 = 15 + 24 + 33 + 42 + 51.
  • Lastly, 65 is the traditional age for retirement in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries including my beloved Philippines.

And now, let the math carnival begin! …

Click here to go read Math Teachers at Play 65: Teach, Learn and Enjoy.