Would you like to create your own math holiday? Look here for tips and sign-maker links:
Leave a link to your Happy Math Day post in the comments below, so we can all celebrate!
Moebius Noodles: New Must-Read Math Book
Homeschoolers, after-schoolers, unschoolers, or anyone else: if you’re a parent with kids at home, you need this book. If you work with children in any way (grandparent, aunt/uncle, teacher, child care, baby sitter, etc.) you need this book. Or if you hated math in school and never understood how anyone could enjoy it, you need this book!
Moebius Noodles is a travel guide to the Math Universe for adventurous families (and it has lots of beautiful pictures, too!) featuring games and activities that draw out the rich, mathematical properties of everyday objects in ways accessible to parents and children:
- A snowflake is an example of a fractal and an invitation to explore symmetry.
- Cookies offer combinatorics and calculus games.
- Paint chips come in beautiful gradients, and floor tiles form tessellations.
Every Day Is Mathematics Day
Happy Square of a Square Day
In Response To
- David Coffey’s What’s the point?
Make your own “Happy Math Day” sign:
Here’s a fun activity for any age that will encourage your children to play with numbers:
Math Teachers at Play #58: Crazy, Funny Math
[Feature photo (above) by Alex Kehr. Photo (right) by kirstyhall via flickr.]
Welcome to the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival — a smorgasbord of ideas for learning, teaching, and playing around with math from preschool to pre-college. If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.
Let the mathematical fun begin…
PUZZLE 1
By tradition, we start the carnival with a pair of puzzles in honor of our 58th edition. Click to download the pdf:
Continue reading Math Teachers at Play #58: Crazy, Funny Math
Vi Hart: Snowflakes, Starflakes, and Swirlflakes
Vi Hart is back with some wintery fun!
A Mathematical Advent Calendar
It’s always a challenge to keep up with homeschooling during the holiday season, but here’s a wonderful way to weave mathematics into your daily schedule: The Nrich Advent Calendars offer a fun math game or activity for every day in December until Christmas Eve. Click the image to visit the calendar that fits your student’s level.
Advent Calendar 2012 – Primary
Advent Calendar 2012 – Secondary
Welcome, TIME Readers!
[Photo by Luis Argerich via flickr.]
If you’ve come here from Bonnie Rochman’s article, Bedtime Math: A Problem a Day Keeps Fear of Arithmetic Away, thank you for dropping in! I have nearly 800 published posts about learning and teaching math, which can seem pretty overwhelming.
Here are a few good places to start:
- Tell Me a (Math) Story
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?
- Homeschooling with Math Anxiety Series
Our childhood struggles with schoolwork gave most of us a warped view of mathematics. Yet even parents who suffer from math anxiety can learn to enjoy math with their children.
- 20 Best Math Games and Puzzles
Arithmetic games for elementary and middle school students, and geometric puzzles for middle and high school.
- How to Conquer the Times Table
Challenge your student to a joint experiment in mental math. Over the next two months, without flashcards or memory drill, how many math facts can the two of you learn together? We will use the world’s oldest interactive game — conversation — to explore multiplication patterns while memorizing as little as possible.
I hope you enjoy your visit to my blog.
HexaFlexaParty This Weekend!
Sunday, October 21, is the worldwide hexaflexagon party in honor of Martin Gardner’s birthday. Gardner’s article about hexaflexagons launched his career as a recreational math guru who inspired people all around the world to love math.
Here’s how to join in the fun:
Hexaflexagon History
Math Teachers at Play #52
[Photo by bumeister1 via flickr.]
Welcome to the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival — which is not just for math teachers! We have games, lessons, and learning activities from preschool math to calculus. If you like to learn new things and play around with mathematical ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.
Scattered between all the math blog links, I’ve included highlights from the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, which describe the types of expertise that teachers at all levels — whether in traditional, experimental, or home schools — should seek to develop in their math students.
Let the mathematical fun begin…
TRY THESE PUZZLES
By tradition, we start the carnival with a couple of puzzles in honor of our 52nd edition. Since there are 52 playing cards in a standard deck, I chose two card puzzles from the Maths Is Fun Card Puzzles page:
- A blind-folded man is handed a deck of 52 cards and told that exactly 10 of these cards are facing up. How can he divide the cards into two piles (which may be of different sizes) with each pile having the same number of cards facing up?
- What is the smallest number of cards you must take from a 52-card deck to be guaranteed at least one four-of-a-kind?
The answers are at Maths Is Fun, but don’t look there. Having someone give you the answer is no fun at all!
