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:
Kids’ Project: More Math Calendars?
[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!
Math Teachers at Play #5
[Photo by Alex Kehr.]
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. Let the mathematical fun begin…
April Math Calendar
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:
Update
Check out my May Math Calendar post for more ideas about how to use these puzzles.
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“April Math Calendar” copyright © 2009 by Denise Gaskins.
Real-Life Story Problem
Math Teachers at Play #2
[Photo by Sister72.]
Welcome to the second Math Teachers At Play blog carnival! Some articles were submitted by their authors, other were drawn from the back-log in my blog reader, and I’ve spiced it all up with a few of my favorite quotations.
Let the mathematical fun begin…
Happy Square Root Day!
[Photo by arsheffield.]
Check it out:
- Celebrating Square Root Day
- Have a rootin’ tootin’ Square Root Day
- Prime, Composite, and Square Numbers activity
- Free, printable Square Roots Worksheets
- About the Pythagorean Theorem
- Pythagorean Puzzle — a lesson plan prototype
- 81 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem
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 
Math Warm-Up: Today Is February 4×3×2×1
[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.
Math Teachers at Play #1
[Photo by StuSeeger.]
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Math Teachers At Play blog carnival! I hope you enjoy this collection of tips, tidbits, games, and activities for students and teachers of preschool-12th grade mathematics.
For this first carnival, I’ve drawn several recent posts from my blog reader as examples of the types of posts I’d love to include in future editions of Math Teachers at Play. I tried to find something for everyone, from multiplication drill for elementary students to advice for understanding high school math equations.
Let the mathematical fun begin…
2009 Mathematics Game
[Photo by Amanda M Hatfield.]
Have you made a resolution to exercise your mental muscles this year? Then please join us for the 2009 Mathematics Game. Here are the rules:
Use the digits in the year 2009 and the operations +, -, x, ÷, sqrt (square root), ^ (raise to a power), and ! (factorial) — along with parentheses, brackets, or other grouping symbols — to write expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100.
- All four digits must be used in each expression.
- Only the digits 2, 0, 0, 9 may be used.
- The decimal point may be used, as in .9, .02, etc.
- Multi-digit numbers such as 29 or 902 may be used, but preference is given to solutions that avoid them.
By definition: 
[See Dr. Math’s Why does 0 factorial equal 1?]
For this game we will accept: 
[See the Dr. Math FAQ 0 to the 0 power.]
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 