I’ve written before about supplementing your children’s experience of math by playing games and reading good books.
But as I’m working on my new book, I wanted to add another valuable supplement that we often overlook. So here’s a preview excerpt from Charlotte Mason’s Living Math…
I’ve been updating my old book files to a new publishing program, and in the process discovering anew how often websites change and disappear. So frustrating!
Thankfully, the Internet Archive keeps some things that we can look back at. It doesn’t always work, but today it came to the rescue and let me recover the wonderful workbook from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Islamic Art And Geometric Design, plus some of the pattern pages at the old School of Islamic Geometric Design.
I reference these pages in my Geometric Coloring Designs series (available at my Playful Math Store), so I was glad to find they weren’t lost forever.
Math Art = a great way to spark energy when your students hit the mathematical doldrums.
When children create their own math, they build a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and relationships.
And it’s fun!
So take a break from your normal math program to play with creative math. Students can:
And when students create something they’re proud of, let them share it with the world. Visit the Student Math Makers Gallery at tabletopacademy.net/math-makers to share your children’s math creations.
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Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.
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“New! Your Student Can Be a Math Maker” copyright © 2021 by Denise Gaskins. “Creating Math Puzzles by Sian Zelbo, the author of
Camp Logic, via NaturalMath.com.
I love this easy-but-beautiful math art project!
1. Print a page of dotty or lined graph paper for each student. You’ll also need a ruler and a large assortment of markers or colored pencils.
2. Students draw a line across the page, lining up their ruler with the grid points. The first line can be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.
3. Keep drawing lines, but NEVER cross a line you’ve already drawn. Following the grid will create many lines parallel or perpendicular to each other. What angles can you identify?
4. Color as desired. For a stained-glass effect, outline the colored areas with a black Sharpie marker.
Look for more math art ideas in my new book Geometric Coloring Designs 2: Create Your Own Art.
CREDITS: I saw this project at Cindy’s Love2Learn2Day blog. She got the idea from Zachary‘s MathActivities site.
The best way to practice math is to play with it — to use the patterns and connections between math concepts in your pursuit of something fun or beautiful.
So this art project is a great way to practice multiplication. Use the prime factors of numbers from one to one hundred to create a colorful design.
First, download this printable file of hundred charts in non-photo blue (or light gray, if you’re printing in grayscale). The file includes:
What do you see?
Does it make you wonder?
How is perspective art similar to the isometric drawing in yesterday’s post? How is it different?
You may also enjoy:
CREDITS: William Hogarth – “The importance of knowing perspective” (Absurd perspectives), Engraving on paper. From Wikimedia Commons.
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:
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.)
For children, learning always begins with play. This is how they wrap their minds around new ideas and make them their own.
“There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in the mind. So avoid compulsion, and let your children’s lessons take the form of play.”
—Plato, The Republic
If we want our children to enjoy learning math, our first job is to establish an attitude of playfulness.
This is especially important for anyone working with a discouraged child or a child who is afraid of math. The best way to help a discouraged child is to put away the workbook. Try something different, fun, and challenging.
