New blog!
My breakdown of what you'll need to run a Family Math Night (for K-5).
If you're a teacher, math coach, PTA member or anyone who's taking on this project, I hope this helps!
Includes free downloads of my favorite math night activities 😀
I'm looking over mathematical openers in preparation for a talk, and WOW - if you don't use these, you're missing out.
Here are my 3 favorite websites for (free!) resources:
1)
Lots of images for my favorite talks, chats.
Plus opening games and more
I'm genuinely confused about this.
#PrimeClimb
, A MATH GAME, has somehow become the 15th most popular board game Amazon sells.
Am I crazy? Is this normal? Or is the needle moving?
Just found out my talk made the
@TEDTalks
main site! I have no idea when. And the name got changed!
Mixed feelings on that part, though presumably they know the audience better than I do. Still, exciting!
Challenge: prove that the blue path and the red path have equal lengths.
No spoilers, please!
Instead, share thoughts on useful hints to help students with this problem.
#hintchat
Huge thanks and hat tip to
@DavidKButlerUoA
for this problem!
#iteachmath
#mtbos
Let's take a moment to appreciate the power of manipulatives for visualization.
Imagine the hexagon is our unit. Then the first tower represents "3 and a half."
What do the others show? The same quantity, but with different names.
If timed online multiplication fact practice is stressing your kids out, you should check out the online visual flash cards we made with
@MathigonOrg
.
No time pressure.
Visual connections.
Tell your kid's teacher about it.
Work with kids & families who need more tools for numeracy, and can't afford them? I've just put together a printer-friendly
#TinyPolkaDot
starter deck you can print and give away. Get it for free, plus links to instructions in Spanish, French, Mandarin
Just got 100 K - 3 Puzzle Decks in the mail! They're beautiful!
(A joint project of Math for Love and Early Family Math.)
See the card puzzles here:
They're not physically available yet, but sign up to get info if/when we're able to make them!
1/2
If you're choosing curriculum for a summer program, I implore you to go with a play-based approach.
Students don't need to suffer to learn math.
In fact, when they're engaged and playing, they learn more, and more deeply.
(And yes, we've got one)
Super excited to announce the launch of a new video PD series on rich tasks and rich learning in your math classroom. In collaboration with
@MathsPathway
, and entirely free. Check it out at
Just got a note from a teacher who showed my TED video to her grade 8 class. Their response:
"This made me feel like I should take more risks in math"
"This makes me feel like I might be good at math"
"Math is more than we think"
"I am excited to start math again"
I know some of you have already been playing around with versions of
#PrimeClimb
for younger kids. So, I wrote up a potential version of the game for 6+. Who wants to play test it with their kids?
I’m always making the point that play is the engine of learning for young children.
Maybe we aren’t appreciating how powerful it is for the not-so-young
I was just thinking about this.
Math/art design challenge for kids: how should 51 stars be arranged (if DC became a state)?
How should 52 stars be arranged (if DC and PR became states)
"Learning happens when we are trying to do something we know how to begin and don’t know how to finish."
I just found this quote from some materials I prepared a few years ago. What do you think?
The number 12 has exactly 6 factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12.
Can you find a number with exactly 7 factors?
Please no spoilers! But if you have a hint that could put people on the right track, please reply!
#hintchat
Just got this feedback on
#PrimeClimb
!
"My students beg to play. I have to fight with them to put the game up and go to their next class. These are middle school kids, who are very “tech-savvy”, sitting down to play! Thank you for creating such an awesome and motivating game!!"
Just read this in the intro to our summer curriculum:
"Learning happens when we know how to begin and don’t know how to finish."
I don't remember writing that, but I have to say, I agree!
Maybe if we indicated that numbers go above and below it. We could put dots to show where the numerator and denominator go.
I mocked up a good replacement symbol, with a dot above and below the fraction bar to indicate where the numbers go...
Wait a second... 🧐
I have to say, props to
@pgliljedahl
and all the teachers who are taking the leap into rich math tasks after reading his book. I can’t remember the last book that has seen this level of impact on math classrooms (on Twitter, anyway 🙂)
MAGICAL!!! Students Doing Challenging Questions in Groups of Three on Vertical Surfaces in the Math Classroom. That's what has happened after I read
@pgliljedahl
's book Building
#Thinkingclassroom
in Mathematics Here is my blog post about it:
#MTBoS
#PrimeClimb
just won an Oppenheim
Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award (2020)!!
"Trust us, this is a lot more fun than flashcards and will reinforce those recall skills in an entertaining way."
A 3 by 6 rectangle has the property that its area and perimeter are the same number (though one is units and one is square units).
Find three other shapes that have this property.
No spoilers below please!
Instead, what might be a good hint?
#hintchat
#mtbos
#iteachmath
A friend just texted me this conjecture. I think it's a great one for students to try to prove/disprove!
One counterexample where 0 isn't possible would disprove it. But does it exist? Or is the claim sound?
Received a carton of Pattern Breakers, my first children's book! It's here!
This should be available through the website tomorrow! (Possibly US only at first, though I'll try to get it international as soon as I can!).
Can't wait to see it out in the world!
#iteachmath
#mtbos
Just uploaded a ton more
#TinyPolkaDot
instructional videos to the webpage below. I think these are really good both for learning the games, and for seeing the mathematics kids learn as they play.
Just received this work from the teacher of a student who spent her free time since March working out the
#primeclimb
images for the numbers from 101 to 200. Love this so much!
New blog post with huge mathematical news: aperiodic monotiles exist!
What it means, and why it should inspire us all to keep exploring math, and why math has space for all of us.
#iteachmath
#mtbos
#21CenturyPB
Want to run a family math night?
Here's my breakdown of how to do it, including:
-planning documents
-handouts
-activities & games
Also featuring links (at the bottom of the page) to
@EarlyFamilyMath
and
@theJRMF
, for more great resources.
#iteachmath
#mtbos
#mathnight
New blog!
My breakdown of what you'll need to run a Family Math Night (for K-5).
If you're a teacher, math coach, PTA member or anyone who's taking on this project, I hope this helps!
Includes free downloads of my favorite math night activities 😀
So remember last week when I was all: what's going on?!
#PrimeClimb
is
#15
on Amazon's best selling board game list?! How did this happen!?
This morning we're at number 6.
It's either amazing or I'm being pranked.
I'm just updating my short List of
#math
#games
and ideas for doing math at home. This was made specifically with Family Math Nights in mind.
Any thoughts? Would you be excited to pass this out at a Family Math Night at your school?
#iteachmath
#mtbos
Just posted a new lesson to our
#free
lesson library!
Balance Fractions!
Simple, easily differentiable, and fun! A great way to play with fraction, fraction arithmetic and also emphasize the centrality of equality.
#iteachmath
#mtbos
I'm putting together a video series for parents called Nurturing the Math Instinct. I just recorded the first video. I'd like feedback.
Would you show this to parents you know?
Could you use it at a parents' night event?
Does it need to be shorter?
A problem of
@jamestanton
that I found completely mindblowing when I saw it (years ago now!) was to describe the "squine" curve mathematically.
And there it is, in the middle image below. So... can you figure out how to write that function using standard math/trig functions?
Just received a great suggestion from teacher Jen U. to make our
#PrimeClimb
color chart available with no guidelines to tell you how many factors each number has. She also adapted it!
Now both versions are available at
#iteachmath
#mtbos
Here's a game: we roll two dice, and if one of our chosen numbers comes up, we win that many dollars. But if a number that isn't ours comes up, we have to pay that many dollars.
Would you rather play with the even numbers or the odd numbers? Or does it not matter?
Are there any online platforms that let you play math games that are:
1) multiplayer, with students inputting through different devices and
2) not speed oriented?
Okay
#mtbos
, I need your help. I want to make some videos for kids/families to help them work on some interesting problems to motivate skills practice at home.
I've made my first, on fraction subtraction, and posted it on my blog.
What do you think?
Some folks have asked for a sample of our new high school
#richtask
supplemental curriculum. So I posted the first 60 pages or so. Try it out and let me know what you think!
This is a project I’ve been working on with some very talented people for a long time, and it’s super exciting that it’s out. I’ll be writing more about it soon. But take a look now and see what it’s about!
My niece found this old abacus toy and decided to explore a math question of her own devising. It happens to be connected to a famous (and difficult problem).
Do you see what she’s doing?
(Hint: she couldn’t finish—there weren’t enough rows)
#mathplay
#iteachmath
#mtbos
@wtgowers
I suspect the intention is, “what could the five numbers be?”
Potentially an excellent question! And hopefully students will notice that there is more than one answer, and handle it as necessary.
A possible extension: what’s one more condition that would make the set unique?
Talked to a principal today. She mentioned a recently retired teacher who used to come to a lot of our PD.
Principal: "We survey the students every year about their favorite part of the day. Most students say recess. Her students? Math."
#makemaththebestpartoftheday
So, we're letting Amazon sell
#primeclimb
on our behalf now, and part of that means that they get to set the price however they'd like. Right now, they've dropped it to $18.96.
At this price, we're more popular than Taboo.
We've now got TWENTY videos on how-to-play
#TinyPolkaDot
games at the website . If you want to know more about playing these games at home or in school, check it out!
(For age 3 to 7 and up)
Students around the world have answered over 100 million multiplication questions as they use spaced repetition to develop fact fluency. Learn more about Multiplication by Heart, made in partnership with
@MathforLove
, at
If you're not familiar with Conjectures and Counterexamples, it's one of the most powerful ways to supercharge mathematical thinking in your classroom.
#mtbos
#iteachmath
@Paul_Gafni
Here’s a great riddle I just heard from a friend.
Two 3-digit numbers add up to a third 3-digit number. The digits of all three numbers are permutations of each other. What is the sum?
Almost convinced myself it was impossible. Then solved it!
#TinyPolkaDot
is an official Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award Winner (2020)!!
"Tiny Polka Dot is like bringing home an early childhood teacher with multiple ways of teaching early counting, number values, sequencing and more."