Online Circle 4: combinations and Dienes shapes

January 4 2021, 9:00-9:30am. Nia (5), Dil (5) and Gye (5) I tried to do a fun activity at first, then we repeated the Dienes shapes one from the week before. Task 1: Socks in the dark Supplies: Blocks in three different colors and an opaque bag. What to do: I told the story that...

Online Circle 3: combinations and Dienes shapes

December 27 2020, 9:00-9:30am. Nia (5) and Gye (5) There were only two kids at the math club. With the holidays a lot of people were visiting with family. I also didn't send out an email reminder the day before because I don't like sending email, I don't like receiving email reminders, and I thought...

Online Circle 2: triangle and square numbers, a game with two dice

December 20, 2020, 9:00-9:30am. Nia (5), Bab (5), Gye (5), Dem (5) Last time, Dil was playing with the cubes and making towers of 1, 2, 3, 4, and putting them next to each other. It reminded me of something I read and I created the first activity. Task 1 Supplies: A few Mathlink or...

Online Circle 1: Monster parade and Snap it!

Sunday, December 13 2020, 9:00-9:30am. Nia (5), Bab (5), Dil (5), Gye (5), Dem (5) I recycled and extended a lot of the activities I did this summer with my kids for the math club. Task 1: Monster parade Supplies: a few drawing of monsters and animals, some with one foot (a snail or snake),...

Math kit

Nia asked to have a math club with some of the friends she missed because of online learning and covid-19. I created a math kit. The kit contains all the supplies for the next 4 to 6 math clubs and I gave each kid their own kit. Hopefully, they will play with it outside of...

Playground permutation

Count how many ways kids (and mom) can sit on rides. You can do it at home with chairs and stuffed animals. A few days ago, we were at a playground with three bouncing rides. I asked the kids how many different ways we could sit on the rides. "Do you mean backwards, sideways, upside...

Bean bag toss

A variation of the classic bean bag toss game that involves numbers. The kids love talking "strategy". Supplies: two bean bags per person, chalk and a sidewalk. What to do: - Get the kids to draw circles (or any other shape) with numbers in them. (Ideally, larger closer circles would have lower numbers but it...

A few serendipitous activities

We had a few math activities that came up more naturally this week. Symmetrical drawing Grab two pieces of chalk and put one in each hand. Draw a heart using both hands/arms at the same time (one hand is doing one side of the heart while the other hand does the other side at the...

Window Pixel Art

Design a picture and use sticky notes to put in on your window. Let your neighbors enjoy it too! Task Supplies: A stack of 3in x 3in sticky notes (I bought a pack of 4 different colored ones for $6.50 or so), Graph paper, color pencils, ruler. What to do: 1) Measure your window (ours...

Prime numbers.

We take 1 block, 2 blocks, 3 blocks, 4 blocks, ... all the way to 12 blocks, and see which number can be made into different flat rectangles. Task Supplies: 12 cubes or blocks of the same dimension What to do: Give your child a number of blocks (I like to go in order and...