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),...

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...

Caesar cipher. Part 2.

More coded messages. Bel asked me for more codes, so I grabbed some facts for kids and encoded them online. If you want your child to learn more about Caesar cipher, we did an activity about it. coded-facts1-1Download If your child is having trouble decoding, you can help by asking him/her if he/she knows any...

Mixing sidewalk paint.

Mix water, food coloring, and flour to make sidewalk paint. I was inspired by my kids' "color equations" and a recipe for sidewalk chalk paint. Why not get them to actually mix color? Task Supplies: - Food coloring (red, yellow, blue), - a tablespoon, - water, - cornstarch (or flour), - 6 small bowls (~4...

Domino tiling.

What can you cover with dominoes? Task Supplies: a coin, dominoes, a chessboard, and masking tape. If you don't have dominoes, cut out rectangles that would cover two squares of the chessboard. Preparation: use the masking tape to select a smaller part of the chessboard. Start with putting tape around 3x3 square. What to do:...