11/12 - Geometric Shapes

For this class time we learned about geometric shapes.  We looked at lots of different shapes and found how many faces (flat surfaces), edges, and vertices (where edges come together in a point) there are for the each shape.  We also looked at the net of many shapes.  The net of a shape is like a pattern of how to make a shape.  The kids each got to cut out and put together the net of a cube.

10/8 - Place Value

We read the book "Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens."  Sir Cumference and his wife have a hard time counting all of the king's party guests until they group themselves in tens, then hundreds, then thousands.  The king has 9,999 guests.

After reading the book and discussing place value for a few minutes, the kids got in teams and played a board game about place value. 

11/5 - Tangrams

We read two books about tangrams this week.  First was "Grandfather Tang's Story" by Ann Tompert.  Then we played with tangrams for a while.  Tangrams are an ancient Chinese puzzle consisiting of 7 pieces: 5 triangles, 1 parallelogram, and 1 square.  The kids tried to make the animal shapes from the book as well as some shapes on worksheets I provided, then they worked on creating things from their imaginations (they did an awesome job).  At the end of class, we read "The Warlord's Puzzle" by Virginia Walton Pilegard.  One of the puzzles we had been working on was how to fit all of the tangram pieces into a square and this book gave the solution to the square puzzle.

10/22 - Math Curse

Today we read the book Math Curse.  The book covers many ways we deal with numbers in everyday life and how almost everything can be a math problem.  You have 10 things to do, but only 30 minutes till the bus leaves. Is there enough time?  You have 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants -- can you make 1 good outfit?

Some of the questions asked in the book are as simple as "How many quarts are in a gallon?" to the not so simple "If an M&M is about one centimeter long and the Mississippi River is about 4,000 kilometers long, how many M&Ms would it take to measure the length of this river?"

After reading the book, we went back through to try to answer all of the realistic and also the wacky questions.

10/15 - Symmetry

This week we learned about symmetry.  We talked about things we might find in the world that are symmetrical. 

The kids played a fun game.  Standing across from each other they took turns trying to mirror their partners actions.  They also had a good time playing with small animal figurines and mirrors.  They moved the mirrors around to see symmetry and how the angles affect what they see.

10/01 - How Big is a Million?

This week we read a book called How Big is a Million?  Big numbers like million, billion, and trillion are exciting, but sometimes it's hard to understand what that really means.  The book gave us examples like if a million children climbed on each other's shoulders, they would reach higher in the sky than airplanes can fly.  Also, if a billion of them made a tower, it would reach past the moon.

Each of us then made a picture about what we would do with a million dollars.  There was a wide variety of ideas, everything from buying money, fancy cars, horses, and more siblings!

09/24 - Iconic Numbers

This week we talked about iconic numbers.  There is math and numbers all around us and everything can represent a number.  For example we have 2 arms, legs, eyes, and ears.  We associate 10 with fingers and toes, the number 8 with an octopus, 6 with legs on an insect, and 4 with legs on most animals.

We also talked about that there are multiple ways to get a number.  For example the number 5 can be represented by 2+3, 1+4, 5x1, 10-5, etc.

We then had an activity with Legos!  Each child got a handful of Lego bricks, and they were able to draw pictures of the Legos showing the different amount of studs on each brick.  Again, different methods could be used to find the amount of studs, multiplying the row by the column (2x4=8) or by adding each row (4+4=8).

09/17 - G is for Googol

Class started with each child having a chance to draw on paper what they think math is.  There were many interpretations!  We then read the book G is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book by David M. Schwartz.  The book is full of math concepts ranging from abacus to zillion.  The kids enjoyed the book and had many questions and comments about the math related words.