Maria's Math News, Vol. 65, September 2012
I love teaching, and I love math. This newsletter is my way of reaching out and helping you to teach it, too.
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Hello! Welcome to the new school year, which is in gear for most of us. I hope the resources in this newsletter are of help!
~Maria
1. Math Mammoth news
2. Geometry lapbook / notebook ideas
3. Patterns in Pascal's triangle (free download)
4. New Make It Real Learning books
5. Tidbits
1. Math Mammoth news
1. A new book for the Blue Series.... Math Mammoth South African Money
This book covers counting South African coins (rand and cents), solving simple money problems, counting change, and adding money amounts.
The cost as a download is $3.25 USD. See these free sample pages (PDF):
Contents
Practicing with Coins
Counting Change
Rand
Adding Money Amounts
I hope this is of help to our homeschooling friends in South Africa! And teachers too!
2. Homeschool Buyers Co-op group buy for Math Mammoth has been EXTENDED till September 11! But not beyond that. So you still have time to take advantage of this fabulous deal -- best on the planet: 50% off of the large bundle products, including Make It Real Learning series.
3. An update about the Common Core alignment: I'm working on the 4th grade material, in the last chapters. At this point we may get it finished by the end of September, or it may take till early October.
4. Many children study Math Mammoth with this stuffed toy mammoth! You can get one at Amazon.
And here are some free Mathy the Mammoth coloring pages and dot-to-dots to download for your children:
Mathy the Mammoth coloring page 1
Mathy the Mammoth coloring page 2
Mathy the Mammoth dot-to-dot page 1
Mathy the Mammoth dot-to-dot page 2
BeijingMath is a web-based math practice environment that combines American style mathematics with the rigors of the Chinese national math curriculum. The program was launched in August, 2011 and gained immediate traction in Asian/Chinese communities in North America and around the world.
Its unique Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) system keeps students engaged and challenged by adjusting the level of difficulty (easy, medium, hard, and insane) for each question based on their past performances.
BeijingMath.com is offering 50% off on one-year license with Coupon Code ""BJ0933". Expires On 09/30/2012.
Its unique Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) system keeps students engaged and challenged by adjusting the level of difficulty (easy, medium, hard, and insane) for each question based on their past performances.
BeijingMath.com is offering 50% off on one-year license with Coupon Code ""BJ0933". Expires On 09/30/2012.
2. Geometry lapbook / notebook ideas
My kids have recently fallen in love with lapbooks, and have done several science & history related ones. I got to thinking, there aren't that many MATH lapbooks available... but there IS one math topic that suits lapbooking very well, and that is GEOMETRY.
Now, while I don't actually have a geometry lapbook for you, I found some places where you can get one:
Geometry Lapbook at Homeschool Bin - this seems to be a completely free download (in several parts).
Adventures of Third Grade Teacher is selling a geometry lapbook for $3.
Then, if you feel a lapbook (a foldable) is too extensive a project, here's a simpler one: a geometry notebook or journal.
This simply means that for each new TERM in the geometry curriculum or chapter, the student explains that term and draws the corresponding figure, using 1-2 blank pages.
In the end, the student will have his/her very own geometry book to keep and show around!
Here's one parent's example of doing a geometry lapbook project (with pictures). I noticed she used Math Mammoth Early Geometry for a text. I feel Geometry 1 book will suit notebooking or journaling even better, as it covers more concepts.
3. Patterns in Pascal's triangle (free download)
I have created a two-page worksheet that I'm offering here as a free download: Patterns in Pascal's Triangle.It is intended for about 4th grade level, so it doesn't go through all the possible patterns found in Pascal's triangle, but just some simple ones: the sums of the rows, counting numbers in a diagonal, and triangular numbers. And of course the triangle itself!
And in this link you can read about MANY more patterns in Pascal's Triangle -- such as magic 11's, square numbers, Fibonacci's sequence, and the "hockey stick pattern."
4. New Make It Real Learning books
I've recently added a whole slew of new Make It Real Learning activity workbooks to my site (I did have some previous to this, also).
These workbooks concentrate on answering the age-old question, "When am I ever going to use this (math)?"
The workbooks contain activities or problem situations taken from real-life, with real data. Some examples of the situations are: cell phone plans, autism, population growth, cooking, borrowing money, credit cards, life spans, music downloads, etc. etc.
As students work through the problems, they can use the math skills and concepts they have learned in their math curriculum (such as the concept of average or graphing), and apply those to a situation from real-life.
Free samples!
Download these free samples from Make It Real Learning series:
Samples from Activity Library, Volume I
Samples from Activity Library, Volume II
Sample of States by the Numbers series: North Dakota
Download these free samples from Make It Real Learning series:
Samples from Activity Library, Volume I
Samples from Activity Library, Volume II
Sample of States by the Numbers series: North Dakota
Typically, the activities contain challenging parts and therefore allow students to practice real problem solving - not just apply knowledge from textbook examples to other almost identical problems.
Here's the whole list of the workbooks, by topic, ranging from arithmetic to calculus. The pricing is $4.99 per book, with bundle deals available.
Till September 11, you can get the Activity Library II at Homeschool Buyers co-op for 50% off!
5. Tidbits
- Rush Hour game
Here's a neat little game that you can play online or purchase the physical version: Rush Hour. The goal is to free one of the vehicles (the red one in the image) and let it slide out of the board. You simply slide the pieces in the direction of their orientation--either up/down or right/left. Play Rush Hour online here. It was fun! Takes some logical thinking.
- Free access to Mathletics
For bloggers: this free offer will end sometime in early September, so hurry! Click the link above for details.
- Delaying formal arithmetic
Denise at Let's Play Math has been discussing delaying formal arithmetic, as based on Benezet's experiment in the early 1900s. I have read the whole story (The Teaching of Arithmetic I: The Story of an Experiment) and it's a FASCINATING though long read! These kids ended up having superior math skills in middle school. Anyhow, Denise has highlighted some points of this "experiment" and you might enjoy her posts. Personally, I do like to introduce "formal" or paper-pencil arithmetic earlier than Benezet did... as is customary in today's culture, BUT it's beneficial to be aware of how things can work without it also! You might get some ideas to use in your own teaching.
- Hands-On Equations Raffle winners
The recent raffle of Hands-On Equations app that I sent you info about went well; however several of the winners have not claimed their prize. Did you take part? Were you one of the winners? Check in this link (check for your user name and entry). You can also subscribe to their newsletter if you'd like to take part in future giveaways & promotions.
Feel free to forward this issue to a friend/colleague! Subscribe here.
Till next time,
Maria Miller