How Many? – A book and a math adventure
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
It was a rainy day in the middle of summer vacation. Ben and Zoe (6 and 5 yo) were home together because they were too young to join their older siblings on their adventure. They were a little sad and not sure what to do. “Let’s do some math,” Zoe’s mom suggested. “Okay…” they agreed somewhat reluctantly. “But no pluses or minuses,” said Zoe. “I like multiplication,” chimed Ben. “I have an idea,” said mom and took out a book that Zoe and Ben had never seen before. “How many?” Ben read the cover. “I know,” he said. “It’s a fraction book.” “Why do you think that?” asked Zoe’s mom. “Because I saw ..read more
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Naming Numbers at Bedtime
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Setting: I am putting Zoe (5 yo) to bed. Z: Mom, what comes after one hundred? Me: One hundred and one. Z: No, I mean when you’re counting by tens. Me: One hundred and ten. Z: But then what comes after one hundred ninety? Me: Two hundred. Z: But what comes after nine hundred? Me: Nine hundred and one. Z: But by tens. Me: Nine hundred and ten. Z: So what comes after nine hundred ninety by tens? Me: One thousand. This conversation continued for a very long time, with questions about what comes after one thousand, one thousand ten, one thousand ninety, one thousand one hundred, and so on. I under ..read more
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Main Line Math Festival on April 22
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
On April 22, Golden Key Russian School and Main Line Classical Academy are hosting their fifth Main Line Math Festival for kids ages 5-12. Date: Sunday, April 22 Time: 4 PM – 6 PM Location: Temple Brith Achim, 481 S Gulph Rd, King of Prussia, PA 19406 For more details and to register visit the festival site. To find out what you can expect, read about previous festivals here and here. Stations will include: -Discover the One Cut Theorem -Building Extravaganza using newspaper rolls, Kapla Blocks, chickpeas+toothpicks -Explore symmetry through various math and art projects -L ..read more
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Funville Adventures is on a Web Tour!
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Through March 15, Funville Adventures will be visiting blogs, forums, and other communities throughout the web. Today, the tour had its first stop at Talking Math With Your Kids by Christopher Danielson.  The title of his post is Things that Give me Hope and in it Danielson lists some of his favorite math projects, including Funville! I could tell you what the others are, but I  want you to read the post; it is beautifully written and inspiring. More details about the tour and coming attractions can be found here. If you have a web page, a blog, a podcast, a community, or another way ..read more
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Secret 3-digit numbers
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
For the past two weeks, in my first grade math class, we had been playing with 3-digit numbers. Many of the students in this class are the same ones that participated in the lessons described in the posts 3-digit numbers are tricky!, Part I and Part II, from last year. But now, 3-digit numbers are their old friends and they are ready to do much more sophisticated things with them. I have found a number of interesting activities in the Super Source – Base Ten Blocks book for grades K-2 for us to try out. One of the activities was a particular hit with the students. Here is how it worked. One st ..read more
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Witnessing the woes of math homework
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Every week, I spend several hours in the waiting area of a large gym where my kids take gymnastics lessons.  The room has several large tables where parents and siblings can do their work while waiting for their gymnasts. Many kids use this time to do their homework and by far the most common subject that I see them working on is math.  About half the time, the parents are helping them.  The kids rarely look excited but they are generally resigned. Last week, I witnessed a scene that left me very disturbed. A mom was helping her daughter, who looked to be about 9 or 10, with mat ..read more
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The mathematical boundary between a joke and a lie
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Like all siblings, my children occasionally quarrel. I generally try not to get involved unless it gets loud or one of them complains to me. Sometimes, however, I hear something that amuses me and I tune in or even join the conversation. Today, it began with Zoe (5 yo) accusing Katie (9 yo) of lying to her. Katie, in her turn, was claiming that it was just a joke. This is how the conversation continued: Katie: You don’t even know the difference between a joke and a lie. Zoe: Yes I do. K: Oh yeah, what is it? Z: For example, if you say “I ate 100 crepes”, then that’s obviously a joke. But if yo ..read more
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Highlights of 2017
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
2017 was a very exciting year for me. Here are some highlights in three categories. Teaching This has been my first full (calendar) year of teaching. The first words that come to mind when I think about teaching are “wonderful” and “amazing”, but “hectic” and “stressful” are close seconds. That being said, I feel extremely fortunate to have found something I feel so passionate about and to work with awesome kids on a daily basis. Book This year I became a published author. The excitement of holding my first published book in my hands compared only to that of holding my newborn baby. The main d ..read more
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Discovering the area of a trapezoid
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Below is a guest post by Dmitry Bryazgin (originally written in Russian). Dmitry runs a small math circle near Princeton for students in grades 3-5. On the particular day described in the post, there were 4 students present. The main task for the day was to find a general formula for the area of a trapezoid. The class had previously derived formulas for the areas of a rectangle, right triangle, acute triangle, and parallelogram. For some additional motivation, I promised to give a prize to anyone who independently solves the problem.  I then drew all the previous area formulas that w ..read more
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“Math you can play” – books with games
Musings of a Mathematical Mom
by aofradkin
3y ago
Games are an important part of the elementary school math curriculum that I develop and teach.  Through different games students learn and reinforce a variety of skills, ranging from arithmetic to spacial reasoning to logic. In my classroom, I have many store-bought favorites: SET, SWISH, Tiny Polka Dot, Q-bits, and many games by The Brainy Band (HurriCount, Numberloor, TraffiCARS, Multibloom, Splitissimo, …), to name a few. However, a number of games that we play require nothing more than a printed game board, a deck of cards or some counters.  I have found a wonderful collection of ..read more
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