Weeks 2 and 3

Hello mini-math-makers! I think we have been having some fun in Math Circle.  I was told by one parent that her child calls it "my games class."  Perfect! We have learned many great math games, which promote not only math fluency but mathematical reasoning.  We played a simple guessing game where one child chooses a number, and the others take turns guessing.  The first student tells whether a guess is too big or too little, and circles the guessed number on the board (one color for too big, another for too little). They each wanted to have a turn at the board!  Other games we have played so far include: 1-5 Nim, Pig, Snakey Rods, Animal Crossing, and Balloon Ride.

We "discovered" the pattern of odd-even in the integers, and visually represented with colors on a number line. We determined whether a number was odd or even by using piles of plastic lids - with an even number all the lids had partners (groups of 2), but with the odd numbers one lid was partnerless.

The kids all held up their two hands with ten "digits" on them, and we talked about how our number system is based on 10s because of our anatomy.  We also worked with our egg carton ten frames to count large numbers of buttons.  This coming week we will be working on adding up all the big numbers of buttons we counted to get a total count of buttons in the jar.  To do this we first had to talk about all the ways to make 10, and used Cuisenaire rods.  Someone once recommend the rods to me when I first began homeschooling.  I ordered them, and when they came in the mail I thought, "What am I supposed to do with these?"  I have since found many ways of exploring mathematical ideas in very concrete ways using the rods.  But a real gem of a resource is the website EducationUnboxed, where there are videos with ways of demonstrating, playing, exploring, and learning with Cuisenaire rods.  

I can not link all the games on the blog because I do not have a document host for storing them.  But if you would like to have instructions for any of the games in class, please email me!