9/24/15 - Iconic Quantities

In our last class, we talked all about iconic quantities.  Iconic quantities are objects that represent numbers.  So our hands can represent 5 (one hand) or 10 (two hands). Our eyes/ears/arms/legs represent 2.  We talked about numbers in stories and songs.  Then we tried to figure out how many ants are mentioned in the song "The Ants Go Marching."  Some students figured out right away that 1 by 1 meant 1 times 1 and 4 by 4 meant 4 times 4.  For those who knew their multiplication facts, they were able to do most of the work on their own.  For others, it was more of a challenge and I showed them some different ways to figure it out.  Most of the students enjoyed trying to figure it out. 

I gave the students a couple of math puzzles to take home.  These are completely optional.  Throughout the semester, I will give them other puzzles or assignments they can complete on their own time.  They can earn points for these and if they earn a total of 100 points, they will get a set of 5 colored dice.  The two puzzles I already gave them were worth 5 points each.  They can also draw or photograph examples of iconic quantities for up to 10 points at anytime during the semester.

9/17/15 - G is for Googol

We 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.  After reading the book, we had a longer discussion on the concept of symmetry.  We went through every letter of the alphabet and all ten digits and decided whether or not they were symmetrical.  There were a few letters that the kids thought should be symmetrical but weren't like the others so we briefly touched on rotational symmetry versus line symmetry.  Line symmetry applies to letters like T, H, and A but rotational symmetry works for N, S, and Z.  The letters O and X have both kinds of symmetry.