Saturday, April 25, 2009
Math: picture books are GREAT learning fun!
Kroll, Virginia – Equal Shmequal – equal is more than just the same number and this book helps kids realize that even numbers don’t always make even teams as some forest animals try to have create equal teams for tug-a-war! Very cute and great way to open discussion on concept of “equal” (including an author’s note at the end that explains “equal” from different views: artist, lawyers, sports, mathematicians)
Time Life Editors – Right in Your Own Backyard: Nature Math – filled with lots of puzzles, interesting facts and activities, this book links math with nature! Covers all the basic concepts in a fun, easy way.
Hewavisenti, Lakshmi – Shapes and Solids: with games and puzzles – great overview (with fun projects) for learning all about shapes and solids (tessellations, reflectiosn, moebius strips, tangrams, etc.)
Kohl, Herbert – Insides, Outsides, Loops and Lines – now this is a fun book for exploring closed and open shapes made completely with lines; lots of great games and activities for all ages.
Micklethwait, Lucy – I Spy Shapes in Art – this is another great art book for kids from Micklethwait. Here, the focus is on regular geometric shapes (so, the 14 paintings are primarily modern art) and the kids can really investigate these individual paintings looking for the shape to “spy” and also looking for other shapes in the paintings. Great cross-curriculum stuff here!
Neuschwander, Cindy – Sir Cumference and the First Round Table: A Math Adventure – tells the tale of how to create other regular shapes from a rectangle as well as a description of diameter, radius and circumference.
Neuschwander, Cindy – Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi: A Math Adventure – tells the tale of Pi and proves the measurement is always 3.14159…...
Neuschwander, Cindy – Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland: A Math Adventure – tells the tale of how to measure angles and describes acute, right, obtuse and straight angles.
Neuschwander, Cindy – Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone: A Math Adventure – tells the tale of how to create other regular shapes from a rectangle as well as a description of diameter, radius and Euler’s Law that says that any straight-sided, solid shape that, if the numbers of faces on a solid is added to the number of points (or vertices), then subtracted from the number of its edges, the answer will ALWAYS be two – works for every polyhedron.
Neuschwander, Cindy – Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter: A Math Adventure – tells the tale of Per and her cousin Radius and their discovery that an area of a circle equals half the circumference times the radius (also, area = pi x radius-squared).
Pluckrose, Henry – Math Counts: Shape – cute picture book about regular geometric shapes and looking for (and finding) them everywhere.
Reisberg, Joanne – Zachary Zormer Shape Transformer – when measuring perimeter, Zack teaches the class about moebius strips, expanding frame and increasing the size of light. This is a fun book – the kids really got into stumping dad with the doubled length of the moebius and the five-times-larger frame!
Wilson, John – Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns: How to Create Them – this is a great Dover book that gives wonderful illustrations of tessellation and mosaic patterns (with great overviews of how to create a myriad of designs). The book includes 32 “plates” to color … which copy wonderfully so you can color, and color and color!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Books: curing math phobia ...
Here are some books we've been using to study regular geometric shapes, both two- and three-dimensional shapes. These books show that math, at least geometry, can not only be interesting and fun, but also artistic and creative!
Hewavisenti, Lakshmi – Shapes and Solids: with games and puzzles – great overview (with fun projects) for learning all about shapes and solids (tessellations, reflectiosn, moebius strips, tangrams, etc.)
Kohl, Herbert – Insides, Outsides, Loops and Lines – now this is a fun book for exploring closed and open shapes made completely with lines; lots of great games and activities for all ages.
Micklethwait, Lucy – I Spy Shapes in Art – this is another great art book for kids from Micklethwait. Here, the focus is on regular geometric shapes (so, the 14 paintings are primarily modern art) and the kids can really investigate these individual paintings looking for the shape to “spy” and also looking for other shapes in the paintings. Great cross-curriculum stuff here!
Pluckrose, Henry: Math Counts: Shape – cute picture book about regular geometric shapes and looking for (and finding) them everywhere. Just because this is written for the littles, doesn't mean you can't use it if you just have older ones -- have them do a full picture using as many regular shapes as possible; or search for shapes while driving in the car; or create 3-d sculptures based on shapes.
Wilson, John – Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns: How to Create Them – this is a great Dover book that gives wonderful illustrations of tessellation and mosaic patterns (with great overviews of how to create a myriad of designs). The book includes 32 “plates” to color … which copy wonderfully so you can color, and color and color!
Geometry can be a bit scary -- but make it interesting and creative and you will all have fun!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Math: an eclectic blend

Cranberry Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread
(makes one loaf)
Preheat oven to 350
2 c flour
1 c sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp grated orange peel
3/4 c orange juice
3 c fresh cranberries, chopped
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, orange juice all at once. Stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Add cranberries.Spoon into a greased 9x5 loaf pan (or 6 small loaves). Bake for 1hr and 10 minutes (less for small loaves) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread
· 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
· 4 eggs
· 1/2 cup vegetable oil
· 1/2 cup melted butter
· 2/3 cup water
· 1 cup white sugar
· 1 cup brown sugar
· 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1 cup wheat flour
· 2 teaspoons baking soda
· 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
· 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
· 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
· 1/2 to 1 cup raisins
· 1/2 to 1 cup walnuts
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Dredge the raisins and walnuts with about ½ cup of the flour. Stir the flour and spices into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Add the nuts/raisins. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Best served the next day!

While the breads were baking we pulled out another old favorite - catalog math. But this time, I gave them each $100 in monopoly money and they had to figure out how to spend it without going over. For BamBam, I let him just make sure it came close to $100 ... with String Bean and Lego Maniac, they had to get right on the money. We then worked on figuring shipping, tax, etc and had a real-living math morning!
Real-life learning, in the heart of the home is so much more fun, don't you think?
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Math: Fun and Games and No Workbooks!
Yes, the kids need to learn math facts and math concepts. A workbook helps ensure that they are steadily learning. But, I think I made a BIG mistake by ONLY using workbooks (and a mark-n-wipe board for Bam-Bam). I need to bring the FUN back into the fundamentals!
So, enter my September email from a very cool, very free, math site called Mathwire.com. In the September email, dated the 16th, Terry (the math consultant), has ALL KINDS of really cool Fall math games and activities to teach the concepts necessary for K-3 or 4th grades (exactly what my kids are!). These games include bat math, spiders/web math, and many more ideas for "doing math" during Fall. She also has links to picture books! What more could I ask for? Well, she also links to her seasonal math ideas from Fall 2006 and Fall 2005!
Well, just in case I'm really craving more workbook-style math pages, someone posted on 4real about this site from the UK which has free workbook pages for all grade (years) 1-6! Another freebie.
Now, tell me again why I paid for Singapore?????
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Picture Books: Math Goes Graphic!
There are a growing number of GREAT math books for kids aged pre-K to about 2nd or 3rd grade. These books gently and beautifully teach hard math concepts to young children. Here are some of the best I've found.
There is a series by Peter Patilla (and illustrated by Kirsty Asher or Brigitte McDonald) that are fabulous -- lots of fun mazes, unique games and wonderful puzzles to teach counting, patterns, shapes and magnitude. These are beautiful books! Think a combination of Mary Englebreit mixed with Anno and you'll know what to expect. These seem to be OOP (pooooooh!) but that means you can get used copies CHEAP! Enjoy!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sometimes, ya just have to have table time ...

Sunday, August 26, 2007
Learning: 100s Board for Math




You could also get colored wood "tiles", but I like the natural simplicity of these unfinished tiles ... what do you think? Any suggestions for other uses of the board?