Make a Cookie Sheet Math Board (and recycle!)

Want to make a useful, fun tool for your students? How about recycling a cookie sheet? Here's how!

1. Find a cookie sheet that's ready to be discarded. You know...the kind that flakes questionable gunk onto your baked goods. Check yardsales, Goodwill, and your mom. Make sure that magnets will stick to it. Not all will work.

2. Spray paint the edge of the tray. I let mine dry about 24 hours.

3. Get some contact paper. If you want the board for math purposes, you'll want to make grid lines. I used my quilting ruler, rotary cutting mat and drew lines with a Black Sharpie in a 1" grid.

4. Cut the contact paper to fit the flat inside of the cookie sheet. Top with a decorative ribbon if you like.

My cookie sheet had a hole at the top; I attached a nylon cord through the hole so that I could hang it up. It can now be used in a hanging position or kids can take it down for lap or table use. I hung mine on the back side of a small end table since wall space is at a premium. I think the kids will enjoy the private math corner (perhaps use it more!), but we'll also take it down and use it elsewhere.

Put it to use with some fabulous math lessons:

Manipulatives pictured: magnetic tile, magnetic base ten pieces, magnetic pattern blocks
The magnet manipulatives came from The Math Learning Center. It's a non-profit. My disclaimer: I don't get any kick-back from pointing you there, but I do some contract work for them occasionally. I tried to find links to the products on Amazon, but came up empty handed. I often purchase math manipulatives from MLC because they tend to have low prices.

Tomorrow I'll be stopping at the thrift store to find a few cookie sheets that need a second wind. :) I'd like to make a decorative message center. Another idea...addition/subtraction using cookies with magnets on them.

Go recycle! ;)

And check out more great math lessons at this week's Math Monday Blog Hop!

Penguin Math Game Pieces

I've caved to PP...aka peer pressure. Or maybe it's penguin pressure?  Yep, I'm going to do a penguin unit study, too. If you want to do it along with us, start gathering penguin books. I'll be posting our lessons as we go.

In preparation, I've also been working on preparing this penguin game from Mathwire. While I think the clothespin penguins are very cute, I needed two types of penguins/game pieces and I wasn't sure that my kids could keep tall pieces steady on such a small board. So I made penguin game pieces from flat marbles. (You know...vase gems, glass blobs.) I bought a huge bag of them at a garage sale. You can also get them at the dollar store.

I tried several ways to paint them. The ones pictured above were painted on the bottom of the glass so that the top, shiny part shows up. Although the photo isn't great (it's hard to take a clear picture of curved glass!) this looks pretty cool because it gives the effect of the penguins peering out through glass or ice. You just have to remember to paint the layers backward, layering eyes before body color.

I also took photos of the game board with the painted pieces facing up.

I put this penguin paint template on Google Docs to show how to paint each type of penguin. (Click on the photo.)

Made Me a Math Bag!

I do not consider myself crafty. Or especially creative. Which makes me all the more proud of this:

Made entirely from scraps--including sections from two pairs of ragbag blue jeans--this "math bag" is designed to carry my junk AND provide game playing and math practice when we're on the go. One side of the bag has pockets in order, 1-9; the other side has the numbers 1-9, but mixed up. I'm guessing that my younger ds will get more use out of the ordered side while my older ds uses the mixed side. My daughter (crafty!) did the lettering and included symbols on each pocket in a pattern for the boys to decipher.

Here's a multiplication fact practice game from this morning:

I asked ds, 8, to select a times table to review. He chose 9. He then did 9x each pocket and "wrote" the answer on the pocket with milk cap math numbers.  As a side note (that probably deserves an entire post), I don't ask my kids to "drill and kill" to learn math facts. My son knows his multiplication facts from using visual models and manipulatives as well as from games like Mythmatical Battles. He knows them. And when/if he doesn't, he has many strategies for finding the answer because he understands what multiplication is. That's what I really care about.

However.

I've found it helpful in my own life (especially in the grocery store!) to be able to use the facts that I know at a fairly fast rate. This isn't necessary; I know some great mathematicians who do not have the times tables memorized. But, for me, it's been helpful. So I give him opportunities to practice what he knows. This is a miniscule part of what we do in math. Very. But if it's fun and easy and take-along, I'm all for it. (BTW, milk caps weigh practically nothing to carry along in a bag like this.)

I have several other easy, take-along games in mind to post later.

This is what comes of a night alone, btw. On New Year's Eve, my 4yo ds went to bed, everyone else left for a church party, and I pretended I was a craft enthusiast. I'd really like to be one. Shhh. Don't tell. ;)

P.S. BTW, a WHOLE LOT of math went into making this bag!!! I didn't use a pattern and had to do a ton of measuring.

P.P.S. I'm glad I learned how to sew...back when "sewing" was still offered in high school course offerings. Shows you how old I am!

P.P.P.S. I've added a new label, "Make-It-Yourself Math" that I'll be adding to. For all you crafties!

Preschool Flannel Board Shapes (math gift)

Photo temporarily removed for security.

My 4yo ds enjoys geometric math exploration using flannel board shapes. The "board" is just a piece of cardboard with a piece of flannel material affixed to the front. The one above was attached with a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine.

The shapes, cut from felt, were made with patterns from the shape set from Box It or Bag It. When ds first starting constructing, he made a lot of abstract "fill the board" pictures. Then he moved on to making "pizzas" and feeding me his pizza board. ;) Now he's arrived at building vehicles and structures.

You could easily make a set like this for an inexpensive, educational holiday gift. I found felt at garage sales, received some as donations from friends, or purchased it. You can also find nice felt boards if you don't choose to make your own.

If you do this, comment with a link to your photo! ;)

This would make a great preschool workbox! :)

Milk Cap Math: MADS Elimination

Here is another milk cap math game for basic +/-/x/division practice. My 15yo daughter thought of the name, MADS Elimination. (Thanks!)

The object?

M: multiply
A: add
D: divide
S: subtract

...in order to eliminate all milk caps on the playing field. (Before you go completely MADs!)

You'll need:

• two sets of 10 milk caps (any color), numbered 1-10
• two, 1-6 dice

To play the game, each player forms a line of milk caps, 1-10. Players take turns rolling the dice. When dice are rolled, the player may choose to multiply, add, divide, or subtract. So, for example:

Dice rolled: 3 and 5

I can:

M: 3 x 5 (won't work since my caps are 1-10)
A: 3 + 5 = 8
D: 5 / 3 = 2.5 (won't work)
S: 5 - 3 = 2

So I could eliminate either the 2 or the 8 cap. If the cap(s) has already been eliminated, I lose my turn. The first player to eliminate all caps, wins.

You can make this a little easier (preschool) by using 6 caps (1-6) and one die (1-6) and removing caps from the table as you roll each number.

You can make this a little harder by using bigger numbers (on the caps) or having the option of rolling multiple dice. For example, you could roll three, 1-6 dice, and make a number sentence using all three numbers. (You could also use dice with different numbers: 0-5, 4-9, etc.)

Example using 3 dice:

I roll: 1,3,4

I could do any number of combinations...I won't list them all, but for example:

3 - 1 + 4

1 x 4 - 3   (You could even talk about order of operations here.)

4 - 1 + 3

Lots and lots of possibilities for this game!

Running out of math caps yet?? ;)

This is another great math workbox game! ;)

Milk Cap Math: Magic Square Game

Here's another idea for Milk Cap Math...

[As a side note, when I went to find my milk caps, they were gone. I finally located them under the piano in my 4yo's "house." Apparently, they are good for a lot more than MATH!]

Milk Cap Math Magic Square Game

You'll need:
*9 milk caps, any colors, numbered 1-9.

To play:
Place numbers in a 3 cap by 3 cap square as shown. Rearrange numbers so that the sum of any 3 caps (diagonal, column and row) equals 15.

You can play this Magic Square Game online to get the idea, but I recommend using milk caps (or something similar) to manipulate the numbers. When you manually move the numbers, you are able to experiment with different combinations in a way that just isn't possible with the online game.

Thank you SO MUCH to reader, musicalmary, for alerting me to the connection to the book, Ben Franklin and His Magic Squares! We just happen to be studying Ben Franklin right now in history, so this is perfect!!!

This would be another great math workbox!