Patterns Patterns Everywhere

DESCRIPTION Here are two great activities to investigate the Golden Ratio! Do them together, or each can be a stand-alone lesson. The first activity is a simple way to show the connection between the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci sequence. Students will use their calculators to complete 12 division problems which divide consecutive Fibonacci numbers. By the end they will see that the numbers converge to 1.618 (the Golden Ratio)! I have made a cut-and-paste version of this also, so that younger

DESCRIPTION Here is a review and assessment for a unit on “Telling Time”. The review and assessments both cover full hours, half hours, quarter hours, 5 minute increments, and 1 minute increments. For the review, kids will be asked to match an analog clock to a digital time, write in the times of analog clocks, and draw in the hour and minute hands to match the digital times shown. They will also be asked questions about the meaning of AM and PM, how many minutes are in an hour, and how many hou

DESCRIPTION Here is a complete unit to teach 2D & 3D shapes to an elementary class. It includes 12 lessons, many hands-on activities, review, a unit test, reference sheets, a cover page, and answer keys. Topics taught with the 2D shapes include naming the shapes (circle, oval, semicircle, triangle, quadrilateral, parallelogram, trapezoid, rectangle, square, rhombus/diamond, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon), recognizing the number of sides, types of angles in the 2D s

DESCRIPTION Here is a great (and easy!) activity to give kids a visual understanding of the geometry behind the Fibonacci sequence! Kids will understand that the Golden Rectangle (the rectangle we are drawing the spiral within) is actually composed of squares. Kids will see that the squares are not just randomly numbered, but that the (1 unit square) + (1 unit square) = (2 unit square)’s side length. The pattern continues as the (2 unit square) + (1 unit square) = (3 unit square)’s side length,

DESCRIPTION Here are 4 wonderful and engaging activities to get kids learning about 3D shapes in a hands-on way! The first two activities familiarize students with the names of nine 3D shapes (cube, rectangular prism, cylinder, sphere, hemisphere, cone, triangular prism, square pyramid, and triangular pyramid). In “Color the 3D Shapes”, students color the 3D shapes based on a color key to learn the names. “3D Shapes Match” is a cut-and-paste activity that will review these same names with studen

DESCRIPTION 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,…Here is a great investigative activity that will show kids Fibonacci numbers in nature! You can use the real-life fruit and vegetables or simply do an internet search! If you use the real-life food, you will need an apple, a banana, an orange, a lemon, a cucumber, a head of cabbage, and a pineapple. Follow the directions to cut the fruit or vegetables to see their cross-sections, or in the case of the pineapple, you will be counting the spirals. Not all the produce

DESCRIPTION Here is a great set of activities to do for Pi Day or as an introduction to Circles in Geometry! The first activity is a colorful visual to show how pi is equal to the circumference of a circle, divided by its diameter. The second activity gives a hands-on foldable to easily see that a little more than 3 diameters in length is equal to the circumference of the same circle! DIRECTIONS 1.Colorful Circle Activity: Use two different colored dot markers or any markers to color the circle’

DESCRIPTION Here is an easy activity to bring some color to the Fibonacci sequence! Simply print out the numbers and glue them on to see how the sum of the two previous terms equals the next term in the sequence! If you choose to use different colors for each number, kids will see the pattern come alive even more with the color coordination! There is also an extra sheet with blank terms at the end of the equation for younger kids to practice their addition. Enjoy! DIRECTIONS Print out the main p

Here is a fun cut-and-paste activity to review for a unit assessment on “Telling Time”. Kids have 15 digital times to cut out and paste under the matching analog clock. This activity covers full hours, half hours, quarter hours, 5 minute increments, and 1 minute increments. This activity is minimal prep and set up. Simply print off the two sheets, provide each kid with a pair of scissors and a glue stick and you are ready to go! This would be an easy activity to leave for sub plans should you ne

DESCRIPTION Here is a great (and easy!) activity to do for Pi Day (3/14), Tau Day (6/28), when you are learning about exponential functions, or anytime you want to add some color to math (like maybe before a school break)! You are given FOUR different pages, one for Pi, one for Tau, and one for e, along with a page of the digits 0-9 (written twice). Simply print out the digits on colorful paper, cut the digits out and paste them on, and you are done! This would be a fun way to help memorize some