SamizdatMath

Cuisenaire Rods and Algebra, you ask? Yes, Cuisenaire Rods AND Algebra go together! Like beans and cornbread, rods and algebra go together! Rods and algebra go hand in hand like bagels and lox. Like cornbeef and cabbage. Like pot cakes and molasses! Like liver onions, so do Cuisenaire Rods and Algebra! Like wieners and sauerkraut, you need to use Cuisenaire Rods and Algebra! Has this convinced you? Okay, here's how it works: one of the things that consistently trips up our algebra students in

This is the same as Number Logic Puzzles Silly Creatures with a Valentines theme, which should really motivate your students! This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been formatted t

This is the same as Number Logic Puzzles Silly Creatures with a Chanukah holiday theme, which should really motivate your students! This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been forma

This is the same as Number Logic Puzzles Silly Creatures with a Christmas holiday theme, which should really motivate your students! This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been for

This is the same as Number Logic Puzzles Silly Creatures with a winter theme, which should really motivate your students! This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been formatted to g

This is a winter themed variation of Silly Creatures Number Logic Puzzles, a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and features 2 kinds of objects to decipher. This version involves three different objects to interpret, which will really give them something fun to do and most likely fry their brains by working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another.

Note: this is the same as the "winter theme three part number logic puzzles," but with "silly icons" instead of "winter icons." This is a sequel to Silly Creatures Number Logic Puzzles, a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and features 2 kinds of objects to decipher. This version involves three different objects to interpret, which will really give them something fun to do and most likely fry their brains by working logically - and because this is somethin

This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been formatted to give you a jolt of color without using up all your ink! There are also single page and double page formats to save enough mo

This is a collection of 8 different Thanksgiving Themed "matrix addition" puzzles which use funky symbols as clues to figure out the answers. They were designed for 2nd graders, but you could use them with advanced first graders, or just throw them at some third and fourth graders to see how they react. They're sort of algebraic puzzles that you can have a lot of fun with and who doesn't like fun? Comes in color and b/w for your printing pleasure! What makes this really cool is that I also in

This is a collection of 8 different "matrix addition" puzzles which use funky symbols as clues to figure out the answers. They were designed for 2nd graders, but you could use them with advanced first graders, or just throw them at some third and fourth graders to see how they react. They're sort of algebraic puzzles that you can have a lot of fun with and who doesn't like fun? What makes this really cool is that I also included a set of "blank" puzzles which your students can customize, share

"On a bad day, I have no ideas. On a good day, I have a lot of wrong ideas. At least with wrong ideas, I can mix them together and come up with a right answer." That's the idea behind this number puzzle, which I've intentionally designed to be really tricky and frustrating (at least, it was for the 3rd through 6th graders I tried it on.) The relationship between the three columns appear to be arbitrary, but there actually is some method to the madness: the students should be encouraged to come

This is a collection of 10 different algebra puzzles that use 3 different variables which are represented as rectangles, triangles and hexagons. Yes, we know that "adult" algebra uses X, Y and Z, but since this is designed to be appealing for our younger students (and because abstraction is still tough for them) I've used these geometric shapes instead. I've also limited the kinds of numbers students use by focusing on using 0 - 9 digit cards. This is so your students will not get frustrated wh

This is a collection of 12 different division reasoning problems that require your students to understanding through written explanations. No, it doesn't mean your students are going to explain the long division algorithm by writing about the steps they took to solve the problem. First of all, who cares? Second of all, it doesn't really show a mastery of the concept of division; it only shows they have memorized the steps in an algorithm that is totally unnecessary to memorize in an age of calcu

What's a tokidoki, you ask? Well, there are several varieties, and basically they are born with a certain number of segments on their body, and then grow new ones over the year. Some are born with 3 segments and add 4 more each year, some are born with 2 segments and add 5 more each year. There are lots of different types of tokidokies and they all grown using different patterns. This activity uses tokidokis to promote the idea of using patterns to solve a problem. If you have a tokidoki that w

Should you be teaching algebra to young students? YES! When should you be doing it? NOW! Why should you teach algebra to young students? Because it will challenge them while reinforcing their basic computation skills. Compared to those boring "practice sheets" you're using, algebraic problem solving presents a greater challenge and is also more motivational, because your students know they're doing something hard, not just repeating an exercise over and over and over and over again....

This is an activity that approaches diversity in several different ways, while helping your students develop a more sophisticated and refined understanding of mathematical language. The goal of the activity is to read a clue about a number between 0 and 19, and then match it to the player wearing the jersey of the same number. Linguistic Diversity: The clues which you see here are more than just “sum” and “difference,” and all that yadda yadda yadda. In fact, these clues DEFY the “keyword” appr

“Parity” is the mathematical concept of “evenness” and “oddness.” For example, we know that all whole numbers are either odd or even, and that if you add or subtract evens and odds, certain forms of parity will emerge. For example, if you add two odd or even numbers, you will end up with an even number; if you add an even and an odd, you’ll end up with an odd number. To make things more interesting, if you add an odd number of even numbers (say, 2 + 4 + 6), you’ll end up with an even number. How

You have a locked briefcase that you want to send to your friend on the other side of the country. You put a lock on it and keep the key around your neck. There is no second key, you can't duplicate this key, and you don't want to send it to your friend, because you're afraid it might get lost or stolen. How does your friend open the case? That's a question that has a lot of relevance to the use of prime numbers! But I digress: this is a set of activities designed to enhance your students' un

My school uses Connected Math for it’s 6th grade math curriculum; it’s pretty bad in many ways, but on the other hand, it is much better than all the other 6th grade math curricula I’ve seen, which are complete and unadulterated junk (I’m looking directly at you, Go Math!!) The 6th grade unit on rates and ratios has some pretty good activities in it, but I think the use of gummy worms is pretty lame, because, well, I am a believer in the separation between crappy food and educational matter

Nadia Geddit wanted to get into her building, but she forgot the code to the lock. However, she did remember some clues about the code. These are 5 clues about the code: 1) The sum of the fifth digit and the third digit is 14. 2) The fourth digit is one more than the second digit. 3) The first digit is one less than twice the second digit. 4) The sum of the second and third digit is 10. 5) The sum of all five digits is 30. What 5 digits must Nadia press to make the lock open? How wo