SamizdatMath

I love those "cut n' paste" activities, but I wonder how much time is wasted by students who have to cut out all those little pieces along the lines and then maneuver them into place. What good are these activities if the students spend 20 minutes cutting and only 10 minutes "thinking" about math? In my version of a "fractions to percents" cut n' paste, I've designed the pieces to be cut out with a minimum of cutting, so that your students can focus on actually "doing the math." By placing the

I love those "cut n' paste" activities, but I wonder how much time is wasted by students who have to cut out all those little pieces along the lines and then maneuver them into place. What good are these activities if the students spend 20 minutes cutting and only 10 minutes "thinking" about math? In my version of a "fractions to decimals" cut n' paste, I've designed the pieces to be cut out with a minimum of cutting, so that your students can focus on actually "doing the math." By placing the

This is a nice little activity that I used with my 3rd graders, but would also be good for 2nd and 4th graders: Students cut out quarter inch calibrated rulers and then use it to measure the length and height of a variety of staplers, old and new, and then draw boxes that will hold the stapler. This comes with some very nice quarter inch rulers that you can print out, laminate and distribute to your students. Fun, cheap and really good to teach your kids about measuring in quarter inch incremen

You'll like this puzzla - go check out the preview, download it and use it on your kids. The actual file includes a wonderful explanation of how you can solve this problem without using equivalent fractions. Cool no?

Okay, I know this appears to be a shameless attempt to cash in on the Thanksgiving Holiday, but I am deeply concerned that many of you loved the idea of your students knowing when they can and when they cannot make an equivalent fraction. Why you need this activity: many of our students do something peculiar when they learn a new skill - they apply it to every case they see, whether they can use it or not. In this case, I've seen students try to turn the fraction 1/4 into 7ths, even though ther