Game Review: Spot It!

Shopping on Cyber Monday? Check out these math-related gifts and games or these great math children's books.

Here's a game that's new to us...

I'd not heard of Spot It! before friends gave it to us as a hostess gift about a week ago. Since that time, it's been played and enjoyed by one of my classes as well as by a variety of groups/ages that have been around for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's the perfect size for a stocking stuffer. And would make a great classroom or family game. I recommend it as you think about your Cyber Monday gift list...

Spot It! comes with a deck of round cards in a little tin container. To play, you lay two cards on the playing surface. All players try to find the ONE symbol that matches on both cards. You will only find ONE symbol that matches on any pair of cards. Can you spot the matching symbol below? (They will always color match but they do not need to be the same size.)

The player who calls the matching symbol first wins one of the cards. The last card played is left on the table and a new card from the deck is added. Play continues as everyone tries to be the first to spot the symbol that matches.

We played the game as children arrived for one of my private classes. Kids of all ages participated in trying to find the matching symbols. At our holiday gatherings we played with ages 5-adult. Since everyone can participate, it's an excellent activity to include many ages and group sizes. Rules include 4 variations that would lend a bit of variety to game play.

Lastly, I think someone should use this as an upper-level math exploration...  All week, guests have been trying to figure out how they could make a game with 55 cards in which every card has one...and only one...symbol that is identical on another card. You can pick up any two cards in the entire deck and find just one symbol that is identical on both. Explain what the parameters would have to be to make this mathematically possible.

Disclaimer: I received my game as a gift and have no affiliation with the company. If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU!  

Equilibrio, Architecto, Cliko (Blocks for Big Kids)

I'll be highlighting some of our all-time favorite math games/manipulatives as you think about gift giving this season. This is one of our absolute favorites...a block product for older kids (5 to adult) that develops mathematical skills. It would make an excellent classroom Math Station or homeschool Workbox.

When I first wrote this post, I used it with my then 7yo. He continues to use it at age 9. My youngest started working some of the easier puzzles at age 4 and is now quite good at the beginning levels at age 5. Some of the more complex puzzles are difficult for me...so these sets really do reach all age levels.

********Original post follows:

The Equilibrio, Architecto, and Cliko line by FoxMind rank in my top ten for math education products. I began using them a year ago with my 7yo. The products vary in complexity even within a given book and can be used with children through adults. Here's a brief overview:


Equilibrio could, I suppose, be considered the first in the "series" as the recommended age is 5 and up.

 The boxed set comes with a set of 18 specialty blocks that are used to erect structures illustrated in the spiral-bound challenge book. The structures begin deceptively simple ("Oh, this is soooooo easy!") and become increasingly difficult as you progress through 60 different structures. Levels of difficulty are indicated at the bottom of the page, as are guides that tell exactly which blocks are used in the structure. My son can easily build the early structures on his own, but he needs help as the book progresses. A lot of balance is necessary for some of the more difficult buildings. [If you buy the Architecto set below, you get the blocks and need an Equilibrio: book only.]


Architecto, recommended for ages 7 & up, is slightly different, although it uses the same blocks.

This book illustrates 3-D models. At the bottom of each page you see which blocks are used, but you have to look at the 3-D model, using "fairly sophisticated logical analysis and spatial perception" in order to build it. 50 illustrations/building puzzles are included.







Finally, Cliko, the granddaddy of challenges, is recommended for 8 years and up for people who "enjoy sophisticated puzzles." [Link is just to the book and assumes you already own the blocks through one of the above sets.]

In this book you again see a photo of a structure along with a list of blocks needed to complete it. This book, however, shows certain viewpoints of the structure...and the player needs to consider all viewpoints in order to determine whether a structure is feasible or not; sometimes the structure is shown at 3 different camera angles. Tough stuff. My 7yo can do beginning levels. I'm not sure if I can do the most advanced.



Note: You need one set of blocks to complete the structures in all books. The books can be purchased separately. So if you buy one book/block set, you just need other books (without blocks) to do the other activities/puzzles. Clear as mush? :)

Disclaimer: I bought my own set--one set of blocks and all 3 books--and have no contact with the company that produces it. If you use the Amazon link to buy your own, Grace and Hope (foster care for kids in China) will make a few cents (at no cost to you.) My blog policy, however, is that I don't blog about things that I don't like. I love this.

Happy Building! ;)

Free December Calendar Markers - Teddy Bear & Box Pattern

The Math Learning Center, a nonprofit organization, has a ton of free resources on its website. I plan to do the "Teddy Bear & Box Calendar Pattern" for December. On the Kindergarten Supplement page you can download both the calendar pieces (pdf, in color) and lesson plans for FREE. (Look under "Geometry" for C4 Teddy Bear & Box and C4 December Calendar Markers.)

With these markers, students describe the location of a teddy bear relative to a box "using words such as inside, outside, behind, in front of, to the left of, to the right of, above and below."  Kindergarteners will love this!! :) At school or at home!

Pictures posted with permission of The Math Learning Center.

Math Monday Blog Hop #33 (November 21, 2011)

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Game Review: Chocolate Fix (great for early math finishers!)

Trying to think of a good gift for your child? A child's classroom? Chocolate Fix might just fit the bill...or fix your gift list! :) My 9yo received this for his birthday and it's been used and loved by him, his teen brother, and my husband. The 8 and up designation makes sense; I think it would be a bit difficult for younger kids.

A perfect blend of fun and logical deduction, a single player must manipulate 9 chocolate game pieces according to the clues given on puzzle cards to come up with the correct arrangement of chocolates. If you play Sudoku, you'll recognize similarities. (For more details, the ThinkFun site --click on "how to play"--features a visual sequence showing how the game is played). Forty puzzle cards are included in a little spiral-bound flip-it book and are ranked by difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert. The set is stored in a drawstring bag for easy traveling.

I grabbed the photo from the ThinkFun website as our game edition (last year's) didn't come with the shape and color placeholders. This is an excellent addition as it would make it much easier to keep track of what is known vs. what is unknown. 

I love the problem solving inherent in the game. This would make a wonderful Math Station/"early finisher" activity for a single student at school or Math Workbox in homeschool. Look at this article on using it to teach geometry.

Over the next few days, I'll be highlighting some of our favorite math games and books. Holiday shopping begin! :)

Disclaimer: I bought my own game and have no affiliation with ThinkFun. If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU! 

Kids LOVE this Patterning Activity!!!

Last month, I demonstrated how to make your own Pattern Pull. I have to report on my experiences with it since...

This year, my son is participating in a preK/K co-op. When I taught, I introduced the Pattern Pull to this group of 4 & 5-year-olds. You should have heard the squeals and excitement!!!  They were ecstatic...so thrilled to guess what would come out of the sleeve next. Each time, I'd tease them by VERY. VERY. SLOWLY. pulling the pattern out. It could have been Christmas morning for the excitement they showed. If you have preK-2nd graders, this is such a great, cheap, easy math activity. When I finished with the group session, I gave the kids access to the materials during "choice time."

Can't recommend this highly enough! :)

Leaf Placemats, Collages, Thanksgiving Decor!

Around here, we still have a LOT of leaves falling. This project would make a great Thanksgiving decoration...

While studying "L is for Leaf," we read Read Leaf, Yellow Leaf. For each student I anchored a sheet of contact paper, sticky side up, to the table with a tiny piece of tape in each corner. Students then covered the contact paper with leaves. I used dried leaves although I think fresh fallen leaves would work as long as they weren't wet. Because we were studying "L is for Leaf," each student then put a cut "L" on top of their leaves. You could substitute a Thanksgiving sticker or picture if you were making Thanksgiving placemats. I then put a top layer of contact paper on the collage and trimmed the edges. We hung our projects, so I hole-punched the top and made a loop with yarn.

 We also read two more books that explore how you can make pictures out of leaves, Look What I Did with a Leaf! and Leaf Man. Collages like this could also be used on contact paper for decorations or placemats.

Linking up to stART.

Disclaimer: If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU!  

Turkey Calendar

When I saw the calendar pattern that Little Miss Kindergarten did with turkeys, I just had to try it! And then when I saw the Fancy Nancy handprint turkeys at Almost Unschoolers, I wanted to include that idea. (Both of these bloggers are brilliant!) With their great ideas and a free online lesson from The Math Learning Center, you can do this, too! Before Thanksgiving!

Here's the plan:

1. Read Fancy Nancy Our Thanksgiving Banquet. You'll be inspired to create fancy handprint turkeys.

2. Read Setting the Turkeys Free(link below). In this adorable book, "A young boy uses his hands, paint, sequins, and everything imaginable to make beautiful turkeys in his picture. Soon his imagination takes over, and the turkeys take on a life of their own."

3. Have kids make a set of 30 fancy handprint turkeys on squares that will fit into a calendar pocket chart. (I use the large one.) If you want to have multiple access points to your pattern, use two background colors like Little Miss Kindergarten did. I used only one background color.

4. Print this free lesson plan from The Math Learning Center for a butterfly calendar: C3 Flying Butterflies. (You'll find it under "geometry.") The lesson calls for you to print butterflies calendar grid cards (also free) and have the kids explore the pattern as the butterflies point in four directions: up, to the right, down, to the left. Follow the lesson, using turkey cards instead of butterflies. To do this, you'll want to arrange the pattern for yourself first, then add dates to the cards so that the date is always in the correct location, even when the turkeys turn.

5. Do the lesson with your classroom or homeschool child. You can do it with one card at a time (if you start on Nov. 1st) or do a week or more of cards at a time if you start later in the month. We've been doing about a week at a time.

Reflections:
In doing this with a 5.75yo, I found it helpful to add some additional support, both to recognize the pattern and to understand direction. I tried a lot of things:

*I had the child point each direction as we reviewed each card. As we reviewed each card, we also chanted the direction aloud: "up, to the right, down, to the left...up, to the right, down, to the left."
*When the pointing seemed a little weak, I added whole body movement. We stretched to the ceiling, moved to touch a chair to the right, touched the floor, and moved to touch a chair to the left.
*When the directions/pattern still seemed a little weak, we made a pointer with our Purplinker and pointed in each direction as we chanted through the pattern.
*I made a bunch of arrow cards (see pink in photo) and had the student put the cards in each pocket to show (again!) which direction the turkey feathers were pointing.

The student started to be able to predict the pattern with some consistency around day 15. So he didn't find this pattern easy. But it's so worthwhile! Anybody else know teenagers...perhaps adults...who still don't know right from their left? ;)

Note: Behind each of our turkeys you can see the white cards peeking out which contain our daily journal entries. It works great to put the calendar pattern in front of each entry.

Thank you!: This lesson is thanks to The Math Learning Center, Little Miss Kindergarten, and Almost Unschoolers. Linking up to stART and TGIF Linky Party.

Disclaimer: If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU!

Fun with Time...Books & Foldable

Have a little time on your hands? Maybe it's time to learn about TIME! Here's some fun that we've been having:

Books on Time...Here's What We've Been Reading:

Just a Minute!
Fred is confused about what a "minute" is because his family members keep saying "just a minute" but then proceed to take a VERY. LONG. TIME. Cute book.

Clocks and More Clocks
Mr. Higgins thinks that the clocks in his house don't keep correct time. He'll check a clock on one floor in his house, find it's 3:00, only to go upstairs and find that the clock there says 3:01. Since he can never catch clocks on different floors showing the same exact time, he's convinced there is something wrong. My 9yo totally caught the humor and kept shaking his head throughout the reading.

Telling Time
Great introduction to the concept of time. More advanced than your usual concept book, addressing everything from seconds to hours, analog and digital clocks, and years to millennia. 

Hands-on with Time

Judy Clock
Each student took a Judy Clock and moved the hour and minute hand as we talked about them. I then called out various times and had students check to see that they had the same time as their neighbor.

Time Foldable
My students made their own foldable books about time. We made foldable books with four sections. (Sorta like this "flip flap with 4 flaps.") Each child picked four times during the day. On the top of a flap, he wrote the activity that takes place during a certain time and drew a picture. On the inside of that flap, we stamped a blank clock. Each student showed the time with a Judy Clock and then copied the Judy Clock time onto the blank clock. For example, a child wrote "get up" and illustrated the front of the flap with a picture of getting out of bed. He then showed his wake up time on a Judy Clock (6:45) and copied that information onto the stamp inside the flap. I told my students they could then quiz other people to see if they could figure out when each event took place...and then have their readers open the flap to check.


Disclaimer: If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU!

Math Monday Blog Hop #32 (November 14, 2011)

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Journaling with a Calendar Pocket Chart !!

When I first saw this idea posted on The Math Learning Center blog (see photo #6), I couldn't believe I'd never thought of it before. It's so simple yet so awesome...

I've always had kids journal. Always used a calendar grid pocket chart (5"x5" pockets). But never put them together. So now I'm having kids record things that happen during the day to put on our wall calendar pocket chart. We try to either write at the end of the day or write in the morning about the previous day.

At the end of the month, I'm collecting the cards, holes punched on one corner, to make into a "book of the month," gathered on a ring. It will be tremendously fun for us to look back and see what we did each month.

This does mean that my calendar patterns have to go in front of our journal squares. Either that, or I need to hang a separate calendar. This month we're using turkey handprints for our calendar pattern and they fit nicely in front of the journal squares.

Math Monday Blog Hop #31 (November 7, 2011)

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Kanoodle: A Kid's Review

My 9yo received Kanoodle for his birthday. In the past week it's been in perpetual use by both my 9 and 5yo...and occasionally by their father. Guest poster, LilDude (9), is here to tell you about this game...

Kanoodle is a game that you can play but it's like a puzzle. You put some of the pieces in (the ones they tell you to), and the rest you try and put in so they all fit in the board.You can do 2-D or 3-D pyramid puzzles.

The pieces are like little beads connected together. All of the pieces have different shapes. There are 12 pieces and you try to make them all fit on a 5-by-11 hole board. There are 100+ different puzzles to try and do. There are six levels: pro, super pro, champ, whiz, expert and genius. I think it's a good game because there is a of stuff that you can do with it.

There is an instruction manual. The case it comes in is small--a little bigger than a deck of cards--so it's easy to carry around. I'm amazed that they thought of all those puzzles.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give this an 8 because it's fun but if you do one of the last puzzles it's really hard. I like doing the pyramid puzzles.

Mom Report: Love this! It feels like a toy but is great for visual/spatial reasoning. It would make a great Math Station at school or Workbox at home. Based on our experience, it also makes a great gift!

Disclaimer: I bought my own Kanoodle game and have no company affiliation. If you order from Amazon, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. THANK YOU!

Subitizing: Counting Rope & Speedy Pictures Game

I've been intrigued with the concept of subitizing or "instantly seeing the quantity" ever since reading about it in a recent issues of Teaching Children Mathematics. I've started using our DIY counting rope to flash quantities in front of my 5yo. Want to join us? If you're a homeschooler, just make a counting rope and pull a small number of beads to one end. Then hold up the rope for a brief look (long enough to see the beads but not long enough to count each bead individually.) Teachers could put the counting rope under a document camera or lay game chips on an overhead for a similar experience.

Then, extend learning with this "Speedy Pictures" game.  You can choose to flash a visual representation of a number using fingers, dice, rekenrek, eggs, or number discs. The flash time may be increased or decreased, according to student needs. Students get a moment or two to see the quantity--but not count one by one--before being asked to enter a total. This activity would make a great computer-based Math Station.

Square Cat Giveaway Winner...

Winner of Square Cat is...

Anonymous said...

Square cats would have trouble cuddling in their owners' laps, because they can't curl up into a round ball! urchiken at gmail dot com

October 7, 2011 10:45 AM   I'll be in touch. Thanks so much for entering everyone! I loved reading all your square cat ideas. Thanks also to the author, Elizabeth Schoonmaker, who graciously donated the book for the giveaway and sent the new pictures of Eula to post.

Math Monday Blog Hop #30

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Graph Your Halloween Candy!

Quick repost from last year. Don't forget to graph! 

Jedi Master say...

"A good Jedi must always graph his Halloween candy before eating it. May the force be with you!!"

 Fastest graph, EVER! ;)

Jedi Masters need chocolate, too. Think the Jedi would notice if a piece of his graph disappeared? ;)

My Life in Numbers II...Real Life Problem Solving

Earlier this week, I posted about a fabulous idea Courtney shared at A Middle School Survival Guide having students make Math Journal or Notebook covers telling math ideas about themselves. I've found that these covers become a fabulous jumping-off point for PROBLEM SOLVING.

After students finish their covers, have them generate several problems on 3x5" notecards that use the information they created. For example, on my cover, I posted the following:

I went ahead and wrote my problem on the cover itself, but would have students write on cards. My question, "How many hours do I sleep each night? Each week?" could then be posed to other students. In the classroom, I could put my cover under the document camera and ask students to answer the question posed on my card(s). They could then share a variety of strategies for solving the problem. In a homeschool setting, children could write problems for siblings or parents to solve. Problems could be written at a wide variety of levels, making them grade and age appropriate.


At the Northwest Math Conference I went to a workshop entitled, "Taking the Numb Out of Numbers" by Don Fraser (Ontario, Canada). He began by telling the group of 30 of us, "Did you know that in a group of 23 or 24 there is a 50% chance that at least two people in the group will have the same birthday?" He then gave us a graph showing us the probability of sharing the same birthday in groups of varying sizes. In a group our size--30 people--the likelihood was 70%. We graphed the days/months for birthdays in the room. Interestingly enough, none of us shared the same birthday...we were in the 30%. After looking at the data, Don asked us to come up with problem solving questions--real life questions--based on the information we'd collected. It was amazing to see how many questions we could generate, at all different levels of mathematical knowledge and proficiency.

Don encouraged us to begin each day by reading a "story" and having kids make up a question/word problem. Going back to the math notebook covers, imagine the possibilities if you put ONE child's notebook cover up each day and asked kids to generate questions from the "stories" found there. The problem solving possibilities are endless!

Capacity Scarecrows

When I saw Mathwire's lesson plan, Measurement Man, using "scarecrows to visually represent the relationship between gallon, quart, pint, cup" I knew what we were going to do today!

I set out several containers and asked my student to predict/estimate how many of each would fit into others, just by looking. He recorded ideas in his notebook.



He put the containers in order by capacity. I asked him to figure out how many:

• cups in a pint?
• pints in a quart?
• quarts in a half gallon?
• half gallons in a gallon?

He measured water, recording his results. I then asked him to look at his data to figure out:

• cups in a quart?
• quarts in a half gallon?

We then proceeded to make Measurement Man. As we worked, he told me how many of each measurement were equivalent to others.

Another student worked at a 5yo level and choose to make a monster face on his man.

Thank you, MATHWIRE, for another awesome lesson!

P.S. When we were showing these to Daddy and older siblings tonight, my student was quizzed again about various equivalencies. Funny thing? Dad and sibs had to check the scarecrows to see if he was right. :)

Math Journals & Notebooks

This is one of the times I feel very grateful to have connections to both the public school and homeschool community. Excitement bubbles in the homeschool world over lapbooks (we do an "on-steroids" version called Portfolders), closely followed by notebooks, where students demonstrate learning through student-made folders, foldables and creative notebook pages. Some homeschoolers focus specifically on math. Recently, I've seen a lot of fabulous information on teacher blogs about using journals/notebooks in the context of math. Since we are using math notebooks this year,  I'm enjoying...

1. Designing our journal covers
I love this idea. This teacher had her students design journal covers using "Math About Me." Students used numbers, pictures, word problems, etc. to represent themselves mathematically. In an upcoming post, I'll share ours...along with some fun extensions.

2. Basic Journal Pages
I'm using blacklines from the Bridges Math Journal as pages. The bulk of the pages are centimeter grid paper which makes it helpful when we're doing math problems, drawing graphs, making diagrams, etc. The back of the journal includes visuals in a blank math glossary (designed for students to fill in) which matches the Word Resource Cards that we use. I'm going to have my student refer to the visual glossary and the Word Resource Cards whenever we add vocabulary to the journal.

3. We'll use flaps, foldables and other interactive models.
In our Portfolders, we use a lot of flips and flaps to demonstrate learning in fun, interactive ways. Dinah Zike is the Queen of Foldables and has many great resources, including Big Book of Math and Notebook Foldables. Some of these are displayed at Simply2ndResources.

So what exactly are math journals/notebooks for? We'll be using them to...

• Write our own definitions of math vocabulary used in our daily lessons.
• Demonstrate our understanding of math using pictures, numbers, diagrams, etc... 
• Refer back to math concepts that we explored earlier in the year. We'll continue to add to our knowledge by revising and adding to what we've already written.
• Provide ample opportunity to write in the context of math.
• Explore problem solving in creative ways, often using children's books.
• Look at math in many settings: daily life, historical, games & more

These are other places I'll be visiting!

Runde's Room

Jimmie on Math Notebooking

Math Journals Boost Real Learning

I'll be back soon with examples from our notebooks! Would you like to share yours?

Math Monday Blog Hop #29

So much to share! Upcoming posts include math journals & notebooks, more math tools from the "one buck" store, gift ideas for the holiday season and more. Also, remember to enter the giveaway for a copy of Square Cat. Just a week remains!









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Make-It-Yourself-Math...Counting Rope

At the Northwest Math conference I felt very privileged to sit in on several Kim Sutton workshops. If you've seen her, you know how amazing she is. If you haven't, I highly recommend checking into her work at Creative Mathematics.

In one of her workshops, she briefly held up a "Counting Rope." I thought it a very nifty math manipulative and received permission from Kim to make a video showing how to make your own. This is an incredible visual model for demonstrating addition, subtraction, counting and more!

If you like the video, I encourage you to comment here or on YouTube, showing your appreciation to Kim for allowing me to pass on this information. And look for Kim's book, Do The Math (scroll down on this page), for activities using the counting rope. Enjoy!

Make Your Own Pattern Pull!

Barbara Novelli, one of the wonderful speakers I saw this weekend at the Northwest Math Conference, briefly showed us what she called a "pattern holder." Basically, it was a sleeve made of stiff paper (think posterboard) that she pulled pattern strips through. The pattern strips were permanent, each created to show a particular pattern. I'm sure she had a lot of them; I would think that each strip could be used in one sitting with one group of kids before being set aside until the next year.

I'm far too lazy to create that many unique strips. So I decided to modify a bit. Like Barbara, I created the long sleeve from posterboard so that I could pull strips through, slowly revealing each picture as children make predictions about the picture(s) to follow. But rather than making a lot of permanent pattern strips, I made a pattern holder. I cut up one heavyweight presentation sheet protector and made a transparent pocket on the front of a strip of posterboard. The pocket is designed to hold little cards.

I then went to my local dollar store and picked up one package of wall borders. I cut them up so that I had a multitude of pictures that could be arranged and rearranged to form patterns. This way, I can insert them into the transparent pocket to form anything from simple ABAB patterns to more complex ABCABC or ABBABB patterns, etc. Additional patterns could be made from photos of children (boy-girl-boy-girl or long hair, short hair) or by cutting 3x5" notecards in half and adding stickers or stamps.

I made a short video to demonstrate. Hope you enjoy. I'd love to hear your comments. ;) And do check out past entries exploring patterns. Especially this one that uses the book Pattern Bugs and includes a bunch of hands-on pattern activities.



And with this post, love2learn2day celebrates the 500th Google Friend follower!! THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE! :)

Math Monday Blog Hop #28

I just spent a fascinating couple of days at the Northwest Mathematics Conference. I have so many fabulous new ideas to try out...and share!!! Can't wait to post more this week!







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Advice for Alexander (...who used to be rich last Sunday!)

In the context of Bridges in Mathematics, we've been reading Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday. This humorous picture book provides ample opportunity to explore the addition and subtraction of money through the life of Alexander and his brothers.

We added money...
The text specifies the coins that Alexander's brothers, Anthony and Nicholas, have. So, for example, we figured out how much Anthony has with "two dollars and three quarters and one dime and seven nickels and eighteen pennies." We first used mental math and then checked with both numbers and money value pieces.

We compared money...
After figuring out how much each brother had, we compared to see who had the most.

We subtracted money...
We followed along, subtracting, as Alexander receives a dollar from his grandparents and gradually loses it in a series of poor financial choices.

Finally, we did some writing...and gave Alexander a little advice. (This letter will make the most sense if you read it in the context of the book.) Here's my son's letter:

Dear Alexander,

Don't buy three pieces of gum. Your friend is not going to buy used gum. Don't try and hold your breath til three hundred. Also, you should have landed on your feet when you jumped off of the stoop. And you should not hide a purple marble from your mom because my mom said moms have special magic. Renting a snake for one hour is not really worth it. Don't say bad words to your brothers. Don't hold money while you flush the toilet and try not to walk on your hands with a nickel. And don't eat a chocolate bar that's left sitting around. Don't give Nick four pennies. He probably just stole them. Don't kick Nick's butt. Don't buy a bear with one eye and a half-melted candle and a deck of cards that you can't really do anything with. Don't try and make a tooth fall out.

Pick up the book and write to Alexander with your own advice. We'd love to see what you include! :)

Throughout both the reading of the story and the writing of the letter, my son laughed and laughed. It's a great book for elementary-age students!

Disclosure: If you purchase this product through my Amazon link, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. I do not keep any money myself; I am hoping to be able to sponsor an additional child in foster care through commissions on this site. 

Swish...a Very Cool Math Game

My husband says that Swish has "coolness factor." He's not easily impressed, so take that into consideration. :)

Swish is a new, transparent card game by ThinkFun. Basically, you layer cards so that "balls" go into "hoops" of the same color. In order to make cards fit together, you have to mentally flip/reflect or turn/rotate. When you call "Swish" you put the cards together to test your theory; if they fit, you keep the cards and earn that many points. If they don't fit, you have to return them and lose that number of cards/points already in your hand.

But there's more...

It's not necessarily that hard to find a Swish with two cards. But you can layer MULTIPLE cards to produce a Swish. Try finding 3, 4 or more cards that go together to form a Swish. The more cards you stack, the more points you get.

If you've ever played SET (a favorite math game for looking at patterns), this reminds me of it in some ways. The cards are dealt onto the playing surface and everyone tries to find a SWISH at once. Last night, we played with two adults, a 9yo, and a 5yo. I was shocked that the 5yo was able to play; he could find SWISHes with two cards. At the same time, my husband and I competed to find SWISHes with three cards or more. I'd no sooner than think I had a SWISH and my 5yo would take a card off the playing surface to complete his own 2-card SWISH.

It's a great group game and would make a terrific Math Station in school (what a great way to explore geometric transformations!!!) and a great Math Workbox at home. Oh...[chuckle]...and it would probably work for a fun family game as well. At least we think so.

Are you starting a holiday gift list? Swish would be a great addition!

Disclosure: I received a free Swish game in exchange for a frank and unbiased review. Thank you to ThinkFun for the opportunity! I was not paid for this review, nor was I required to write a positive review.  If you purchase this product through my Amazon link, all commissions go toward foster care through Grace and Hope at no additional cost to you. I do not keep any money myself; I am hoping to be able to sponsor an additional child in foster care through commissions on this site.

Math Monday Blog Hop #27

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get the InLinkz code

Visit past Math Monday Blog Hops.

Grab a Math Monday button for your own blog:

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Giveaway: Square Cat (Children's Book)

Here's a square deal...that might just made you purrrrrr...

Elizabeth Schoonmaker, author of Square Cat, graciously sent us an autographed copy of her book for a giveaway. (You can read my review here and a lesson we did with the book here.)

**GIVEAWAY**

Enter to Win:

Prize (1): one autographed copy of Square Cat
**U.S. shipping only.**

Contest Details:
Begins today and continues through Halloween, October 31st. (Wouldn't it be fun to dress up as a square cat for Halloween??) Contest ends at midnight on the 31st. I will choose a winner at random using Random.org.

How to enter:
Enter up to three times, using the criteria below. Please make sure that I have a way to contact you...such as janedoe at gmail dot com. If I don't hear back from a real person within 24 hours, I'll draw again.

#1: What problematic situation do you think a square cat might encounter, due to her shape?

#2: Become a follower of my blog. (Or tell me that you already are.)

#3: Blog about the contest and post the link in your comment below.

Good luck!

Square Cat Fun!

I recently mentioned how much I enjoy the new book, Square Cat. This week, before reading the book again, I held up two shapes (below, right) and asked my 5yo to tell me what he knew about them. (Can you tell that I used two pieces from my kindergarten calendar pattern? :) From Bridges in Mathematics, btw.) He named them (circle, square) and talked about their attributes (no sides, round; 4 sides w/ same length, 4 corners, etc.)

We then reread Square Cat. I set out some die cut circles* and squares and asked my boys to pick out shapes to represent each character in the book. (*Note that the characters are "round" in the book and not true circles.) They picked two circles and a square. They then drew their own depiction of the characters. A fun art/math/lit connection!  Linking up to stART!

Disclaimer: If you purchase the book from Amazon, any commissions I make (at no additional cost to you) will be sent to Grace and Hope to provide foster care to orphans in China. I recently received a review copy of the book along with another for a giveaway. 

Math Monday Blog Hop #26

Get ready for a GIVEAWAY!!! It's coming!!







If you want to share this collection on your blog, just grab this link:
get the InLinkz code

Visit past Math Monday Blog Hops.

Grab a Math Monday button for your own blog:

<a border="0" href="http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/search/label/Workboxes%3A%20Math" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.majhost.com/gallery/anakin13/Site/mathbox.jpg"> </a>

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you so much to Heather at mrsrobinsonsclassroomblog,  Janaye at frogsandcupcakes, and Barbara at The Corner On Character for the Versatile Blogger Award! Thanks also to Barbara for the Blog on Fire Award! And to Janaye for the Top Ten Award!

To accept Versatile Blogger Award, I need to:

1. Link back to the bloggers who awarded me. (Done...and thank you! I LOVE your blogs!)
2. Share 7 things about myself.
3. Nominate 15 other blogs.

Wow! Tall order!

So...7 things about me...

1. In the past week, I have canned a little more than 115 jars of tomatoes, tomato sauce and salsa. I am so, so sick of looking at tomatoes. (But grateful!) I also found the top of my desk and the floor of my office. (The tomatoes weren't stored there, but everything else was!)  :)

2. I just finished a summer that included many teacher math workshops...including one to Indiana in the heart of Amish country. I learn so much from working with teachers!

3. Related to #2, my husband has Amish relatives. We visited a great uncle and my kids got a buggy ride.

4. I have 5 children. Last year I discovered why I was so busy all the time. I had one child in each of these levels: preschool, elementary, middle, high school, and college!

5. Related to #4, when I was a kid, I said I wanted to grow up to have 12 children.

6. I've gone from high school English teacher to middle school language arts/social studies to elementary teacher to math trainer. My favorite age to teach is always whatever age I'm currently teaching. (Which seems to change on a daily basis!)

7. If I wasn't a teacher, I'd be a child psychologist specializing in adoption issues.

Check out these fabulous math blogs (in no particular order):

Math Mama Writes...

Dr. Nicki's Guided Math Blog

Bookish Ways in Math and Science

Mathwire

Math is Not a Four Letter Word

Guided Math Study Group

Let's Play Math!

Homeschool blogs (in no particular order):

Almost Unschoolers

Joyful Learner

Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns

The Adventures of Bear

A Mommy's Adventures

Jimmie's Collage

Journey to Excellence

The Learning Hypothesis

Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational (an "after school" blog!)

Someday I'll do a post just on teacher blogs. There are so, so many I love that it's hard to choose just a few! But you can find a lot of fabulous teachers linked at:

Teaching Blog Addict

Okay, that's 17. But who's counting??? :)