Free Math Ideas for the Duration! Starting with THE FRACTION MUSEUM

Hi All,

To try and help folks out in a small way during our current Coronavirus circumstances, I thought I might share some free math ideas with any teachers, parents, and/or kids who are looking for good problems, projects, and activities to do.

Some of you may know me as having been an elementary teacher, curriculum developer, math coach, and supervisor in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Schools in Princeton Junction, NJ or as an author of math books for Scholastic. I try to develop problems and activities that are interesting, fun, and challenging.

I plan on posting a piece every couple of days. I'll give you a brief description of the activity and then attach a pdf you can download and print.

Today, as an introduction, here's a link to an activity called The Fraction Museum. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/videos/teaching-content/fraction-museums-bob-krech/ This is a video of me teaching the lesson with a third grade class.

You can do this activity with any age from K-8. You don't need any special manipulatives or a pdf for this one. Use whatever you have around the house, anything you can break or cut into equal parts (ie; paper, cardboard, chocolate bars, etc.) or form into sets or groups (coins, paper clips, buttons, etc.)

I hope you find this helpful. Stay safe. God bless! And may the math be with you! 😀
All the best,
Bob Krech

Comments

BAD Graphs

Hi All, Kids love to find other people's mistakes. (Not always that keen on finding their own of course.) Here's a chance for them to find some mistakes while learning some things about graphs. This activity focuses on learning about graphs and the parts of a graph that are important, but are sometimes neglected. When kids make their own graphs the most common omissions are: the title (what is this a graph of?), labeling the x and y axis (what do numbers and bars means?), and the units (how much of what?). A great way to remind kids of the importance of these elements is to have them try to deal with graphs that don't have them ie; BAD graphs. I give students a worksheet on which I have created four BAD graphs. They are BAD graphs because I leave off important elements like the title. Along with this students are also given a 4 item question sheet which they are to try to answer using the BAD graphs. I put the BAD graphs on the board or display. They look like this: I...

What Does Not Belong?

Hi All, "What Does Not Belong" is such a great little concept and can be applied to so many different areas of math as well as other content areas. Great little game when you are waiting, like for buses to be called or for the day to begin. Also a great game for long car or bus rides where if there are no written numbers or pictures you really have to do the mental math. Present a group of numbers. Start with maybe six. Say, 10 56 17 122 4 98 Ask the players to identify which number does not belong and have them explain why. We want players to look at the characteristics of the numbers and compare them to try to find the selection criteria or "rule" so they can determine which does not belong. For example, we have a mix of 1, 2, and 3 digit numbers, so it's not the "rule" is not the number of digits. We have five even numbers and only one odd number. That's it! 17 does not belong,...

Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum? No! FIDDLE, FADDLE, FLOP!

Hi All, Ready for another great game? Ready for Fiddle, Faddle, Flop? It's a great game for place value, mental math, and number work. You can play anywhere at any time. All you need is a pencil and paper or board and markers. Tell students that you are thinking of a number. Explain that it has two digits. Invite them to guess the number. You will respond to their guesses by saying one of four words: Fiddle, Faddle, Flop, or Correct. Here is the translation for those words: Fiddle: one of the digits is correct, but is in the wrong place Faddle: one of the digits is correct and in the correct place Flop: none of the digits is correct Correct: both digits are correct For example, if you are thinking of the number 17 and my guess is 68, you would say Flop since none of the digits is correct. On your next guess, if you were to say 76, I would say, Fiddle, because one of the digits is correct, but in the wrong...

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