Here’s a super fun addition to a Family Math Night event: A scavenger hunt! As participants enter the room they are handed one of two “game boards”…the K-2 version or the 3-5 version. The K-2 version is a little easier and includes pictures. In addition, it’s played like bingo but with a scavenger hunt twist. Kids and their parents explore math in the environment by finding and crossing off items on their bingo board. Five-in-a-row wins. For a challenge (and…
Here’s a fun Family Math Night collaborative project where participants create a Sierpinski Triangle. The project includes three activity levels all which result in creating self-similar triangles which are them put together to make the large Sierpinski Triangle. I also talk about the Father of Fractal Geometry, Benoit Mandlebrot, Chaos Theory, and the connection between fractals and our cell phones. Click on the image to the left to get the lesson plan. .
As I was thinking about my ‘What Do You Notice?’ poster for my Nifty Numbers Family Math Night event last night, it seemed natural to tie it in with numbers. So here’s the poster I created. As with all my ‘What Do You Notice’ posters, they can be “answered” on a variety of levels. This one can go all the way to algebraic equations. And that’s what makes them so much fun. Everyone can do them! What I loved about…
We spend more time estimating with numbers than actually crunching them. Estimation Jars are great ways to help kids learn to make reasonable estimates. And to help, check out our NEW Estimation Jar Slips! Copy/paste this link to get the pdf. And feel free to share with others! http://www.familymathnight.com/pdf/EstimationJarSlips.pdf
I love the idea of having at least one What do you notice? posters at our Family Math Night events. I started it last year when I did an event at an IB school and the two teachers I was working with wanted to tie in some of the IB inquiry philosophy. It was really fun to watch the kids standing in front of the posters trying to ‘notice’ things. Besides, they got an extra Estimation Jar slip for…