Recommendations requested

[fruzicle]

I will be teaching a class to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in about a month titled Creative Problem Solving / Math Club.

I would really like to hear your recommendations for games, puzzle books, brain teasers, activities... especially games.

Thanks!!

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

I remember enjoying the game Mancala in 5th grade. You can make a game board from an egg carton and some stones.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Hexaflexagons? Fun to make (adding machine tape and some paper glue), puzzling to find all the sides, intriguing to see the sides change configuration with flexing, creative to decorate in ways pleasing for various configurations of sides.

http://hexaflexagon.sourceforge.net/
But kids might find regular adding machine tape easier to use. Lots of further links on this site, and google will bring you more.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I looked this up. I'm still struggling a bit with the proper fold, or perhaps how to manipulate it after I fold it.

And of course, what cool math would I be able to throw in to explain it all...

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear.

Folding is simple - I can send you some if you want to send a PO addr to rsuitor at gmail dot com.

Probably a good idea to start with a tri-hexaflexagon - i.e., one with three faces. This is made from ten triangles (which reduce to nine when the ends are glued together.) Three times 2^N faces are possible by folding adjacent triangles into each other in pairs. If more than six faces, one continues folding across the separations formed by the previous folds until one has the configuration of a tri-hex, although finding one end can be a practical problem for larger numbers. The most I've seen is a 96 face one.

To flex, take two adjacent triangles, flex across the boundary between them so that you wind up holding the two triangles between your thumb and finger. With your other hand, push the boundary opposite the one you chose into the center so that you have a three-vane arrangement sprouting out from an axis. With a proper flex, you can open this up from either end. Doing so from one end will simply return you to where you started. But opening from the end that was the center of the face from which you started should lead to a new configuration. However: you cannot choose just any two adjacent faces. If the two faces are directly connected, you won't be able to open up the new configuration. Move one boundary either clockwise or counter and try again. That one should open.

The math is more of a problem. The biggest virtue IMO is appreciating the symmetry and regularity. It also provides some creativity if the student is allowed to decorate the faces, and to think about how the decoration will appear in different configurations. But it won't help one learn how to balance one's checkbook, or to deal with improper fractions.

The 3 sided one is very simple, and is also a Mobius strip, which is also fun, but also not very practical.

For games, Scientific American (from which I learned about hexaflexagons) also wrote about a game called eleusis, where one player makes up a rule for accepting or rejecting an offered card, and the other players try to deduce the rule. Turns out there are many games of that sort, discussed in Wikipedia under "list of games with concealed rules". You asked for games, and these encourage logical thinking; IMO, much elementary math is logical thinking applied to working with numbers. You could restrict the range of rules to using operations you want to have practiced.

[bobolly.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything fun to offer, but it's worth emailing Chelsea; I don't think she checks here very often. Although I did here an 18 year old (ish) girl asking her mom today in the grocery store, "Ok, if I make one punch bowl of pineapple juice and malibu, and one of vodka with pineapple juice and cranberry juice, how many boxes of pineapple juice do we need to buy?"
The best part was that she totally used the same inflections as you would when reading a "word problem."

math ideas...

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Julie,
Sounds like fun! I have several possible activities you might like to do, but it would be best to send an attachment and I don't have your email. Mine is chelseal@bixbyschool.org. You can also call me and depending on what you want to do I can put stuff in the mail. Talk soon - Chelsea