Well the countdown to Christmas is here and that calls for a few Christmaths activities in the last few weeks of the term...
The first of these is my 'A Very Mathsy Xmas' display, which is basically a Mathematical advent calendar of the wonderful puzzles (posters) from the nrich website. A link to all these puzzles is below:
http://nrich.maths.org/posters
I selected a few of these puzzles that were suitable for all of my classes, or were one of these 'low access high challenge' tasks! I printed them out and then got some coloured card to put over the top to hide them before each day is revealed. I plan to catch up on the weekend days on the Monday of each week, and we may do the days we'll miss (20-24) in the last week of term too. I saved the puzzles I chose in a folder so when each day is revealed I can get the puzzle up on the board to discuss as a class.
Each day I choose a student from my 1st class to open the 'window' on the calendar for that day and then my other classes see the puzzle when they come in.
I've been really pleased with the reaction to the calendar and the puzzles, there's been a student each day so far that's asked to open that day's 'window' (some of them have seen it as a privilege to open a day as there's so few of them [compared to the number of students I have]) and the discussions we've had as a class in terms of how to approach each question, and then the solutions, have been really encouraging too.
Here's the display...
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I used a nice 'snowy' font I found on the web a while back to do the title for the display.
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Here's how it looks from the front of my classroom
In addition to the 'A Very Mathsy Xmas' display I have also, today, sent round this month's numeracy puzzle(s) of the week to all our tutor groups.
If you've read my previous posts on numeracy you'll know I'm a big fan of, and use, Emily Hughes @ilovemathsgames's blog and numeracy puzzles that I send round to our tutor groups. So, using the same format that I use for these, I sent round this month's set. I decided to make a bit more of a competition out of the puzzles this month, being it the run in to xmas. So, I found on Don Steward's amazing 'Median' blog the following puzzles...
http://donsteward.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/puzzles-practice.html
I have given our tutor groups the challenge of seeing how many of the 24 puzzles they can answer correctly by the last Weds of term. I like the link to the advent calendar here! The tutor group with the most correct answers will receive a chocolaty Christmaths prize on the last day of term. If there's a tie, I'll be sending a 'tiebreaker' question to the involved tutor groups.
Here's the ppt I've sent round...
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Title slide with our Numeracy Across the Curriculum Logo on it and details of the competition.
Don Steward's puzzles (see link above)
No doubt 'The Pirate Game' will also make an appearance at some point in the last week of term and in other news...I'm currently organising a Dodgeball tournament for our Year 10s (I'm a Year 10 tutor) on the last day of term!
I hope everyone who's reading this has a fantastic last few weeks of term...and an even better xmas holiday period! See you in the new year (if not before).
The first of these is my 'A Very Mathsy Xmas' display, which is basically a Mathematical advent calendar of the wonderful puzzles (posters) from the nrich website. A link to all these puzzles is below:
http://nrich.maths.org/posters
I selected a few of these puzzles that were suitable for all of my classes, or were one of these 'low access high challenge' tasks! I printed them out and then got some coloured card to put over the top to hide them before each day is revealed. I plan to catch up on the weekend days on the Monday of each week, and we may do the days we'll miss (20-24) in the last week of term too. I saved the puzzles I chose in a folder so when each day is revealed I can get the puzzle up on the board to discuss as a class.
Each day I choose a student from my 1st class to open the 'window' on the calendar for that day and then my other classes see the puzzle when they come in.
I've been really pleased with the reaction to the calendar and the puzzles, there's been a student each day so far that's asked to open that day's 'window' (some of them have seen it as a privilege to open a day as there's so few of them [compared to the number of students I have]) and the discussions we've had as a class in terms of how to approach each question, and then the solutions, have been really encouraging too.
Here's the display...
In addition to the 'A Very Mathsy Xmas' display I have also, today, sent round this month's numeracy puzzle(s) of the week to all our tutor groups.
If you've read my previous posts on numeracy you'll know I'm a big fan of, and use, Emily Hughes @ilovemathsgames's blog and numeracy puzzles that I send round to our tutor groups. So, using the same format that I use for these, I sent round this month's set. I decided to make a bit more of a competition out of the puzzles this month, being it the run in to xmas. So, I found on Don Steward's amazing 'Median' blog the following puzzles...
http://donsteward.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/puzzles-practice.html
I have given our tutor groups the challenge of seeing how many of the 24 puzzles they can answer correctly by the last Weds of term. I like the link to the advent calendar here! The tutor group with the most correct answers will receive a chocolaty Christmaths prize on the last day of term. If there's a tie, I'll be sending a 'tiebreaker' question to the involved tutor groups.
Here's the ppt I've sent round...
Title slide with our Numeracy Across the Curriculum Logo on it and details of the competition.
Don Steward's puzzles (see link above)
No doubt 'The Pirate Game' will also make an appearance at some point in the last week of term and in other news...I'm currently organising a Dodgeball tournament for our Year 10s (I'm a Year 10 tutor) on the last day of term!
I hope everyone who's reading this has a fantastic last few weeks of term...and an even better xmas holiday period! See you in the new year (if not before).