Trending Resource: Free Halloween Math Activities & Puzzles
I’m excited for Monday Must Reads to be my first blog post since switching to my new domain name, mathequalslove.net. If you’re reading this post via email or RSS, I encourage you to give the new site a visit! Hopefully, the improved navigation will make it much easier to find previous resources. I’m still tweaking…
I’m excited to share the Only Takes and Adds Puzzle with you today. I did a lot of thinking this summer about how I wanted to incorporate puzzles into my classroom this year. Over the last few years, puzzles are one of the things I’ve become known for sharing on my blog. Hello, I have an…
August 1, 2020 – #MTBoSBlaugust Challenge Accepted When I saw @druinok‘s tweet about her yearly #MTBoSBlaugust challenge this morning, I did a bit of a double take. August? How in the world is it August?!? Of course it is August. I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday on July 31st. It naturally follows that today is…
Today I’m sharing a new puzzle with you called the 8 sticks puzzle. Yesterday, I bemoaned the loss of my classroom puzzle corner. I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to keep incorporating puzzles in my classroom in a pandemic-friendly manner. My favorite puzzles are the ones with pieces that students can manipulate….
The Square in Square Puzzle is a creation of the brilliant Peter Grabarchuk. It is one of my weekly magnetic puzzles that never made it up on the blog this school year. Imagine that… You are given sixteen rectangles. Among these rectangles, only two can be placed next to one another to form a perfect…
June 13, 2019 – Summer [Originally Included in Twelve Envelopes Puzzle Blog Post] I’ve finally reached a point in the summer where my brain has started thinking about ideas for the new school year. Actually, I’ve been thinking about next year since around February or March, but I’ve finally stopped *just* thinking about next year…
I want to share a factoring quadratics practice activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. In the Oklahoma math standards, students are first exposed to factoring quadratics in Algebra 1. However, they are only exposed to factoring quadratics where the leading coefficient is 1. These are called monic quadratics. Thus, my Algebra 2 students…
Looking for fun and creative pi day activities? Check out this comprehensive list of free ideas and activities for celebrating pi day from those who best know how to celebrate this most mathematical of holidays – math teachers! Pi Day Decorations Pi Clock Poster Add a bit of Pi Day fun to your classroom with…
Are you ready for a tour of my 2019-2020 high school math classroom decorations? What can I say about the 2019-2020 school year other than the fact that it’s been CRAZY? I ended last school year a few weeks early due to taking maternity leave. It felt weird not having the closure of the normal…
Today I want to share a connect the dots puzzle with you courtesy of Erich Friedman in Puzzle Box, Volume 2. If you love puzzles like this, you should definitely check out Erich’s Puzzle Palace which is chock-full of amazing puzzles. All three of the books in this series have been a lovely addition to my…
When I ran across this count the objects task last fall, I thought it would make a great classroom activity for anyone needing to collect one variable data to analyze. The task is from Stephen Barr’s Mathematical Brain Benders: 2nd Miscellany of Puzzles. I see so much potential for using this activity in a statistics class. You…
I’m super intrigued by this variant of Tic-Tac-Toe called Tic-Tac-Toe Squared from Giant Book of Puzzles and Games by Sheila Anne Barry. This is another book that you can borrow from the Internet Archive’s Open Library for free. If you love using puzzles in your classroom, I get a lot of my puzzle making inspiration…
Solve this captivating island puzzle from Donald Knuth as you arrange the thirteen provided letters to trace out the names of each island on the grid.
Well, it’s a new week, and it’s time for Monday Must Reads. The world is still an insane place. My school is meeting virtually today to start putting into place a plan to do distance learning starting next week. I still can’t wrap my mind around what this is actually going to look like. A…
It’s time for a new volume of Monday Must Reads! I don’t need to write a blog post telling you how crazy life is at the moment. I’m currently on Week 2 of an extended 3 Week Spring Break due to COVID-19. We’ll be (digitally) returning to school on April 6th. Given that this decision…
Today I finally got around to taking down the last puzzle we tackled before Christmas Break. It is always my aim to switch out my puzzles on a weekly basis, but sometimes the hectic nature of the classroom prevails. This was a reminder that I haven’t shared this symmetric square puzzle here on the blog…
Over the years, I’ve shared quite a few Christmas ideas in my Monday Must Reads posts. This year, I’ve taken the time to go through these posts and compile these holiday-themed ideas in a single post. Hopefully this will make accessing these amazing ideas that other math teachers have shared on twitter even easier to…
It’s a lazy Saturday morning that is turning out to be lazier than I had initially planned since I’m currently stuck on the couch with a sleeping baby on top of me. That means it’s the perfect time to share another puzzle that my students tackled recently on our magnetic puzzle wall (AKA dry erase…
Master the art of the squaring off puzzle! Rotate and arrange given rectangular pieces to create a perfect square, testing your problem-solving skills. Thanksgiving Break is here, and I am oh so grateful for these few days off. This year has felt like one long learning curve as I figure out what life looks like…
Looking for a fun challenge to complete with your tangrams? Check out this free printable bear tangram puzzle. Arrange a set of seven tangram puzzle pieces to create the shape of a bear. At the beginning of my teaching career, one of the first things I invested in was a class set of tangrams. I…
Looking for a fun challenge to complete with your tangrams? Check out this free printable camel tangram puzzle. Arrange a set of seven tangram puzzle pieces to create the shape of a camel. At the beginning of my teaching career, one of the first things I invested in was a class set of tangrams. I…
Spark your students’ problem-solving skills! Explore the Domino Effect puzzle: arrange 8 dominoes to create a balanced 4×4 square. I think you will enjoy this exciting classroom challenge! When I shared a photo of the Domino Effect Puzzle (this week’s magnetic puzzle of the week) on twitter, someone was quick to point out that I…
Engage students with the A Plus Puzzle! Free printable math activity where they assemble 5 pieces to form a plus sign. Fun and interactive for all!
Today I’m excited to share the 20 x 9 Challenge with you and your students. Last summer, I picked up a copy of Pierre Berloquin’s 100 Numerical Games at Goodwill for a couple of dollars. It’s turned out to be a good investment because it has served as inspiration for several fun classroom challenges. Want to…
The 3 Hares Puzzle is a classic brain teaser that will put your visual problem-solving skills to the test. Can you arrange the six pieces so that every hare has exactly two ears?
For the past two years, the Train Game (20 Express by Blue Orange Games) has been my go-to 2nd day of school activity. I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, but I’ve never written an entire blog post explaining it fully. I’ve got so much I want to blog about and so little time to…
It’s Monday Must Reads Day! For me, it’s the last Monday of summer break. Next Monday, I report for our first PD Day of the year, and students start on that Thursday (August 15th). For weeks now, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this will be my 8th year in…