Trending Resource: Free Halloween Math Activities & Puzzles
In my last post, I shared the Square Pi Puzzle and mentioned that I was updating some older puzzles that have been long-time favorites of my students. Today, I want to share another updated puzzle, the 1-4-5 Square Challenge. I originally shared this puzzle on my blog in May 2015 which seems like an eternity…
I’m currently procrastinating on preparing a presentation I will be giving this next Wednesday at the Northeast Oklahoma Math Teachers Gathering by writing this post about the Square Pi Puzzle. Speaking of which, if you are anywhere near Northeast Oklahoma and are free on July 31st, consider yourself invited! It’s a completely free day of…
I’m excited to share with you the Big Magic Puzzle. I love magic square puzzles, but I’ve never done much more with them in my class then give out the occasional magic square puzzle worksheet. So, when I ran across a different-than-normal magic square puzzle in The Ultimate Clever Puzzle Book, I knew I had…
It’s Monday which means it’s once again time to look through all my twitter likes for the past week to prepare for this week’s volume of Monday Must Reads. I find that I’m much more likely to actually implement the amazing ideas I find if I take a bit of time each week to look…
Today I’m sharing the Three Immovable Pentablocks Puzzle with you. This summer, I’m on a mission to make as many puzzles as possible for my classroom from a bag of 100 wooden cubes that I purchased from Amazon. So far, I have used 6 of these wooden cubes to make a set of Genius Blocks…
I recently ran across the E Brainteaser Puzzle. I immediately knew I *had* to create a version of this “E Puzzle” for my classroom. An excerpt of the book Quests and Quandaries: Exploring Intellectual Interests in Depth [link no longer exists] showed up in my google search results. It was through this excerpt that I…
Today I’m excited to introduce you to SOMA Blocks. A week or so ago, I shared the first of many projects created from wooden cubes I have planned for this summer. Those Genius Blocks were actually my second project of the summer, but they were the first project to be entirely finished and ready to…
As I’ve been prepping for my classes for next year, I continually finding myself referencing previous volumes of Monday Must Reads. This is just the inspiration I need to keep compiling these volumes in an attempt to capture the awesome ideas of math teachers on twitter! I hope you find an idea to use in…
This divisibility rules puzzle is called “Is It Possible?” and it’s a real stumper!
Genius Blocks are my latest classroom creation. They are perfect for a classroom puzzle table or a creative way to practice mental math with integer operations. Last summer, I ran across several craft ideas on twitter involving wooden blocks. So I promptly went on Amazon and bought a bag of 100 one inch wooden cubes….
Today I’m sharing a puzzle I’m calling Nine Squares Puzzle. A few days ago, Shelli tweeted about needing more puzzles for next year since her advisory students will have already seen the ones she has used previously. This reminded me that I too will have this problem because my Pre-Calc classes will be made almost…
Yesterday, after spending a bit of time laminating and cutting out the cards for the trig open middle task I posted about yesterday, As I was looking through the Open Middle tasks for complex numbers, I got the idea of creating a task involving the powers of i (imaginary numbers). I was shocked at first…
Put your knowledge of divisibility rules to the test with this fun twelve envelopes puzzle.
This summer, I’ve been doing lots of thinking about how I want to structure my 3 Algebra 2 and 3 Pre-Calculus classes for next year. One way I’ve been doing this is reading through my previous volumes of Monday Must Reads and looking for which ideas match my courses I will be teaching and look…
Yes, I know that yesterday was Monday. But, I’m reaching that point in the semester where I am in deep need of motivation and inspiration. So, I figured I should compile a new volume of Monday Must Reads – a weekly-ish round-up of Twitter awesomeness to get my brain running with new ideas. And, we’ll…
I wasn’t sure if I would find time to put together a new volume of Monday Must Reads this week. But, an unexpected snow day has taken away all my excuses. So, join me as I take a journey through my favorite tweets of the week. I hope you find these as inspiring as I…
Today, I’m sharing a Bookcase logic puzzle. I typed up this puzzle over a year ago and never got around to using/sharing last year because I could never remember to bring a piece of red cardstock to school with me to print out the pieces. This bookcase based logic puzzle is from The Big, Big,…
Yesterday, I posted this word find puzzle for students to tackle on my whiteboard. This puzzle has absolutely zero mathematical connections, but I think it’s still a fun one to tackle. I’m excited to see what students do with this puzzle. The word find puzzle involves a grid of letters. You can start with any…
Today I’m excited to share this Hidden Animals Puzzle with you from Frank Tapson. This year, I am teaching 4 sections of Algebra 2 and 2 sections of Pre-Calculus. Having four sections of one subject is always interesting because I find that keeping four different classes at approximately the same spot in the curriculum to…
I can’t believe it is already Monday once again. The weekends seem to be going by faster and faster lately. I have several blog posts in the works that I need to finish and share. Hopefully I will be able to knock a few out before the next Monday Must Reads rolls around. If you’re…
It’s Monday again, and I am SO thankful it is a 3 Day Weekend! I really need this extra day off. To help get myself inspired for returning to school tomorrow, I’m compiling a list of my most recent liked tweets in this week’s volume of Monday Must Reads. Multiple Representations Anchor Chart I love…
Yesterday, I posted a sneak peek photo on twitter of the matador dominoes puzzle I’ve been working on for my classroom. It was very interesting to read people’s theories about what the puzzle might entail. This is the Matador Dominoes Puzzle. I ran across this puzzle while searching the Internet for the instructions to a…
Somehow, it is once again Monday. So, let’s celebrate this new week with some lovely twitter awesomeness from my fellow teachers around the world. Circle Theorems Bulletin Board Nicola Amies inspires with this beautiful, student-made circle theorems bulletin board Exclamation Point Area Question Calculus Teachers! Check out this exclamation point based area question from Simon…
It’s the first Monday of the new semester. Over Christmas Break, I had the privilege of having an awesome lunch with some amazing local math teacher tweeps. Shelli mentioned that she missed my regular Monday Must Reads posts. So, I’m hoping to do a better job this semester of keeping up with sharing your twitter…
This isn’t the first time the Four Aces Puzzle has made an appearance on my blog. It was one of my very first puzzle table puzzles last year. I especially love this puzzle because it is a completely free download from Puzzles.ca. Earlier this year, the puzzle seemed to disappear from their site, but it…
This equilateral triangle puzzle comes from Puzzle Box, Volume 1 from Dover Publications. This is the first book in a series of three puzzle books that are edited by the Peter and Serhiy Grabarchuk. This specific puzzle is by Richard Candy. Each volume has 300 puzzles, and I have found over a hundred puzzles between…
Full Disclosure: I started this post over a week ago with the hopes of posting it for LAST Monday’s Must Reads. When I didn’t finish it on Sunday or Monday, I started to think I would post it on Tuesday as a one-day-late version of Monday Must Reads. Now, here we are, an entire week…