# Tag Info

18

Stuff for fast finishers/gifted kids should be out of the stream --stuff that isn't what you're covering next week or next year. Look at puzzles -- especially geometrical ones. Graph theory -- Bridges of Konigsburg, three houses, three wells. Chess board problems. There are lots of good puzzlebooks out there. Logic puzzles too. Mechanical puzzles too. ...

15

The best thing you can do for your daughter is to talk to her and especially have her talk back to you. You noted that she doesn't like doing exercises. If you want her to like math, and she doesn't like doing exercises, more exercises are not going to help her like math. She is already intrinsically motivated to do certain things. People learn when they are ...

11

One option is to assign tasks with a low floor, but high ceiling. That means that almost everyone has the background to start tinkering, and accomplish something, but there is enough complexity and variation that one could keep discovering new things for a very long time. This naturally differentiates instruction. Engaging tasks of this form are hard to ...

9

Sprouts is a very excellent game that has a lot of scope for proving things, not just for strategy but also for other aspects of the game too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouts_%28game%29 The game begins with a number of dots drawn on the page (5 is good for a short game). On your turn you can join two dots or a dot to itself as long as any line you draw ...

9

This is one major goal of Expii, a crowd-sourced work in progress. Here are some other related projects I've seen: Alcumus from the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS): http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Alcumus/index.php Brilliant: http://brilliant.org/ Clever Math: https://www.clevermath.org/ Curriki: http://www.curriki.org/ DragonBox App: http://www....

8

Another great game is Rush hour. It requires the important but in my opinion underemphasized skills of nonverbal problem solving, working backwards and trying all possible options.

8

You may be overestimating how much students learn from symbolic rules. Most textbooks already teach symbolic rules first then put word problems last. This is backasswards. Most students succeed at exercises such as: Compute the exact missing value. $\frac{7}{9}\times39=\_\_\_$ But, if you do not show them that prior question and instead begin with this,...

8

Go research it. This is not suitable for small answer Q&A. It's too big a topic--what topics to cover for each grade of math! Go look at some of the existing products in this genre. Buy a few, play them, read the Amazon reviews on their plus, minus, etc. You do realize your game will not be the first creature of this species to walk the Earth, right?...

7

I think Set is a great commercial game. There's a daily instance of the game that can be played at the same website I just linked to.

7

I will echo the sentiment of other commenters here and say that the way you are approaching seems like it will squelch, rather than foster, any interest in mathematics your daughter may have. I will share my personal experience with my father, an engineer, and his father, an engineering professor, in an attempt to help you find ways to help your daughter ...

6

I taught gifted students and had many fast finishers. Here are some of things we did (most require no preparation on your part but some require resources that you may not have): I kept a supply of Think Fun puzzles. These are solitaire brain teasers that the students enjoyed. Some of my classes had access to tablets/computers and the students were allowed ...

5

The most basic one would possibly be the following classical game-theoretic example (also appearing in the movie "Last Year at Marienbad"). The game starts with a number of matches on the table (replaceable by any collection of similar object if matches are unsuitable for class, of course). The two players take rounds; at each round the player picks $1$, $2$...

5

I think you will like Eleusis, a card game where one player invents a rule for valid sequences of cards, and the rest of the players "experiment" by proposing a sequence and being told whether it is acceptable or not. The game rules are a bit involved, but there is a version called "Eleusis express" that may be suitable. Quoting the Wikipedia link above, "...

5

In all honesty, and I say this not to be harsh, but it sounds like what you are doing is going to avert her to mathematics completely, and this is not desirable for obvious reasons. As the other answer touches on, numeracy, which is a skill that is most useful to students, regardless of their future vocations, is something that you should be emphasizing, ...

5

I taught honors and enrichment math to students in 1st - 6th grades and we explored a lot of games. My students in 4th to 6th grades have access to chrome books and can go to sites that are bookmarked to play. Here are their favorites: Lemonade Stand at CoolMath4Kids. The kids run a lemonade stand. They buy inventory, set prices and try to make a profit....

5

Some possibilities coming from algebra are https://mathoverflow.net/questions/93276/a-game-on-noetherian-rings and http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2884 though it depends on how much algebra the students will have been introduced to at that point. Another possibility is the game Hex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(board_game)) since here the impossibility of a ...

5

For multiplying polynomials and combining like terms, this website presents a simple level-appropriate tabular method. For example, to multiply the polynomials $x - 2$ and $2x^2 -3x + 1$ construct the following table: Then fill the table with the products, like the multiplication tables they learned in primary school: Like terms will be located along ...

5

There is a great game about polynomials presented by Rachel Kaplove on the eHow YouTube channel. The rules are very simple: Each student gets a card with either expanded polynomial, for example $x^2-81$, or one of its factors, for example $x-9$ and $x+9$. If a student has a polynomial, he/she needs to find classmates with the right factors. If a student has ...

4

Britain has the NRich site, which has some great targeted problems, games and interactivities: http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage You'll be looking for the Upper Primary or Lower Secondary level.

4

Have you looked into Desmos for possible resources? In particular: How about the Marbleslides activities? I'm not sure whether this satisfies the criteria in your case (specifically: I do not know if you have access to the requisite technology) but the activity (it seems to me) can be modified RE: I'd be glad if you could point me to some game or ...

4

Well, you could start by explaining what $x^2$ means geometrically. If I had a square with side length $x$, then the area would be $x^2$. Explain to them how this is completely different from $2x$. Picture often help students. How to explain to them that $(x+1)^2=x^2+2x+1$? Once again, I would go with a visual: Pictures are often better than numbers, ...

4

I'm not sure whether this question really belongs here, but if it does, I think you should be able to do something along these lines by combining several APIs. However, first I need to mention one of the more relevant books about this from the past decade, Keith Devlin's Mathematics Education for a New Era. It is a contentious book, of course! But it has ...

4

I've found 7x7 to be a pretty good size for my non-math major college students to play a few games in a reasonable time frame. My own (kindergarten and 2nd grade) children find it a good size as well. Here's my rendering of the board: https://www.instanton.org/hex-board.pdf

4

Oh this is subtle and tough, in my opinion. It seems to me (and forgive the appalling over-generalizations I am about to present) ... In some vague but emotionally potent sense, math is seen as vital for "success" in life. Many parents fear that without a solid math experience, their children will be denied a vital opportunity. (Good for them for feeling ...

3

You might also consider the game Set. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(game) shows some of the basic games with the cards and some associated combinatorics. I also have some more materials for this game if you are interested.

3

You might use the amazing "Fold & Cut" Theorem, mentioned in this MESE answer "Secondary Geometry Curriculum Sequencing." Templates available at this web site. Another idea is to have your students discover the $11$ incongruent "nets" for (unfoldings of) a cube (without knowing in advance that there are $11$):         (Figure from ...

3

Have them explore low dimensional topology by cutting up strips of paper: Mobius Strip Activities.

3

The NCTM website has many mathematical games: http://illuminations.nctm.org/. The site lists over 20 games in the "pre-K-2" grade category, though some of them are a bit advanced. For offline games, if you spend a little time searching, you can find some really good ideas on Pinterest. Here are a few boards which are worth checking out: http://www....

3

Check out the site for Math Midway, and see their contact page. This operation is roughly equivalent to a specialized playground designed to help increase interest on a very positive scale for late elementary and junior high or middle school age bracket children in the field of numbers. One of the questions asked in the booklet I've got is: How do you ...

3

I'll reiterate the suggestion to play games with your daughter and give her games to play, rather than requiring her to do exercises. If your daughter has a limited amount of "screen time" (for Netflix, video games, TV, etc.) you might allow her to earn extra for any time she spends on one of these games (which would also not count against her limit, since ...

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