February Math Activities
Featured Activity: Freedom Quilts
- Quilting:
- See Freedom Quilts for a discussion of freedom quilts, children's literature and links to internet sites that discuss the use of quilts as secret codes for the Underground Railroad.
Freedom Quilt Challenge challenges students to use slides, flips and turns to recreate the Flying Geese pattern using a single half white/half black quilt square.
Freedom Quilts lesson plan from the Kennedy Center that introduces students to the most popular quilt patterns used by the Underground Railroad.
A study of quilting centers on the geometric use of slides, flips, turns and color patterns created by congruent squares and triangles. Students learn to identify these geometric transformations as they reproduce traditional quilt block patterns or create their own original patterns.
Freedom quilts and the history of their use by the Underground Railroad as a secret code for fugitive slaves relates geometry, literature and history, providing an interdisciplinary approach to this important topic.
Valentine's Day:
Consider using some of these activities to incorporate Valentine's day into enriching math activities.
- Valentine Heart Candy:
- Graphing: students predict how many candies will be in the box, then count and graph data on the contents of one small box of these candies
- Average box: students use class data to describe the average box in terms of number of candies, colors, sayings, etc.
- Fractions: students write fractions to describe each color in the box as a fraction of the total amount
- Counting: after reading Ten Apples up on Top, students create a class booklet titled Ten Hearts up on Top. Students may draw themselves and hearts or use heart candy to illustrate their assigned number.
- Patterns: use heart candies to construct AB, AAB, ABB, ABC patterns, etc.
- Valentine Battleship challenges students to find the Valentine heart candies placed on their opponent's grid.
- Play Grab the Candy! game using heart candies to practice coordinate graphing.
- Download Grab the Candy Game: Valentine's Day Version
- Colored Hearts: Can You Finish the Pattern? challenges students to identify the pattern and extend it by coloring in the white hearts. Teachers should require students to classify the patterns (AB, AAB, etc.) and explain the pattern they see and how they decided to continue the pattern.
- Valentine Symmetry:
- Symmetric Valentines: have students fold paper and draw half of the outline of a heart on one side, cutting to reveal the completed shape.
- Symmetric Valentine Faces: follow directions for Symmetric Faces to create Symmetric Valentine Faces using a basic heart shape and a combination of red, pink and white paper for the face and cut features.
- Valentine Problem Solving:
- How Many Valentines? challenges students to look for patterns to solve the problem about class valentines.
- Valentine Discrete Math:
- Pascal's Hearts challenges students to use patterns in Pascal's Triangle to complete the diagram, then extend the pattern.
- Heart Paths challenges students to find all the different paths that spell HEART if they can only move from a letter to one of the two letters directly below it.
Presidents Day
Consider using a data analysis activity about U.S. Presidents that requires students to analyze data in a table, construct a frequency table and graph, then finally convert this to a U.S. map picture of the data.- Where Did They Come From? is a mathematics-social studies activity that analyzes the data on the home states of U.S. Presidents. Do you know which state has given us the most Presidents?
Winter Olympics:
Consider using some of these activities to incorporate fascination with the Winter Olympics (February 10-26, 2006) into enriching math activities.
- Olympic Discrete Math:
- Olympic Logo challenges students to draw the logo without lifting the pencil or traversing the same line twice.
- Olympic Data Analysis:
- Ice Skating Scoring:
- Read Ice Skating Scoring: Math Forum's discussion of the use of the median rather than the mean in scoring ice skating.
- Ice Skating Champs challenges students to calculate the scores of ice skaters by dropping the highest and lowest of the seven judges' scores, then find the median of the remaining scores. Students then award the gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three contestants.
- Time for Kids Poll Zone polls students on which Olympic sport they would rather watch: ice skating or ice hockey. After voting, students view a circle graph of the current poll results. Consider taking a class vote then comparing the class results to the online results. Is the class a good sample of the larger population? Why or why not? Visit this site often as the polls change regularly.
- Read
- Ice Skating Scoring:
- Olympics 2006 Information:
- Olympics Lesson Plan Ideas & Resources:
- Winter Olympic Math Word Problems
- Visit Math and the Olympics: an Inquiry Unit for additional ideas to investigate how math is used in the Olympics.