Holiday math crafts: celebrate this festive season with hands-on creations that build essential math skills.Thanksgiving Fraction Pie Combine the spirit of Thanksgiving (and messages of thanks) with equivalent-fractions practice, as kids make and share fraction pies. Divide the class into groups of twos and fours (for younger children) or into threes, fours, and fives (for older or more advanced children). CUTTING UP A FRACTION PIE 1. Each group will need a large sheet of construction paper, a large pie pan, a ruler for each group member, pencils, oak tag, and crayons. 2. Have kids trace the pie pan on the construction paper and cut out the circle, then work together using their rulers to divide their pie into equal pieces--one for each member. 3. Each child outlines his or her pie piece in a different color and then draws a line through the piece, cutting it in half. Students will now see that their halves becomes fourths, thirds become sixths, fourths become eighths, and so on. 4. Have students write a word or phrase on each of their pie pieces that tells why they are thankful, then glue the pieces of their pie back together onto oak tag circles. Display the Thanksgiving pies around the classroom. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Paper Doll Greeting Cards See e-card. Your students will learn about symmetry as they design charming, accordion-style cards. Have students draw a 5" X 5" version of their favorite holiday symbol, such as a menorah menorah Multibranched candelabra used by Jews during the festival of Hanukkah. It holds nine candles (or has nine receptacles for oil). Eight of the candles stand for the eight days of Hanukkah—one is lit the first day, two the second, and so on. , a Christmas tree Christmas tree Evergreen tree, usually decorated with lights and ornaments, to celebrate the Christmas season. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as symbols of eternal life was common among the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. , or a kinara, then cut out the drawing and fold it in half lengthwise length·wise adv. & adj. Of, along, or in reference to the direction of the length; longitudinally. Adj. 1. lengthwise . Next, have them fold a blank 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper accordion-style. They should then trace their drawings onto the front of the folded pages, making sure the drawing fills the entire page. (Check to see that the students' drawings reach and include the fold!) Guide or help students to cut along the lines of the holiday symbol, then have them color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour each page and write a holiday greeting to a friend or family member! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pictograph pictograph - pictogram Sing-Along Make math and music connections as you lead a lively sing-along of "The Twelve Days of Christmas Twelve Days of Christmas presents increase with each day of Yuletide. [Am. Music: “Twelve Days of Christmas” in Rockwell] See : Generosity ." Print out the words to the song at www.12days.com/library/carols/12daysofxmas.htm and share them with students. Assign student groups a number from 1 to 12, and invite each group to draw a pictograph of their characters or animal(s). For example, Pair 7 will draw 7 maids a-milking. Then have the class join together for a rousing sing-along, each pair holding up their pictographs as you reach that part of the song. As you count down from 12 to 1, students will really test their concentration skills! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Justice Boxes Throughout the Hanukkah celebration, many families set out a tzedakah Tzedakah (Hebrew: צדקה) is a Hebrew word most commonly translated as charity, though it is based on a root meaning justice (צדק). , or Justice Box, where they collect money to donate to those less fortunate. Invite students to make their own tzedakahs while they build counting and sorting skills. Collect a small, medium, and large box, and cover each with plain paper. Divide the class into three groups and invite them to decorate the boxes. Place the boxes in the school foyer. Have kids create posters, letters, and e-mails asking the school community to bring in coins, cans of food, and old clothes, and sort them into the correct boxes: small, medium, and large. At the end of two weeks, have one group of students sort the coins and count the total amount collected. Have a second group count the collected cans and sort them by food type. A third group can sort the clothing by size and type, then fold the clothes neatly. Invite each group to record the results of their calculations on a colorful graph. Finally, donate your boxes to a local homeless shelter Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people. Usually located in urban neighborhoods, they are similar to emergency shelters. The primary difference is that homeless shelters are usually open to anyone, without regard to the reason for need. along with your helpful graphs and a class letter. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Perfect Pattern Garlands Challenge students to make their own two- and three-patterned decorative garlands. Give students the option of creating patterns of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color , shape, or kind--or all three combined! Encourage them to develop their ideas on paper first. For example, a student might decide to make an orange snowman, a yellow snowman, and a blue snowman Blue Snowman (a.k.a., Blue Snow Man) is a fictional supervillain who appeared in the DC Comics adventures of Wonder Woman as a woman disguised as a man who uses the invention of "blue snow," a special form of precipitation that freezes everything it touches. , followed by a purple wreath. When students are ready, give each a yard of colorful yarn or string on which to lace their patterned pieces. Then provide an array of materials and tools: beads, hole punchers, construction paper, crayons, glitter, glue, safety scissors
Safety Scissors is Matthew Patterson Curry, a minimal techno artist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for a short while in order to attend San Francisco Art Institute. , cotton, felt, and so on. When students are finished, display their unique patterned garlands. Have students compare and contrast the kinds of patterns used by the class. How many used a 3-2-1 pattern? A 2-2-2 pattern? Hang the garlands on a bulletin board in the hallway to share your math celebrations with other classes! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RELATED ARTICLE: USING THE REPRODUCIBLES Holiday Dominoes Use festive holiday images to challenge children's sorting abilities! First, enlarge the Holiday Dominoes Reproducible on page 42; have students glue the page onto sturdy paper and color and cut out the dominoes. Review the symbols and the holidays that they stand for: poinsettia poinsettia: see spurge. poinsettia Popular flowering plant (Euphorbia pulcherrima), best-known member of the diverse spurge family. Native to Mexico and Central America, it grows in moist, wet, wooded ravines and on rocky hillsides. (Las Posadas Posadas (pōsä`thäs), city (1991 pop. 211,297), capital of Misiones prov., NE Argentina, a port on the upper Paraná River. Its industries include woodworking and metallurgy. ), kinara (Kwanzaa), dreidel (Hanukkah), Christmas tree (Christmas), and noisemaker (New Year). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW TO PLAY: 1. Place all dominoes facedown on the floor or a table and mix them up. For two players, each player picks 7 dominoes. For three or four players, each player picks 5. 2. The first player lays one of his or her dominoes face up. Then each player, in turn, connects a domino with a holiday symbol that matches the open end. Any symbol can be "matched" to a blank end. 3. If a player has no dominoes to play, he or she picks one from the pile. If the player can't match a domino, the player is out and must return the domino to the pile. The first player who puts down all of his or her dominoes wins! Paint by Equations Add a dash of winter charm and color to basic addition and subtraction subtraction, fundamental operation of arithmetic; the inverse of addition. If a and b are real numbers (see number), then the number a−b is that number (called the difference) which when added to b (the subtractor) equals practice. Copy and share the Paint by Equations Reproducible on page 44. First, ask students to solve each equation. When they know the answers, have them locate that number on the color key (1) Also called "chroma key," it is a technique for superimposing one video image onto another. Widely used to place an interesting scene behind people such as a news reporter on TV, it is also used for creating special effects such as floating a car on the ocean. and use that color to fill in that area of the picture (additional areas can be colored in as they wish). Then have students design their own paint-by-equations scenes! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RELATED ARTICLE: INSTRUCTOR REPRODUCIBLE HOLIDAY DOMINOES Directions: Color and cut out the pieces below, then play a lively math game with friends! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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