A Shapes Puppet Show

I was browsing through MathsLinks and got a bit of inspiration from this little Sesame Street clip:



I love the little triangle muppet. It made me think that my year 7 class (who are a very creative bunch) could write a little puppet show about shapes, make some puppets, and maybe perform it for some of our local primary school kids.

I decided to make a demo puppet to show them my idea. Here he is:

More about making him on my craft blog, Jupiter Hollow.

The kids are really keen on the idea and we have brainstormed a lot of possibilities, most of which include a lot of puns. I've roped in their music teacher to help with the music side of things, and they have lots of ideas for songs.

We've also started making puppets. For the kids, we started with cardboard and made nets, which we are then going to cover with fabric. Here's one that I did, I call him "Tetrahedron Puppy".

More photos and info to come as the project proceeds.

Probability Games and Worksheets

My year 9s have been doing a topic on Probability. I like to start with some simple fun activities, including playing Deal or No Deal online. This group got so into it and wanted to play all the time, so I made a worksheet to justify us doing so!

My method of eliminating composite numbers first seems quite successful. Deal!

You can find my Deal or No Deal Worksheet at a lovely resource site called MathsLinks, in the Maths Faculty section. You have to login but you can do so through google or facebook or various other things as well as registering with the site individually. It is a valuable repository of resources and ideas provided by Maths teachers.

The other game I love is Higher or Lower at subtangent.com, so I made a worksheet for that to, which is also uploaded to MathsFaculty. The Higher or Lower Worksheet is simple theoretical probability.

With both of these, I like to run through the game a few times, discuss the theoretical probabilities on the board as we go, then follow up with the worksheet, and maybe a promise that if there's time the student who does the best work can be the next contestant.

(Oh and it was a good deal, I only had $2000 in my suitcase)

Net Animals/Characters

Ever since I made Angry Birds with year 10 and put them up at the front of the room, my year 7s have been asking about them.

"Do we get to make Angry Birds?"

"When do we get to make Angry Birds?"

"When are we doing shapes?"

Then, every lesson after starting Shapes...

"Are we making the Angry Birds this lesson?"

So we made Angry Birds. And for homework, they had to take a net home and turn it into an animal or character. Here are a few cute ones:

A pentagonal pyramid echidna (a bit squished):

Some mice:

 

An octahedral fish:

And the amazing SpongeBob Squarepants net: