Day 7: Christmas Maths Worksheets Part 2

It was weird that when I searched recently for Christmas maths worksheets that this one didn't come up in the first couple of pages. I even tried searching for the specific topics I knew the sheets were on, but no result. I had to go to my hard-copy Mathsmas folder and find the URL there. They are from Maths-Worksheets who have a whole section on Christmas worksheets. How did this not come up??

Sheets include loads of topics, mainly worded problems based around a Christmas theme. They range from basic operations up to some difficult data, probability and measurement problems.

Favourites of mine include the ones about wrapping paper and ribbon required for wrapping different presents (perimeter and surface area), the temperature in different areas around Santa's workshop (negative numbers), and how likely you are to pick a present of a certain colour out of a stocking (probability).

Day 6: Circumference and Area of Christmas Baubles

Posting every day? Who's stupid idea was this?

Lucky I am vaguely prepared. Here's one from my first year of Maths teaching:

I'm sure this is a theme which could be expanded on too, but in it's current form at least we have a nice worksheet, some actual measurement in the topic of measurement, and another pretty thing to colour and put on the wall.

Have a good weekend everyone! I'm off to another Katoomba High Girls Night.

Classroom decoration updates and open-ended questions

I made a wall decal! Actually, I made a fabric first, then a decal. Spoonflower is awesome. I wish I could wallpaper my classroom, then I would make loads of awesome maths wallpapers. But this will have to do. Inspired by the pencil creature from Donald-in-Mathmagic-Land.

Our faculty recently bought some books on open-ended questions in Maths and I've been using the ideas a lot teaching measurement to year 7. My favourite activities so far involve perimeter and area of letters.

The first one begins by showing a letter drawn on cm grid paper. Telling the kids that the diagonal is approximately 1.4cm, we work out the perimeter of the letter. Then the challenge - write your name on cm grid paper with a perimeter between 98cm and 102cm. This was awfully fun.

It was great to have a project that involved a bit of planning, but lots of checking, trial-and-error, and editing. And looks cool on the wall!

I did one too. As you can see, I'm not shy about working out, unlike a lot of the kids!

Then we looked at area. We tried to make letters with an area of ten square centimetres.

I haven't been posting much, but this weekend I'm starting something special for the end of school year! It's going to be fun.