Andrew Jeffrey's Newsletter November 2007
1.
Welcome and Feedback
2.
Maths Website of the Month
3. Top Tip: Maths Millionaire!
(and get $1million for £1 in a bizarre
special offer!)
4.
Maths Week
5. Numicon
6. SATIPS Maths Conference
7 Christmas Maths Ideas
1. Welcome to the November edition
of the Maths Newsletter. It seems an eternity since the last newsletter. I have
had an amazing week across in
November has been a whirlwind month – I have
visited about 8 schools, done some training myself, gone to a couple of
conferences (see items 5 and 6 below) and been planning some new things, which
I will hopefully be announcing in the New Year.
2. Maths
Website of the Month. I am currently compiling a list of 100 Great Websites for Maths
teachers. It is quite a labour of love, to be honest, but I do keep seeing
suggestions from people which sometimes make the list. One such site is http://www.oswego.org/staff/cchamber/techno/games.htm, which could save you a small fortune. It has lots of the games
which Primary Games sell, but for free. Check it out; I particularly like Powerlines, but there are lots of others.
3. Top Tip: Who Wants to Be A Maths Millionaire? This is an idea I came up
with a few years ago, based on something similar on the Maths Year 2000
website. Split your class into teams, and give each team 4 cards with A,B, C and D written on. I use different colours for each
letter for ease of spotting quickly. I also laminated them – they last much
longer that way. Have a set of 15 questions, then ask
each team the answer. They have a set amount of time to discuss their answer,
and when you say ‘go’ to hold up their cards. They have three lifelines, which
are counters. If they get a question wrong, they lose a counter. If they lose
three counters, they are out, but can continue playing. This avoids the problem
of ‘elimination’ activities. The winning team can, if you prefer, be the team
with the most lives remaining at the end. The game is best played at the end of
a topic to assess and reinforce learning. Now – my absolute favourite way of
doing this involves money and fractions. Imagine starting with a £10 or £20
note. Fold it in half, first horizontally then vertically. Do it twice more and
you should have made four folds in total. Ask the questions as you go along.
The last question you should call the ‘Million Dollar Question’. Assuming
someone says the correct answer, unfold the money
which has now turned into a $1 MILLION DOLLAR NOTE!
Here’s the how; pre-fold a million
dollar bill (I know, I know, hold on) into 16ths. This takes four folds and it
is quite small, certainly small enough to be concealed in your left hand
unnoticed. Leave it in a left pocket or waistband until the final question is
asked when you should casually retrieve it in your left hand. Your right hand is holding the £!0 or
£20 folded into 16ths. Say “Well done Team A – give them a clap!” Bring your
hands together as if to start the clapping. Say “Take a bow!”;
everyone will look at them at which moment you switch the notes and move your
right hand back away and up. Your left hand should ditch the English money
quietly. Now simply unfold the million dollar bill and watch their faces! I do
this every single time when I visit schools for the Magic of Maths shows, and
the questions can range from “Who is the famous lady whose face have I
hidden?”, “What shape is the note now?” for FS and KS1, to “What
fraction can you see now?” and “What is 1/8 of £20?” in KS2 and KS3.
It is a really brilliant activity, and
of course the questions can be on anything you like, so it is versatile. It
should only take you a few minutes with publisher or similar to make a
reasonable banknote, or you could use printer paper cut to size and write ‘$1
million dollars’ on it on both sides.
But I may be able to save you the
bother – because this is SO GOOD, I use it all the time, and so I bought a
stock of frighteningly realistic fake $1M notes which I paid to import from the
USA. I have more than I need, so am happy to sell off my surplus stock very
cheaply, but only to my newsletter subscribers. For a laugh, I sometimes leave
them in restaurants (but if you ever want to go back there, do this as well as the usual tip, not instead!) They are
such fun! I am selling the spares off for only £1 each, and the first 20 orders
will be on a buy-one-get-one-free basis. So that’s $2M for £1; not a bad
investment. (Don’t worry about postage and packing, I’ll pay for that, as this is
not an attempt by me to make a fortune!) Maximum order of £5 per person
please, as I don’t want to run out before giving you all a chance to get some
of these and I only have a limited number.
Please use Paypal,
and email address ajeffrey@freeuk.com.
Have fun; even if you don’t get one of my fake notes, you can still get a great
maths lesson out of the game itself. If anyone needs to pay by cheque, that’s fine too.
4. Maths Week
5. Numicon: I
mentioned earlier that I had undergone some training myself recently. When
working at the Education Show in September, I met the people behind Numicon, a
wonderful set of resources and activities that really help children to ‘see’
and get a sense of numbers. I was so impressed that I accepted the offer to go
on two days training with them to learn how to deliver training in schools on
how best to use this. It’s so versatile, and ideal for
everyone from nursery to Year 6 (and probably beyond). If you do want any
training on using it effectively, I am of course happy to come and deliver it. You
get to play with the equipment and do some of the activities that the children
would be doing as well. (Last week I was working with a six-year old who had
decided to use the equipment to find out whether his age was a factor of 100!).
They are at www.numicon.com
where you can try out a few activities.
6. satips Maths Conference 2007: This
took place as ever at
7. Christmas Maths Ideas. I realised that this would be the first Christmas for 20 years
that I have not spent in a school. The thought of not doing my Christmas
wordsearch or 12 Days of Christmas Investigation is a bit weird, to be honest,
so here is that investigation for you to try instead. You many already do it of
course, but I find it is really worthwhile for spotting patterns.
As a warmup,
it’s always worth asking children how many Magi visited the stable. The answer
of course is none; they arrived some time later. Blame carol
writers and Christmas card artists for that one! Another great question is “How
many Magi were there?” You nearly always say “3”, but in fact the number is
never revealed in the gospels. The assumption comes from the fact that there
were 3 gifts given to Jesus.
Now, ask them if they know the ’12 days
of Christmas’ song. How many gifts were given on each day? This gives rise to
triangular numbers, and even tetrahedral numbers. You can even talk about
Pascal’s Triangle, as all the numbers needed are contained within it. The
formula for the number gifts given is n x (n+1) ÷2. So, on day 5, for example,
is 5 x 6 ÷ 2, or 15. On day 8, there were 8 x 9 ÷2 = 36 gifts. But not many
people manage to derive the formula for the number of gifts given up to and
including, for example, day 9. It is n x (n+1) x (n+2) ÷ 6. So in total, on all
12 days, there were 12 x 13 x 14 ÷6 = 364, one for every day of the year except
Christmas Day!
It’s a great activity to encourage
children to work systematically, and would be a super problem-solving unit to
set for the final week of term when new work isn’t easy to introduce. Enjoy!
Until Next Time,
Andrew
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