You sank my battleship! The iconic cry of the time-honored game, Battleship will be heard in classrooms with this learning game that requires only grid paper, pencils, and an introductory knowledge of the first quadrant of the coordinate...

The task at hand is to partition a hexagon into two, four, and eight congruent figures. Make sure to give your wizards a sheet of triangle grid paper on which to decompose the hexagons. Have them explain which rotations, reflections, or...

Bring your math class around with this task. Learners simply identify parts of a given circle, compute its radius, and estimate the circumference and area. It is a strong scaffolding exercise in preparation for applying the formulas for...

Build foundational knowledge of volume by building boxes. Given dimensions for a piece of grid paper, young mathematicians determine the number of possible open-top boxes it will make. As part of this task, they also find the box with...

Here is a pdf file containing a Gattegno grid and ideas relating to its use. Try it out for place value, addition, and counting practice.

Household emergencies often require supplies from a home improvement store. Pupils view a map showing a home and three different stores to determine which is the closest. Follow-up activities find close food options as well.

Working in pairs, young mathematicians will practice number identification with a game of tic-tac-toe. Supplies needed: two 3x3 grids with numbers 1-9 in random order, and two different colored crayons. Player 1 will choose and read a...

Given a box of certain dimensions, young mathematicians must determine if a box that is twice as big, actually holds twice as much. This is a brain-teaser of a problem. The worksheet provides a handy table that has learners calculate the...

Four polygons each have a fraction with unlike denominators printed on them. Creative math minds select several shapes to create a design with and then write and solve a math problem involving the addition of all of the fractions...

Challenge young mathematicians' understanding of squares with this geometry puzzle. The task is simple, identify as many squares as possible in a 3x3 array. Allow learners to work independently or in pairs as they search for squares,...

Think inside the box with KenKen® puzzles to provide some problem solving practice. These puzzles are similar to Sudoku, but require computation inside designated boxes. There are multiple puzzles with a range of difficulties to...

Clever! In order to compare indoor and outdoor dispersal rates for the movement of gases and particles through air, collaborators will participate in a classroom experiment. Set up a circular grid and set students on lines that are...

Here is a game that will help your young mathematicians practice number recognition and writing numbers. Played with a spinner or dice, individual learners or a pair will play this fun number game. They will roll the die or spin the...

Using census data, the class finds the percentages of three diversity categories for four states and compare them. With the assistance of a 10 X 10 grid, pupils create visual representations of a comparison between two states on one...

Use the handout as guided or independent practice in drawing a reflection of a rectangle over a line. Three rectangles are provided for practice in addition to a critical thinking question.

Review the vocabulary from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea with a magic squares activity. To find the magic number, readers match the numbers on a grid with the words and definitions from the novel.

Factoring polynomials is an essential part of writing equivalent expressions and algebraic problem solving. Here is a card game that serves an engaging activity for reviewing factoring of polynomials.

Launch your classes into a modeling lesson. Young scholars watch angry bird trajectories and make predictions based on their knowledge of quadratic functions. The lesson includes a series of questioning strategies to lead learners to the...

This can be used as a critical thinking exercise in congruence or as a teaching tool when first introducing the concept. Four octagons are arranged in such a way that a square is formed in the middle. With this information, geometry...

Who knew quilting would be so mathematical? Introduce linear equations and graphing while working with the lines of pre-designed quilts. Use the parts of the design to calculate the slope of the linear segments. The project...

Here is an activity that merges technology with life skills as individuals use Google Earth to explore the differences between coordinate systems and map projections. The self-guided instructional activity is the fourth segment in a...

While it may seem incredibly obvious to the geometry student that congruent sides make congruent triangles, the proving of this by definition actually takes a bit of work. This exercise steps the class through this kind of proof by...

Proving triangles are similar is often an exercise in applying one of the many theorems young geometers memorize, like the AA similarity criteria. But proving that the criteria themselves are valid from basic principles is a great...

Sometimes simple is just better. A set of activities teaches young mathematicians about using plausible estimation to solve problems. They break problems down to simpler problems, use rounding and estimation strategies, and consider...