The Schoolhouse Planner — November Module
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FUN WITH MATH ................................................................................................................ 4
“MAGICAL” MATH .............................................................................................................. 5
Gray Elephants in Denmark ......................................................................................................... 5
What is Your Phone Number? ..................................................................................................... 5
Guess The Birthday ...................................................................................................................... 5
TANGRAMS ........................................................................................................................ 6
TANGRAM PUZZLE .............................................................................................................. 7
PATTERN BLOCKS ............................................................................................................... 8
SUDOKU ............................................................................................................................ 9
SUDOKU CHALLENGE ........................................................................................................ 10
MULTIPLICATION .............................................................................................................. 11
Multiplication Families ...............................................................................................................11
Multiplication Table Practice .....................................................................................................12
MONEY ............................................................................................................................ 13
TELLING TIME ................................................................................................................... 14
LEARN MORE ................................................................................................................... 15
MATH JOKES AND RIDDLES ............................................................................................... 16
VOCABULARY MATCH-UP ................................................................................................. 17
MATH MINUTE – MULTIPLICATION.................................................................................... 18
MATH MINUTE – ADDITION .............................................................................................. 19
WHAT SHAPE AM I? .......................................................................................................... 20
AMUSING MATHEMATICS WORD SEARCH ......................................................................... 21
COLORING PAGES ............................................................................................................. 22
Top Hat .......................................................................................................................................22
Ruler and Measuring Tape .........................................................................................................23
Money ........................................................................................................................................24
Calculator and Abacus ................................................................................................................25
RECIPES ........................................................................................................................... 26
Crockpot Carne Guisada.............................................................................................................26
Chicken Spaghetti.......................................................................................................................26
TOS COPYWORK PROJECTS ............................................................................................... 27
RESOURCE LIST ................................................................................................................. 41
ANSWER KEYS .................................................................................................................. 42
Sudoku Challenge .......................................................................................................................42
Multiplication Table ...................................................................................................................43
Vocabulary Match-Up ................................................................................................................44
Math Minute – Multiplication....................................................................................................45
Math Minute – Addition ............................................................................................................46
What Shape am I? ......................................................................................................................47
Amusing Mathematics Word Search .........................................................................................48
FUN WITH MATH
Fun with math? Can anyone really have fun with math? Of course! You just need to know where to look
to find all of the fun stuff! For instance, did you know that with a quick math puzzle you can make all of
your friends and family think that you can read their minds? Have you ever guessed a person’s birthday
by asking them to do math problems first? 10ticks.co.uk has a great trick for guessing how many siblings
you have! All of these puzzles are so much fun to do and will have you enjoying math in no time!
But wait! Number tricks are not the only way to have fun with math; we can also learn how to do
tangrams, work a sudoku puzzle (at factmonster.com) and even learn faster methods for multiplication at
coolmath4kids.com! Math touches every part of our lives and if you learn how to enjoy it, it will seem so much
easier to you!
“MAGICAL” MATH
Long ago, not everyone was very well educated. Scientists and mathematicians in this time were
sometimes thought to have magical powers because they knew things that common people did not know
or understand. You can appear to have knowledge like this with your own friends by demonstrating fun
math tricks. Try some of these on your friends and family!
Gray Elephants in Denmark
Do you think that it’s possible to make your friends think about gray elephants in Denmark just by
working a math puzzle? This will surprise most people and leave them wondering how you did it. First,
ask someone to pick a low number. Then, have them double that number. Now, add eight. Divide this
number in half. Subtract the original number. Now ask the person to assign a letter to what they have
left, with 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, and so on.
Tell the person to pick a country that starts with that letter. Then have them look at the second letter in
the name of the country they chose, and pick an animal that begins with that letter. Have them think of
the color of that animal. Here’s the best part. Look at them and ask, “Are you thinking about a gray
elephant in Denmark?” They will think that you must be so smart to have figured out what they were
thinking.
There is another version of this trick. Ask a friend to write down his telephone number, with no dash.
Now, have him mix it up to form another number. Ask him to subtract the smaller number from the
larger number. Now, have him add all of the digits from the answer that he got together. If he is now left
with a two digit number, tell him to add those two numbers together to make a one digit number. Ask
him to subtract five from that number and to assign a letter to the number that he now has left (with 1=A,
2=B, 3=C, 4=D and so forth). Tell him to think of a country that begins with that letter. Now have your
friend think of a country that begins with that letter. Have him think of an animal that begins with the
second letter of the country’s name and to think of the color of that animal. He should now be thinking
about a gray elephant in Denmark!
What is Your Phone Number?
Only use your 7 digit phone number for this trick, do not use the area code. Take the first three digits of
your phone number and multiply by 80. Now add 1. Multiply this number by 250. Add the last 4 digits of
your phone number. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again. Subtract 250 and divide by 2.
You will be left with your phone number!
Guess The Birthday
This math trick is simple and will impress most people. Tell someone that you are going to guess her
birthday. Ask her to think of the month number that she was born in (January=1, February=2, etc…).
Now, have her multiply this by 5 and then add 6. Ask her to multiply this number by 4 and then add 9.
Have her multiply one last time, this time by 5. Ask her what the total is. In your head, subtract 165 and
you will have the month and the day she was born!
TANGRAMS
Tangrams are ancient Chinese puzzles made up of seven puzzle pieces. You use the puzzle pieces to try to
recreate patterns found on pattern cards, following several rules:
1. All of the pieces must be used.
2. All pieces must be laid flat, touching.
3. None of the pieces may overlap.
You’d think that a puzzle that only has seven pieces would be very simple to figure out, but some of them
are very tricky! Color your own tangram puzzles pieces and then go to these websites to test your ability
with the patterns:
http://tangrams.ca/puzzles/puzzles.htm
http://www.funorama.com/sheet1.html
http://www.funorama.com/sheet2.html
These next two can be played entirely online:
http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/games/matter/
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/area/tangram.html
