October Resources for Math Teachers
Week 1 - Birthday Party Math
Math Problems of the Week:
Early Grades:
Joey had a birthday party. He invited 12 friends to his party. If 7 of his friends are boys, how many are girls?Show how you know.
Middle Grades:
Joey's mom made cupcakes for his 11th birthday. She made 24 cupcakes and arranged them in rows and columns to form an array. How many different arrangements of cupcakes could she have made? Show all the arrangements.
Challenge:
When asked about his birthday, a man said:"The day before yesterday I was only 25 and next year I will turn 28."This is true only one day in a year - when was he born?For a solution visit: Math Is Fun
Website Resources:
Reinforcing counting skills while learning Spanish.
Activity to reinforce area and perimeter
A question of odds
Week 2 - Harvest Math
Math Problems of the Week:
Early Grades:
There are 31 days in the month of October. Is 31 an odd or even number? Explain your thinking using a visual..
Middle Grades:
If you look closely at an ear of corn you will see that the kernels are in rows from top to bottom around the cob. If there are 20 rows around the cob and each row has 38 kernels in it, how many kernels are on the entire cob?
Upper Grades:
The fall harvest often leads us to do a lot of home cooking as we eat apples, pumpkins, squash, and other delicious food.
Here is a list of the ingredients and amounts used to make apple crisp to serve 6 people:
4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Determine the amount of ingredients that would be necessary to make the recipe for your entire class. How much of each ingredient would you need to make enough of the recipe for your entire school?
Website Resources:
Week 3 - Airplane Math
Math Problems of the Week:
Early Grades:
Sam and Emma made a paper airplanes and wanted to see how far they would fly. Emma's airplane flew 20 feet and that was 5 more feet than Sam's flew. How far did Sam's airplane fly? Show how you know.
Upper Grades:
If a glider has a glide ratio of 1/10 that means that it goes down 1 foot for every 10 feet it travels horizontally. Compare the following two paper airplanes and their glide ratios. Airplane #1 has a glide ratio of 0.4 and airplane #2 has a glide ratio of 3/8. If they both glide until they hit the ground, which airplane will have glided the farthest horizontal distance? Show and explain how you know.Adapted from Figure This!
Website Resources:
Week 4 - Spooky Math
Math Problems of the Week:
Early Grades:
Matthew saw a vampire chasing 8 people. He caught 3 of them. How many people are still running?Erin saw 5 black cats on Halloween. Two ran away. How many are left?Try having your class write some of their own!
Upper Grades:
My little brother left two minutes ago on his bike to ride with his friends to the cemetery. If he pedals at 5 miles an hour to the cemetery which is 1 mile from here, and I go the back way (2 and a half miles) so he won't see the car) how fast do I have to drive Dad's car to get there at least a full minute ahead of him so I can hide and scare them?