Activities For The Classroom

The following are activities to give to your students. These are ideal for introductions to algebra or problem solving units where students are required to go beyond the regular two-dimensional thinking and use their knowledge of mathematics (and life) in order to solve them.

1.

Sum Time

Add two straight lines and divide the clock face into three parts. The sum of the numbers in each part must be the same.

2.

Tunnels

See if you can connect each square with the triangle that has the same number. Lines cannot cross or go outside the diagram.

3.

Box Score

Use each of the numbers from 1 through 8. See if you can put a different number in each box so that no two consecutive numbers are touching – not even at their corners. For example, the box with the 5 cannot touch the box with the 4 or the 6.

4.

Checkmate

Two friends were playing chess. They played five games. Each friend won five games and there were no ties. How can this be?

5.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

A girl was travelling back from town with a fox, a duck, and a sack of corn. She came to a river which she had to cross in a rowboat. The boat was so small that it could only hold the girl and one other thing. She figured that she would have to make several trips. But she couldn’t leave the fox alone with the duck because the fox would eat the duck. She couldn’t leave the duck alone with the corn because the duck would eat the corn. How could the girl take everything across the river safely? Draw a diagram to help you find the solution.

6.

Seven-Up

You have the luckiest calculator in the world. No matter which number your friend enters, it is magically transformed into the lucky number seven! Use the rules on the side to help you explain why this is possible.

Rules:

  1. Enter any number (less than 8 digits).
  2. Double that number.
  3. Subtract 16 from that number.
  4. Multiply that result by 4.
  5. Divide that total by 8.
  6. Add 15 to that answer.
  7. Subtract the original number from the result.

 

 

 

 

Blum, Raymond. Math Tricks, Puzzles & Games. Sterling, New York,

1994. ISBN: 0-8069-0583-2 $8.95 (paperback)

 

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