math

Homemade Minion Math Counters

July 18, 2015 By Thaleia

It’s Minion madness at my house! My kids have loved these crazy yellow guys since the first Despicable Me movie came out. Then we were invited to a Minion Birthday party and we didn’t have anything Minion so Eldest drew some shirts and Princess created some Minion earrings!

$Homemade Minion Math Counters$
Now we are at it again with some super cute homemade Minion Math Counters! These cute little guys are easy enough that Lil’ Red helped and he’s only 23 months. We had the supplies on hand but all of them should be easy to find at your local craft store or you can order through Amazon via our affiliate links which we will provide below.

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Free Printable Geoboard Activities

July 11, 2015 By Thaleia

Yesterday I shared how we made a homemade geoboard and ways we have played with it. Today I am sharing a ton of free printable geoboard activities. You can learn all sorts of things not just math concepts. I hope you enjoy some of these free resources as much as we do.

Fun #Free printable geoboard activities for “#totschool #preschool

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Homemade Geoboard Fun

July 9, 2015 By Thaleia

A couple of years ago I decided to make a Geoboard when I saw the price of them in the educational catalogs. We just so happened to have a wooden cutting board from a local discount store. This wooden board had already been an artist canvas at one point and now would be turned into a homemade Geoboard!

How to Make Your Own Homemade Geoboard:

Get a thick piece of wood that is square and well sanded.

Gather some small finishing nails, ruler, pencil, and hammer. (I tried to use thumb tacks like I saw on Mama Jenna but they just broke to pieces so I switched to nails.)

Mark your grid on the piece of wood. You can measure out your marks or print a Geoboard Pattern.

We used fabric hairbands but you could easily use loom bands or small rubber bands depending on what you have on hand or can buy cheap locally.

How to Play with your Homemade Geoboard:

The first time I showed my kids our homemade geoboard they made a lot of free form designs which I would consider ART more then MATH but I am totally fine with this idea as well.

You can show your child a shape and see if they can recreate it or a letter or a number. You could ask them to make a design with only orange bands. You could ask your child to make a pattern with two colors for a different game.

Just be sure that whatever you do you allow the child to explore and have fun!

If you do not have time to make your own geoboard you can buy one from Amazon.

Check back tomorrow for an entire post all about:

Free Geoboard Printable Resources

If you are wanting even more math ideas check out Cool Maths for Cool Kids for 31 days of awesome ideas!

Homemade Magnetic Tangrams

June 29, 2015 By Thaleia 3 Comments

I was on a major Busy Bag kick a few years ago and made some magnetic tangrams as part of a busy bag swap. I had found magnetic felt on clearance a few years before and just bought it not knowing quite what to do with it. Once I remembered I had the magnetic felt I knew homemade magnetic tangrams were the way to go.

I first found a printable tangram pattern online and then proceeded to cut them using the pattern and my Cutterpede paper cutter. I made over 6 sets which didn’t take too long so I am confident if you are making just 1 or 2 sets you can whip them up in no time.

Just print out your pattern for your tangram pieces and print out your challenges. I recommend laminating your challenge pieces for durability. I used my Purple Cow laminator that my mom found at JoAnn’s on clearance with laminating pouches.

My nephew came over a few weeks ago and whipped through a couple tangrams while we were out in the backyard playing. He is 11 but found them fun!

You will need some tangram puzzle challenges or ideas to create. I have found a handful of very fun challenges listed below in the free tangram resource section of this post.

Free Tangram Resources:

Number Tangrams

Tangram Template– B&W

Fun Tangram Puzzle sheets from Activity Village

Jewish Symbols in Tangrams from Bible Belt Balabusta

Alphabet Tangrams from Making Learning Fun

If you are too busy to make your own tangram or would like a wooden tangram you can check out all sorts of options for tangrams on Amazon!

$math manipulatives$

This post is part of a series by School Time Snippets called Math Made Fun with Everyday Manipulatives. You will want to check out all the other 29 ideas since I was the LAST one!! Be sure to hop on over and see all the simple ways you can make your own math manipulatives from everyday objects. I used affiliate links within this post.

Free Math Resources for Elementary

June 17, 2015 By Thaleia

I have come to realize that my free resource posts can get very long and hard to find the things a parent or teacher might be looking for so I am breaking them down. I am creating new posts for specific subjects and age range to make these resources easier to enjoy. This post has some of our favorite free math resources for elementary.

$Free Math Resources for Elementary$