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.
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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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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(Disclosure: There ARE affiliate links within this post. The links provide a way for us to support our site and provide great ideas and content to you! Thanks for your support.)
My son, Big Red, who is turning 5 this month can recognize lots and lots of numbers. Lil’ Red who is only 20 months is just learning about numbers. Both boys like to read so I was very excited to find free kindle books about counting and numbers!
Since the weather is nice we will be heading to parks and nature programs but would love for the little boys to be able to learn on the go! Remember you do not have to own a Kindle device to enjoy free Kindle books! You can download the Free Kindle Reading app! Remember that these books were free at time of posting but prices can change hourly on Amazon. Please check the price before adding to your cart!
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