Here are the family math activites suggested in our September newsletters
Some people think that Mancala may be the world’s oldest board game. It is played in almost every country, but is thought to have originated in Africa. Although there are many variations, Mancala almost always uses a small wooden board with 6 small holes on each side for each player and one large hole (the “mancala”) on each end.
Mancala is a simple game to learn to play but an incredibly rich and complex strategy and counting game that your whole family will love!
How you play:
Each player begins with 4 colored marbles or stones in each of the six small holes. On each turn, you scoop up all the stones from one of your small small bowls (players may never start from a mancala or from the opponent's six bowls). You then drop one stone into the next bowl on the right, one stone into the second bowl on the right, continuing around the board (counterclockwise) until you have no more stones in your hand. If you reaches your own mancala, you drop a stone into it. Players do not drop stones into their opponents' mancalas, they skip them and continue dropping stones, one at a time, from their hand until they run out of stones. Players take turns moving. The game ends when one player has no stones left in his/her small holes. The players then count the stones in their mancalas - the player with the most stones wins!
Don’t have a Mancala board? Don’t worry! Come down to the Math Lab and borrow one, but watch out – Mancala is addictive!
WONDERFUL MATH LITERATURE
There are many wonderful books that combine a child’s passion for books with a wonder for numbers and mathematics.
Here are just a few of our recommendations:
For younger children:
Math Curse by Jon Sciezca. This recent book, by the same author who writes the popular Time Warp Trio books, is a very funny picture book about a child who is suddenly “cursed” – and ordinary everyday things all seem like math problems! The illustrations are wonderful as well.
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table: A Math Adventure by Cindy Neuschwander. This book is the first of what is now four Math Adventure picture books starring Sir Cumference and his family. All of the books focus in large part on concepts of geometry, through funny and engaging stories often based on the King Arthur tales.
For older children:
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Enzensberger. The Number Devil is a fantastic book to read together with an older child. The main character is haunted in his dream by a number “devil” who challenges him with unbelievably interesting mathematical concepts, such as infinity, the fibonnacci sequence, triangular numbers and more. The story is really fun and opens kids up to many exciting math concepts!
Sideways Arithmetic at Wayside School by Louis Sachar. The two Sideways Arithmetic books follow the characters from the classes of the Wayside School books as they explore lots of fun arithmetic problems (for example, the teacher tells the class that BOYS + BOYS = SILLY and then makes them prove it by finding the right numbers that would make the equation true). These books are also great fun to read together with your kids so that you can work on the problems together as a family!
Our school library has an entire section of books related to mathematical concepts – stop by one morning or afternoon and browse the books and bring some home to share with your family!