Having Fun with Math

We put away our Math books away last week for the year. I searched my files for an Math idea that would be creative and a bit challenging for my bunch. With a grade level range from Pre-K to 4th this can be a bit of a challenge to please both of my boys on either grade level ends. This we had fun building geometric shapes. I found the large dome you see in the picture from a blog called the Crafty Crow. The geometric dome is made using recycled newspapers. You will need 100 full sheets to accomplish this building task. I had the kids count out 4 large sheets and then we rolled them into 25 rolls. Using 15 of the rolls 5 triangles are constructed and stapled together and joined at the top to connect each one. The final last 5 tubes are made into a tube star and staple to the top. Please search the Crafty Crow site it has a more detailed step by step process with pictures included.
For the the other geometric shapes I had an old AIMS handout from my teaching days in the school system. The handout suggested clay but I used gumdrops to make it fun for the kids. Use toothpicks and the gum drops just like you would Tinkertoy to create geometric designs. We discussed vertexces, edges and faces of a geometric shape. It was a bit of a challenge for my younger two but I offered a hand for my daughter and she caught on real fast. For my Cowboy he had sun with just 1 dimensional shapes.

Have fun with Math this week! I'm not quite sure what I have planned for this next week in Math. I will have to put on my thinking cap for this one.