Tag Archives: mathematical art

Playing with symmetry in kindergarten

Posted on April 7, 2017 by aofradkin

In our kindergarten classroom, there is a big mirror that is usually covered by a giant map.  And for good reason!  As soon as the students find themselves anywhere near the mirror, it attracts them like a magnet.  They make … Continue reading →

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Fibonacci Trees

Posted on March 22, 2017 by aofradkin

For two weeks in a row, in our joint 1st-5th grade math classes, a certain famous sequence made its appearance.  The activities were seemingly very different: in the first one we were climbing stairs one or two steps at a … Continue reading →

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What is a pattern?

Posted on October 21, 2016 by aofradkin

This week in Kindergarten our focus was on patterns.  I began by asking the kids whether they knew what a pattern was.  All said “yes” in unison.  So I called on someone to tell me.  “It’s when you have one … Continue reading →

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Factor “trees”

Posted on March 1, 2016 by aofradkin

Recently, we had a few lessons on prime numbers and factoring with my 4th and 5th graders.  Inspired by the beautiful drawings in this post, I had my students draw their own factor trees.  Actually, most of their creations can only … Continue reading →

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Fun Math Festival

Posted on February 18, 2016 by aofradkin

[This is a guest post made by my sister, Yulia Shpilman, about the awesome math festival that she organized last weekend.] So I finally did it!  I organized a math festival (thank you to Jane Kats for her inspiration and … Continue reading →

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Nets and Decorations

Posted on December 17, 2014 by aofradkin

For the past two weeks, we have been continuing to explore 3D objects, and more specifically their nets.  During the first lesson, we played with the nets of a cube.  The kids were given pictures of hexominoes (arrangements of 6 … Continue reading →

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Symmetry is beautiful!

Posted on August 17, 2013 by aofradkin

Today Katie and I spent the morning playing with symmetry.  This post will mostly consist of pictures because symmetry is better illustrated visually than verbally.  However, I would like to describe the rules of our ‘game’.  We had an axis … Continue reading →

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