Scaling Tangrams

BatBoy loves tangrams and tangram puzzles.  Over the years though, our sets have a few pieces.  When it was suggested that was play with tangrams as part of Chinese New Year celebrations, it seemed like a good excuse to make a new set.  SpiderGirl also wanted to make a set for herself.

Enchanted Learning has a page on tangrams and how to make them.  They do it by folding.  Since we have graph paper, though, it seemed like a good time to introduce scaling diagrams.  We scaled the template on the website by a factor of 4.  The kids did their own multiplication. 

Then they glued the graph paper onto cardstock and cut out their new tangrams!  They made some zodiac animals off the Enchanted Learning page and did some puzzles from Fun O Rama.

Place Value and Bases Other Than 10

Our family loves Penrose, the Mathematical Cat.  Here, one story about numbers in base 2 inspired explorations of number bases in general.  These snapshots show BatBoy using counters to translate numbers between base 10 and other bases, while SpiderGirl looks on and gives input as she is sewing.

10100 in base 2 is 20 in base 10.

Setting up to work in base 3.

Supporting a Global Learning Style

A few months ago, I wrote about exploring the "right-brained" style and sequence of learning, the details of which are written about extensively at "The Right Side of Normal" website.  In my previous post, I speculated that perhaps we are a family of "right-brained learners."  We are not.  (My son and I are "whole-brained" when it comes to math.  This plausibility of this claim is supported by a recent article citing studies that investigate brain activity of youth with a predilection for math and/or music.)  However, I do have one child who learns math in a way that constantly surprises me.  She does, indeed, follow the "right-brained" way of doing things.