Patterns and Repetition
How would you explain to a little kid what a pattern is? Katie was introduced to the concept of a pattern about a year ago (not by me) and by this point she has a fairly well-formed perception of what...
View ArticleEating Patterns
Katie was always a picky eater. There are only a few foods that she will eat consistently. However, there are a number of others that one can get into her with some amount of effort: distractions,...
View ArticleKatie’s Triangle
Those familiar with Pascal’s Triangle would probably immediately recognize its beginnings in the following: However, as I was giving this to Katie, I realized that from this much information the...
View ArticleFirst Patterns
I had been wondering when I would make my first post about Katie’s younger sister Zoe. Just like I generally do with Katie, I decided that I would wait until I got inspired by something Zoe did. And...
View ArticleWhat makes a pattern?
Last year, a large fraction of the small amount of math that Katie did in Kindergarten consisted of basic patterns. “Red, blue, red, blue, red” what comes next? And the more advanced version of that...
View ArticleWhat is a pattern?
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...
View ArticleGreat Mathematicians, Old and Young
Almost every week, I read or tell my second grade class a story about a famous mathematician. Recently, we have been reading from the book Mathematicians Are People Too: Stories from the Lives of...
View ArticleFibonacci Trees
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...
View ArticleGames with the multiplication table
The following was translated from this post by Jane Kats. Translation and translator’s notes are by Yulia Shpilman. (Translator’s note: I taught a lesson inspired by this post to my math circle for...
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