Tag Archives: Christmas

175. Chrismaths 8

Why is ‘reality’ TV so popular, when we know so much of it is as unreal as it gets?

Whilst you ponder this, consider your eighth gift from the Sandpit – some paparazzi fun! 

Download the poster here: On the eighth day of Christmas

UPDATED: Grammatical typo in download corrected (9th December)

174. Algebra snowflakes

Look what my class did today:

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We used a hexagonal Tarsia puzzle on expanding single brackets to create large hexagons.

The puzzles were stuck on paper, cut out and the edges reinforced with tape. Twelve hexagons make a splendid snowflake. Once it was stuck together, the wall display was as tall as a Y7 pupil.

Just think what you could do with Tarsia puzzle shapes: snowflakes from hexagons, christmas trees from triangles and bunting from dominoes.

If you want more puzzles, visit Mr Barton Maths for a plethora of resources.

172. Chrismaths 6

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me … teeny tiny little boots!

Image credit: ebay.com.au

Of course, most geese don’t wear boots these days, but before mass transportation geese were walked to market in little boots or with tar applied to their feet.

Download the poster here: On the sixth day of Christmas

There is a rather splendid video from 31st Dec 1966 on the BBC archive about walking geese to market:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/chronicle/8619.shtml

171. Are you ready for ChrisMaths?

I am … well, actually … the noticeboard is nearly ready. Just needs some tinsel and decorations!

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This is the title:

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You can download it here: Twelve days of ChrisMaths title

This is one of the snowflake placeholders (for Day 3):

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The six point snowflakes are quite easy to make :

  1. Take a square of paper and fold it exactly in half (direction doesn’t matter)
  2. Mark or pinch halfway along the fold – I’ll refer to it as X
  3. Put the folded edge on the 0-180 line of a protractor, with X on the centre
  4. Fold from X along the 60 degree line
  5. Fold the other end from X to the 120 degree line – you now have 6 equal sections
  6. Fold the whole thing in half and get snipping

Each of my snowflakes references a number from 1 to 12 and each day the appropriate poster will be put on top of the appropriate snowflake.