Breaking Numbers Into Parts, Second Edition, Part 1


Book Description

The book teaches kindergarten and 1st grade students to break (positive integral) numbers into parts in all the possible ways. The book uses the developed technique to explain (prove) commutativity of addition of positive integers. The book also explores the concepts of digits and numbers, odd and even numbers, operations (functions), and inverse operations in an age-appropriate fashion. The book was tried and tested at Los Angeles Math Circle (LAMC), a free Sunday math school for mathematically inclined children run by UCLA Department of Mathematics. The book was used as a basis for a year-long enhancement math course at a variety of other locations, from math circles and after-school programs to a full-fledged elementary school. The second edition of the book is a feedback-based improvement of the first edition. It has two extra chapters, more than sixty extra problems, solutions to harder problems, ten quizzes, and more. The second edition has two parts. This book is Part 1.




Breaking Numbers Into Parts


Book Description

This book teaches 5 and 6-year-old children to break numbers into parts in all the possible ways. It also explains why a+b always equals b+a and takes a look at elementary arithmetic from a novel angle. The book's authors work for UCLA Department of Mathematics. The book was tried and tested at LAMC, Los Angeles Math Circle, a free Sunday school for mathematically inclined children run by the Department.




Math from Three to Seven


Book Description

This book is a captivating account of a professional mathematician's experiences conducting a math circle for preschoolers in his apartment in Moscow in the 1980s. As anyone who has taught or raised young children knows, mathematical education for little kids is a real mystery. What are they capable of? What should they learn first? How hard should they work? Should they even "work" at all? Should we push them, or just let them be? There are no correct answers to these questions, and the author deals with them in classic math-circle style: he doesn't ask and then answer a question, but shows us a problem--be it mathematical or pedagogical--and describes to us what happened. His book is a narrative about what he did, what he tried, what worked, what failed, but most important, what the kids experienced. This book does not purport to show you how to create precocious high achievers. It is just one person's story about things he tried with a half-dozen young children. Mathematicians, psychologists, educators, parents, and everybody interested in the intellectual development in young children will find this book to be an invaluable, inspiring resource. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession. Titles in this series are co-published with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).




Math Circles for Elementary School Students


Book Description

The main part of this book describes the first semester of the existence of a successful and now highly popular program for elementary school students at the Berkeley Math Circle. The topics discussed in the book introduce the participants to the basics of many important areas of modern mathematics, including logic, symmetry, probability theory, knot theory, cryptography, fractals, and number theory. Each chapter in the first part of this book consists of two parts. It starts with generously illustrated sets of problems and hands-on activities. This part is addressed to young readers who can try to solve problems on their own or to discuss them with adults. The second part of each chapter is addressed to teachers and parents. It includes comments on the topics of the lesson, relates those topics to discussions in other chapters, and describes the actual reaction of math circle participants to the proposed activities. The supplementary problems that were discussed at workshops of Math Circle at Kansas State University are given in the second part of the book. The book is richly illustrated, which makes it attractive to its young audience. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession. Titles in this series are co-published with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).




Learning to Teach Number


Book Description

"Organised into 21 independent modules covering number concepts and systems, the four number operations and pre-algebra, the book provides models for pupils' learning as well as seeking to develop the reader's own understanding of the subject"--Back cover.




Tough Topics in Number


Book Description




Figuring Out Fluency--Ten Foundations for Reasoning Strategies With Whole Numbers


Book Description

Because fluency practice is not a worksheet. Fluency in mathematics is more than basic facts or using algorithms. It is not about recall or speed. Real fluency is about choosing strategies that are efficient, flexible, lead to accurate solutions, and are appropriate for the given situation. Developing fluency is a matter of equity and access for all learners. The landmark book Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics Teaching and Learning offered educators the inspiration to develop a deeper understanding of procedural fluency. It explained the seven Significant Strategies for fluency and offered a plethora of pragmatic tools for shifting classrooms toward a greater fluency approach. However, in order to become truly adept with these strategies, children must first have certain underlying foundational concepts and skills in place. Figuring Out Fluency-Ten Underlying Foundations for Reasoning Strategies with Whole Numbers explores the ideas that are essential to reasoning: Number Relationships; Subitizing and Decomposing; Distance to 10, 100, and 1,000; Counting and Skip-Counting; Properties of Addition and Its Inverse Relationship with Subtraction; Properties of Multiplication and Its Inverse Relationship with Division; Multiplying by 10s and 100s; Multiples and Factors; Doubling and Halving; and Computational Estimation. With this book, elementary teachers can Help children develop these foundational understandings, critical to reasoning and number sense. Leverage over 100 classroom-ready routines, centers, and games to develop these concepts both in first instruction, practice, and intervention. Download all of the needed support tools, game boards, and other resources from the companion website for immediate implementation Develop each and every students’ knowledge and power to become skilled and confident mathematical thinkers and doers.




Number Talks


Book Description

"A multimedia professional learning resource"--Cover.







The Beauty of Numbers in Nature


Book Description

Think of a zebra's stripes, the complexities of a spider's web, the uniformity of desert dunes, or the spirals in a sunflower head ... think of a snowflake. The Beauty of Numbers in Nature shows how life on Earth forms the principles of mathematics. Starting with the simplest patterns, each chapter looks at a different kind of patterning system and the mathematics that underlies it. In doing so the book also uncovers some universal patterns, both in nature and man-made, from the basic geometry of ancient Greece to the visually startling fractals that we are familiar with today. Elegantly illustrated, The Beauty of Numbers in Nature is an illuminating and engaging vision of how the apparently cold laws of mathematics find expression in the beauty of nature.