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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Marvelously Math-y Mondays

Shhhh...don't tell my kid's teachers but today marks the inaugural installment of Marvelously Math-y Mondays.  Yes, I know I'm posting this on Saturday, but I just couldn't wait!

On MMM's I plan to bring something math-y to my daughter's 3rd/4th grade classroom to inspire wondering, noticing, questions and conversations.  I'm kicking things off in style with two variations on the classic multiplication table and one make-your-own version.


I put the times tables back to back and laminated them so they will stay fresh all year round in the kids' math folders. 

One side is this very graphic and beautiful visual, to scale, multiplication table which I found last year at Let's Play Math (at the end of her post, but the post itself is marvelous as well).  This chart has been hanging on our wall all year and I'm still not tired of looking at it.  


And here's a closer look at the other side, one of the archetype times tables from crebobby.com:


And here's the make-your-own version I put together (revised thanks to the astute observation from Denise in the comments):


And here's a link to the pdf!

Have a marvelously math-y Monday!  How will you marvel over math today?  Let me know!

4 comments:

  1. It may be too late to change anything, if you're presenting these in the morning. But I'm wondering what "Creature 1" is supposed to do in your chart. Just watch the others combine?

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  2. Well, you're right about that for sure. I guess I'm having trouble reconciling the differences between a quantitative times tables and a qualitative one.

    Maybe I'll just let it be and see if the kids notice anything's amiss. Wouldn't it be cool if some of them hacked my sheet? I'm not supposed to have all the answers, right?

    Okay, so now it's become intentional on my part - specifically so the kids can have even more interesting conversations about what they're making. Thanks for helping me clarify this! (And, just for the record, I'll make them a new sheet if they really want one. :-)

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  3. Whether the times sheet is qualitative or quantitative, the top left corner doesn't get to play. Sometimes it remains blank (as on the two examples you give in this article, where the corner is not even drawn in, it's just the absence of a label). On a traditional-numbers times table, people often put the times symbol X in that corner, to distinguish it from an addition table (which would be marked with +).

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  4. Yes, I see that. The Crebobby comic is confusing in that way. We want everyone to play! :-) Thanks for your feedback!! I'll post my revised doc in this post when it's done.

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Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!