Tag: prime numbers

Dance, Factors Dance: Animated Factorization Diagrams #mathchat

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Dance, Factors Dance: Animated Factorization Diagrams #mathchat3321 views

What it is:  Dance, Factors Dance is a fantastic site to visualize factorization diagrams.  The first “tango” is inspired by the digital clock, with a separate diagram for each of the hours, minutes and seconds.  The Factor Conga is a “promenade of primes, composites, and their constituents, arranged with an aesthetically-tuned variation of Yorgey’s rules, one per second.”  I love the way these math factorization dances help students visualize numbers and Prime numbers.  Brilliant!

How to integrate Dance, Factors Dance into the classroom: Dance, Factor Dance is a stupendous way for students to visualize and think about numbers.  I Love the way that the prime numbers are depicted…so easy to see why it is a prime number!  Ask your students to explore this site and identify the patterns they notice in the dance of numbers.  What happens when a number is prime?  When a number is odd?  Even?

Dance, Factors Dance is a fun way to learn more about numbers, it is also a wonderful inspiration for finding the art in math.  How can students use the site as inspiration to create their own math dance?  Could they use stop motion animation and manipulatives to do something similar?  What patterns in math do they notice?  How can they use color and design to help them better understand math?

This site is a great one to explore as a class, as a center on classroom computers, or individually on student devices.  Students can pause the dance, rewind, and fast forward as they explore.

Tips: Be sure to watch (or fast forward) to the three digit numbers…this is where things get really impressive!  As a side note, I learned something today from a fellow teacher.  When looking at numbers in grid form, you know if a number is prime if it can only make one rectangle.  This understanding would have been helpful in math class! Better late than never 🙂

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using  Dance, Factors Dance in your classroom.

Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games4806 views

What it is: Sumdog math is a site with an outstanding collection of math games covering over 100 numeracy topics and split into 10 levels.  The games are free to play for home and school math practice.  Sumdog games can be used as an engaging anticipatory set for mental math, or to reinforce a specific math topic.  The games can be played individually or in multi-player mode.  Teachers can create school accounts and upload classes to the program.  For a low-cost school subscription you can also have detailed class and student reports, set up class competitions, and set a minimum level for a class.  The free features of this site are more than enough to get your class having fun interacting with math.  With 100 numeracy topics, you are bound to find games to help your students practice exactly the skill they are working on.  Topics range from ordering numbers, addition, subtraction, doubling, rounding, multiplication, and division, to positive and negative numbers, advanced number sequences, prime numbers, and adding and subtracting negative numbers.  Each game asks targeted questions based on the level chosen, provides immediate feedback to students based on their answers, allows students to review any questions they got wrong and lasts about a minute.  Multi-player games let students compete against their class or students online worldwide, and provide an option for playing solo or against the computer.  Students can play athletics where they sprint against players worldwide to get the most questions correct; Street Racer where they are head to head in a car race against other players to cross the finish line first, Alien Invaders where students compete against another player to see who can survive the longest against alien invasion; Penalty Shootout where students compete against another player in a soccer penalty shootout of math questions; Tennis Tie-break where students trade volleys with a real opponent; Talent Show where they answer questions correctly to please judges in a talent show (think American Idol); or Canal Clear Up where students clean up trash from a canal by matching questions to answers.

How to integrate Sumdog into your curriculum: Sumdog is a fun way for your students to practice mental math.  The 60 second time limit of each game makes it a great math center activity.  If you have one or two computers in your classroom, students can sign into their account, choose their level and practice mental math for 60 seconds; when they are finished with the game, the next student can rotate into the center.  In a computer lab or 1-to-1 classroom setting, students can save and track their progress as they practice with a variety of games.  Sumdog is a welcome break from timed worksheet exercises and flash cards.  It lets students compete with kids around the world in a safe environment while helping them with faster number recall.

Tips: Don’t forget to tell parents about Sumdog, they are always looking for new ways to help their kids with math fact practice.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sumdog in your classroom!

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