The Math Basket

I have been racking my brain to try to come up with something fun and exciting for math.  During my last performance with the  Idaho Falls Symphony, while my fellow musicians were concentrating and having a wonderful experience, I came up with "the math basket".  Its a simple basket that I can put new things into every day that are different like a game, or flash cards, or marshmallows for the marshmallow game.

Yesterday I put in a piece of paper that said "movie time".  We watched this amazing documentary on netflix called "Between the Folds".  It was all about origami.  The kids were riveted as it connected math, art, and science.  I also put geo boards in the basket that the small ones could play with during the movie.  Then we did a art project involving paper.  (All the supplies being in the basket)  Super fun!

After this, Emma Lynn decided she needed to send us messages in morse code and we had a great study of morse code for a while.  It was the kind of school day to blog about!  It was inventive and relaxed yet full of great conversation and learning.  Aside from a few tears about the paper being not as pretty as someone else's (a situation that wanted me to trade my girls in for boys), it went super well.

Here is a link for making the paper stars.  We used double sided scrapbook paper and an exacto knife.  They used wrapping paper and scissors.  Have fun! Paper Star Project