Friday, August 1, 2014

activities for a math party

Who: 6 classmates of J1 + J1 + J3
When: all morning + lunch
Where: our house
What will we be using: see below

Some planning notes for a math (and English language) party at our house next week.

Misc:
- Brief explanation of basic rules of the house as everyone arrives: be kind, be respectful, be safe, persevere
- Explain schedule, particularly if there are going to be full group activities (reading a story, making food, eating food, change to 100 board pattern)
- have water, fruits and cut vegetables available for snacking throughout the day
- activities set up in stations around the house with some printed guidelines. Tidy up after you finish each activity (to make it appealing for the next people)!
- Kids will go through the activities in pairs, may depend on attendance.  
- Maybe J1 allowed to join whichever pair he wants? Otherwise, create group of 3 to deal with odd number?
- Do we need a map so that the kids have some idea of what is available? How many activities do we really need for 4 hours (which will include lunch)?

Passport
To start, everyone gets a passport book and decorates the back cover with their name, partner's name and own design. The book is to record which activities the children have done through the day.

100 Board
Guess my pattern: needs 100 board and 2 colours of tiles (5-10 minutes total time)
3 or 4x through the event, J0 will set up some patterns on the 100 board.  Kids guess what the pattern is each time. Pattern ideas:
- odds and evens
- multiples of 5
- squares
- Fibonacci sequence
- Primes

Pattern Blocks
Activity A: needs pattern blocks, design cards, and a camera
- Copy some pre-made designs
- Make your own design and take a picture (adult will help with the picture?)
Activity B: needs pattern blocks and a large pillow to block the view
With a friend, take turns making a secret design and verbally describe it to the friend to tell them how to replicate it.

Stacking blocks 
Tallest tower: needs collection of building materials (we will use duplo, stacking blocks, trio blocks, polydrons and magnatiles), measuring tape and camera.
- build the tallest tower you can
- estimate the height
- measure the height
- take a picture

Origami
Ninja stars: needs paper cut into squares (or even better, 1x2 rectangles)
- take apart some pre-made stars and investigate
- think about how to make them and ask questions
- try to make your own
- decorate
- throw them at designated targets (maybe this is too risky to encourage?)

Hexaflexagons: needs paper cut into strips
- with help, make a trihexaflexagon
- decorate the sides
- explore
- make more if interested
- make a hexahexaflexagon (advanced, gets an extra stamp)

Other origami: can be added according to interest of children
- animals
- polyhedra
- etc

Story
Reading: needs a selection of books
- Select a book with your friend
- read and discuss with an adult (depending on preference, kids can read themselves, adult can read to them, take turns, etc)
- Should this be done all together or pairs?

Writing: needs paper, pencils, some coloring pencils/crayons
- modelled on the story we have read
- insert yourself and make some additional change to the structure
- write your story
- illustrate/decorate

Games
Pick a game and play with your friend
- Sum swamp
- Chess
- Chinese checkers
- Chinese chess
- Uno

Programming
Pencilcode intro
- Adult shows them basic intro to pencilcode set-up
- let them explore the gym, other people's code and play

Food: I'm inclined to drop these ideas for the first trial run of this event; mini-pizza is the strongest contender to keep
Mini-pizzas: needs pizza dough (shaped), tomato paste, cheese, cut veg
 each pair gets a blank dough to top and decorate as they desire
- bake
- eat

Coconut faces: needs coconuts and craft material
- Ask an adult to open a coconut for you
- Make a face on the top
- drink it and pretend the face is making silly noises at your friends

Mini-bread experiments: needs water, flour, yeast, salt, eggs, sugar, milk, oil, honey, seeds, cheese
to be done with J0 supervision, have everyone do this all at one time?
- each pair gets to measure out 150 gr flour, 2.5 ml salt (1/2 tsp)
- measure optional wet ingredients (egg, milk, honey, sugar, oil) up to 80 ml total
- add water to top up wet ingredients to 80 ml
- mix wet and dry
- knead and shape
- rise
- bake
Note: generic ingredient ratio should be checked against some sample recipes

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