In this creative thinking activity students must determine how many combinations can be made when putting three beads into bags. To complete the activity students must create their own recording system to make sure they are not repeating solutions and they have found all possible solutions. Included in this resource are teacher’s notes with suggestions for introducing the activity, discussion questions, support suggestions, and a printable version.

This article helps educators answer questions about geometric thinking and the activities that develop it. It outlines the 3 levels of thinking about shape and space and the 5 phases of activities known as the van Hiele model. The tangram puzzle provides a vehicle for describing these phases and the types of thinking students achieve in each one. The article concludes with a suggestion about followup activity.

This web page describes two challenges that build fact and computational fluency as well as flexibility and reasoning. Each activity uses uses an ordinary set of double-6 dominoes, which students try to arrange into a magic rectangle and a magic square, according to given conditions. The page provides links to an interactive Dominoes Environment and a page of other domino activities (both cataloged separately).

We hope that you and your students enjoy this experience as they develop new connections and appreciations for art, indigenous heritage, and mathematizing the world.

This interactive Flash game provides an opportunity for a player to make decisions and develop strategic thinking by analyzing the uncovered number choices on a game board that includes the integers from -5 to 12. Each player rolls the dice, chooses which number to begin with and whether to add or subtract the other number to produce either a negative or positive result shown on the board. The goal is to be first player to complete a row of three counters either horizontally, vertically or diagonally on the game board. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for support, printable instructions and game board, and a link to a more advanced version of the game (Connect Three, cataloged separately).

This problem requires children to make sense of information and to work in a systematic way. The interactive is a machine with four colored lights, each corresponding to a rule regarding number properties. Students are to discover numbers that will satisfy all four rules and switch on all the lights. The Teachers' Notes page offers rationale, suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support.

This problem provides an opportunity for children to explore and visualize number patterns and sequences and to reinforce key number concepts and vocabulary such as odd and even, factors and multiples. Students cut consecutive number tracks into equal length pieces in several ways and investigate the patterns that emerge among the sums of the tracks. The Teachers' Notes page explains number tracks and offers suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, a printable sheet of number tracks (pdf), and ideas for extension and support.

In this problem learners explore square numbers and the relationships between them while practicing basic number skills. By applying a systematic strategy they determine three numbers that satisfy the conditions of the scenario. There are links to hints and a solution page; Teachers' Resources include suggestions for implementation, reflection, and differentiation.