Mighty+Maths+WestGATE+2013

Mrs Pannett is an expert mathematician who challenged 12 of us from different schools to solve maths problems. We met for 3 mornings and we **LOVED** doing maths the whole morning. Each day we started with some warm-ups. Here are some examples. **Make two squares** We started with 10 sticks and had to move 3 sticks to make 2 squares. **Make Ten** We started with 15 sticks and had to remove 6 sticks to make 10.

**Turn the Fish Around** We started with 8 sticks and had to turn the fish around by moving only 3 sticks.

Try them yourself and then check out the answers at the bottom of this wiki page.

**Getting to Know Each Other** We played a game of concentration and pattern as we remembered each others’ names. As we threw the ball, the pattern of who to choose was “opposite, to the left, opposite, to the left...” **Avoid is** a game of turn taking and tactics where we had to think ahead to try and beat our partner. It’s like 3 in a row, but we tried NOT to get 3 in a row. We said, “It’s getting tricky!”

**Seven Against One** is another board game we played with a partner. You can only slide along the lines to move one space. If you are the person with 7 counters you win if you manage to block the person who has 1 counter. If you are the person with 1 counter, you are trying to jump over and capture your partner’s counters. You win if you collect 3 counters. We said, “It’s fun! This game is awesome!” **What’s my number?** We loved playing this game so much, some of us carried on during morning tea. We used the Hundreds Board and called out clues like “Is it a teen number?” “Is it a tidy number?” “Is it a single digit number?”

**Tangram Challenges** We made tangrams. We started with a piece of paper, made it into a square, then made 7 shapes… 1 square, 1 diamond, and 5 triangles. Then we used the 7 shapes to try and make objects from patterns. [|Make yourself some tangram pieces.] [|Here are some tangram puzzles to try.] **Lunar Emergency Maths Challenge** On the first day we had to break the code so that our lunar craft could make a safe landing on the moon.Then we found the Escape Protocol by eliminating numbers until we knew which protocol number loads the escape commands. The next day we found the Force Field Protection System by arranging 10 counters on a grid so no counters formed corners of a square.

The Safety Monitoring System was tricky as we found which designs had exactly ¼ shaded.

Then we had to fix some programming errors, using venn diagrams and multiples of 3, 4, and 6. We found some numbers had been entered in the wrong place.

The Blank Impulse Generator and the Ignition Screen were the final challenges before we could safely make our lunar emergency landing. Whew! It’s just as well we’re good at solving maths problems!

**Fuzzy Duck** We stood in a circle and counted. If it was a multiple of 3 we said “Fuzzy,” for a multiple of 7 we said “Ducky,” and for a multiple of 3 and 7 we said, “Fuzzy Ducky.” So it goes 1, 2, Fuzzy, 4, 5, Fuzzy, Ducky, 8, Fuzzy, 10, ...

**Here are some maths websites that you might find interesting.**

[|Check out these online maths sites.]
[|Go to the Student Guide and make a choice] [|New Zealand Maths for families] [|Maths Week 2013 is 12-16 August] Maths Week is great because it’s fun and free. You could check in with your teacher at school to see if your class will take part.

**Here are our reflections about the opportunity to come to Mighty Maths.** Ruairidh said, “The thing that’s really cool about coming here is the new maths games we’ve got to play. Quake enjoyed the sticks challenge where he moved 6 to leave 10. **Sam said, “Doing the tangram has been a new thing for me. It’s been fun.”** Genna liked learning about tangrams. She was looking forward to using the paper shapes to make them into objects. Brayden enjoyed doing the tangram and trying to solve the challenge of breaking a code for the spaceship. Kiera said, “I’ve enjoyed playing the game because you have to chuck the ball on the left side.” **Renee said, “I’ve learnt what a tangram is. It’s a square that you can make shapes out of to make different things.”** Jordan was so pleased to come to Mighty Maths. He said, “it’s fun, I love maths.” Boston said, “It’s been great to learn new maths games.” **Robert said,”** I've learnt lots of things, the most fun has been doing the number solving problems with the hundreds board.” Lilly has learnt what a tangram is. She said, “It’s a piece of paper with lots of different pictures made of different shapes.” Here are the answers to the warm up stick puzzles.