More Math Games & Activities from Around the World
To the people of the world with my profound wish for a peaceful tomorrow and bright future for
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank the many educators and authors who shared their expertise to make this book possible Their books and articles are listed in the Bibliogra phy My husband Sam Zaslavsky took all the pho tographs and helped in many other ways Thanks to J Weston Walch Princeton U P and Marcia Ascher for permission to publish Also thanks to Mr and Ms Abelson Ms Schnipper and Mr Smith for use of their photographs and Dr Crowe and Dr Gerdes for use of their drawings I take full responsibility for any errors or lack of
Introduction A NOTE TO PARENTS TEACHERS AND CAREGIVERS This book is a follow up to my 1998 volume Math Games and Activities from Around the World also pub lished by Chicago Review Press You may ask Why encourage children to play games when there is so much math to be learned That is exactly why In the course of engaging in these fun activities children utilize many important skills They calculate mea sure and solve problems They hone their abilities in geometry and in the recognition of patterns Most of all they learn to think critically Children who are uninterested in or bored by tra ditional math lessons are willing to persevere to find solutions to problems posed in a challenging game format The activities are open ended kids can engage with them as far as their interests and abili ties carry them Several different versions of some games and activities are presented so that children can gain wide experience with the relevant concepts Furthermore children learn about some aspects of mathematics that are not included in the school cur riculum such as networks graph theory and frac tals These games and activities are appropriate for children aged nine and up although some will appeal
to younger children and others may challenge adults Many of the projects are suited to collaboration between adults and children or for cooperative groups of students Each game and activity concludes with suggestions for further thought and research Activities may be chosen to fit into the math cur riculum or to relate to topics in language arts social studies science or fine arts Refer to the chart page 158 for the mathematical and nonmathematical con tent of each activity Readers may find answers to Some problems on pages 153 to 154 Reproducible pages of square and triangular isometric graph paper appear on pages 150 and 151 According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics document Principles and Standards for School Mathematics published in 2000 Mathematics is one of the greatest cultural and intellectual achievements of humankind and citizens should develop an appreciation and understanding of that great achievement including its aesthetic and recre ational aspects page 4 Through these games and activities children learn to appreciate the history and culture of many soci eties This book integrates math history art litera ture and world cultures to make math exciting for all children A NOTE TO KIDS This book presents more games and activities from
