Breaking Away from the Algebra and Geometry Book Original and Traditional Lessons for Grades K-8

by Baggett, Patricia; Ehrenfeucht, Andrzej

• ISBN13: 9780810840485
• ISBN10: 0810840480
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-12
• Publisher: R&L Education

Summary

How many of your students really love math? If the answer is, not everyone, this textbook is for you. It's a book filled with fun and practical ways to get young students interested in algebra and geometry. You can use the lessons as early as kindergarten and first grade. The book introduces basic concepts and actively involves children in the learning process. The challenging games, puzzles, and word problems use algebra, teaching kids to use variables for two- and three-dimensional geometry as well as arithmetic.

Author Biography

Andrzej Ehrenfeucht is professor in the computer science department of the University of Colorado.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
Arithmetic and Algebra
Word Problems	1	(2)
Variables in Early Grades	3	(2)
Writing Equations	5	(2)
Heads and Legs	7	(2)
Four Numbers	9	(2)
Push-Ups	11	(3)
Sharing Apples	14	(1)
Bottle and Cork	15	(2)
Poor Peppermint Patty	17	(3)
Sheep: An Old Puzzle	20	(2)
Cubes, Balls, and Nails	22	(1)
Ages of Mother and Daughter: A Puzzle	23	(2)
Wedding Day	25	(2)
A Most Dreaded Word Problem	27	(2)
Arithmetic Puzzles	29	(2)
Three Numbers Puzzle	31	(1)
A Pot of Soup	32	(5)
Measurement	35	(2)
Open Box	37	(2)
The Area of the Surface of a Box	39	(2)
Rice Cakes Box	41	(4)
Other Applications	43	(2)
English Numerals	45	(2)
Whole Numbers Written in Base 2	47	(2)
Fibonacci Surprise	49	(3)
Fraction Game Using the Continued Fraction Algorithm	52	(5)
Two-Dimensional Geometry	57	(48)
Five-Petal Rosette	59	(3)
Shamrock	62	(2)
Yin and Yang, Again and Again!	64	(2)
Bishop's Cap	66	(3)
Irregular Polygons	69	(3)
Star Maker	72	(5)
What Is a Rhombus?	77	(5)
Quadrilateral Jigsaw Puzzle: Early Geometry	82	(3)
Three Squares	85	(6)
Road Distances and Straight Lines	91	(3)
Distances and Driving Distances in the Southwestern United States	94	(5)
Geometric Surprise	99	(2)
Pentagon Inscribed in a Circle	101	(4)
Three-Dimensional Geometry	105	(40)
Puffy Stars	107	(2)
Skeletal Polyhedra	109	(5)
How to Draw an Icosahedron	114	(2)
Twenty Pyramids Make an Icosahedron	116	(3)
Fox: A Nonconvex Polyhedron	119	(2)
Two-Piece Tetrahedron Puzzle	121	(3)
Four-Piece Tetrahedron Puzzle I	124	(2)
Four-Piece Tetrahedron Puzzle II	126	(3)
A Cube and a Tetrahedron with the Same Volume	129	(4)
Two Cylinders	133	(2)
Cone	135	(2)
Clay Balls	137	(2)
How Well Do You Know a Cube?	139	(4)
Colored Cube	143	(2)
Games, Puzzles, and Combinatorics	145	(28)
The Fox and the Rabbit	147	(2)
Early Arithmetic: Fair Sharing	149	(1)
Fair Sharing II	150	(2)
Basketball Champs	152	(2)
Sum of the First n Whole Numbers	154	(1)
Missing Word	155	(2)
The Game of Pig	157	(2)
Pascal's Triangle: An Introduction	159	(4)
Pascal's Triangle in Early Grades	163	(1)
Pascal's Triangle: n Choose r	164	(2)
Pascal's Triangle: Binomial Coefficients	166	(2)
Square Quilts	168	(5)
About the Authors	173