Math Puzzles and Patterns for Kids

Grades 2-4

Kristy Fulton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000494488
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Move beyond the norm in your math classroom and challenge students to think critically with Math Puzzles and Patterns for Kids. Exploring the hottest concept in puzzle solving—math logic puzzles— Math Puzzles and Patterns for Kids teaches students how to use reasoning to solve some of math's biggest conundrums: real-life patterns and puzzles such as Fibonacci's sequence, Sudoku puzzles, tangrams, Pascal's triangle, and magic squares. Students are taught the basic premises behind each challenging puzzle and are then asked to use the skills they have learned to solve multiple versions of each puzzle. Grades 2-4

Teacher’s Guide

Are you ready to travel back in time and discover where some of the “big math” concepts came from? The history of math is full of fascinating problems and discoveries. This book will introduce young students to some famous mathematicians and important patterns and problems they studied. The mathematicians in this book were chosen not only because of their importance in mathematical history, but also because they studied problems that could be simplified to a level for elementary students to understand. This book focuses on practicing basic skills within the context of discovering patterns and solving problems.

This book may be used for a group study of math culture and history, or it could be used for independent skills practice to challenge an advanced student. The skills used in this book are based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Students will practice skills from the Number and Operations standard and the Geometry standard, while discovering patterns and relationships in the Algebra standard. The Problem Solving standard will be emphasized throughout the activities. The Number and Operation activities in this book include computational practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Younger students who have not been introduced to more advanced computational strategies can still discover patterns and relationships by using a calculator to help solve the problems.

This book is intended for students in grades 2–4, but the activities have also been used with some very advanced math students in first grade. Students may work sequentially through the book, or teachers may select and reproduce certain sections to teach specific mathematical ideas. Students generally will enjoy working these challenging puzzles and may ask for more. Other books related to mathematical puzzles are found in the Resources section at the back of the book. In addition, an Extension Activities section has been included to expand upon the puzzles and concepts in this book. Teachers may also use the answer key located at the end of the book to assess students’ understanding of the math concepts.

Great mathematicians looked for patterns and relationships in numbers and in the world around them. They used math to solve real problems. I hope this book will inspire students to look for ways to apply math in the world around them.

Name: _________________________...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Teacher’s Guide
• Resources
• Extension Activities
• Answer Key
• About the Author
• Common Core State Standards Alignment