Today's Team Saturdazzle is just a quick compilation of stories, clips and jokes.
Like many days when I was a kid it starts with Sesamee Strret and it ends with a snack,
One of the things I liked about Sesamee Street from an early age was the guest appearances. One of the ealriest I remember probably since I like puns so much is when the cast of Bonanza came on the show. They were on a lot of season 2 and did segments where they counted or recited the alphabet or demonstrated math problems like the video below.
In the episode I remember they do a play on the Ernie and Bert banana in my ear sketch (original sketch below) except instead of saying banana in my ear they actually say Bonanza in my ear. Epic!
Sesamee Street has continued with their guest appearances. I just discovered this gem with Billy Joel and Marlee Matlin (CODA, West Wing, Children of a Lesser God) . I'm a big Billy Joel fan and also love writing new lyrics to old songs and Joel does this by tweaking one of his standards and adapting it to Oscar The Grouch.
Yesterday I had one of my days where I was out of the house at 6:30 and not back for good until after midnight. I was home for about 90 minutes in the afternoon. My wife and daughter were preparing for an impromptu game night, where they had invited several people a day or less before the party was slated to begin. A few people did manage to come, but when I was home the only people they had heard from were unable to attend. This gave me an idea for a wry observation which I shared on my personal FB page:
A lot of times when people can't make it to an event youv'e asked them to attend, they will respond something like that sounds great, but I'm busy that day. Just once can't they say that sounds like an awful time, but I'm not doing anything see ya at 7?
This morning, Amy and I were judging another speech tournament. This time it was at held at Lucy's old high school. When you walk in the hallowed halls of a high school there are pictures of accomplished student athletes and plaques with the names of students who received accolades, awards, accomplishments, and some words that don't start with A like scholarships. None of those halls in any of those schools contain my picture. I wasn't that kind of athlete, and I was not that kind of student. However the apple must have fallen far from the tree because my daughter class of 2024 is pictured at least twice and her name is engraved on a plaque as a recipient of a scholarship for mastery in Language Arts.
Ending the day with a snack
My college friend Angela Rumbold's birthday was earlier this week. We had many fine times over the years. When she first moved from Illinois to Georgia, I had occasion to visit her there and she introduced me to boiled peanuts. It was love at first soggy bite. years later when I lived in South Carolina for 2 years the boiled peanut became my go to snack as there was a street vendor outside our local Walmart. I generally did not go more than a fortnight without grabbing me a bag.
When I ventured back to Illinois in '97 to forsake all others and marry my best friend, I also ending up forsaking regular visits with my favorite boiled legume. This +25 year absence of a boiled peanut routine ended about 2 years ago when I discovered inside A BP in Frankfort, Illinois where my sister in law lives, a boiled peanut station. So now 4 or 5 times a year on visits to her family I get the fruits of Jimmy Carter's first job (Boiled Peanut deliverer).
Tonight was one of those nights. My Niece Gracie was in a production of Finding Nemo Jr. Which is not it turns out a quest to find Nemo's progeny but a children's adaptation of the musical Finding Nemo. I was glad to attend, but everyone in my family knew there was a boiled peanut quid pro quo in my attendance.
Well that's all the Team Saturdazzle I have for you today. We learned some math, heard some jokes, watched some videos, I shared some stories and even had a snack. It's not exactly 3 points and a poem, but it will have to do.
I'm sure I have written a post like this before with a similar title. I am taking another stab at the subject. My youngest brother Keith was born on Nov 11th 1970 aka Veterans Day. . This is the 54th anniversary of his birth. I was born in September of 1964, so I was already 6 years old when he was born.
. Keith's last Veteran's Day was 16 years ago when he turned 38. He died 5 months later in an Elgin nursing home when I was 44. Since then I've turned 60 and he's perpetually 38. Keith loved math and I'm pretty sure if he was still around he'd call me up today to announce that he had now been alive for 90% of my lifetime. The truth is that he was on;y alive 63.33% of my lifetime time and that number goes down each year I outlive him.
Now Keith would want me to provide a more accurate accounting of that number by factoring in the 5 months between his 38th birthday and that day in April of 2009 when he shuffled off this mortal coil. Let's be real, Keith would want me to calculate the percentage down to at least the day, factoring in the leap days as well. He probably wouldn't be satisfied with even that and want it down to the last minute.
But That's not what I would want. What I would want of course, is that his multiple health problems were all resolved and that he was here with us celebrating his full deck plus 2 jokers (that's 54th please try to keep up) birthday with us. What I would want is that his children now in their 20s would still have their Dad with them instead of hardly remembering him or not remembering him at all. What I would want, is that instead of struggling to recall his legendary dumb jokes, there would be another 15 1/2 years worth of them to smile and nod at. But I did not get what I wanted. Instead, I got grief. Now Veterans Day means more than just Keith's birthday to me. It reminds me that I'm a veteran, a veteran of grief.
I'm going to spend the rest of this post unpacking the last sentence of the previous paragraph. When Keith died Amy and I had been attending a small group at our church for only a few weeks. We knew the leader of the small group pretty well because he was the children's ministry pastor and all our children were in the children's ministry at the time and we were both volunteering there. So when he showed up at Keith's visitation I wasn't too surprised. What did surprise me, however, was that the couple whose house the small group met at came to the visitation. We had just met them a few weeks before. They didn't have children, and they didn't attend the same service as we did. It really meant a lot that he came. He explained to me that a few years before when his father had died, he had a similar experience. Some people he hardly knew came to the funeral because they had lost someone and knew how important it was having people there not only to pay respect to the person they lost but to also be there for those who had lost someone. Both the couple who came to Keith's visitation and the people who had gone to his Dad's funeral had one thing in common, they were veterans of grief.
When I think of a war veteran I think of someone who's been through something devastating and life-altering and has been permanently changed by it. Grief has that same effect on you. There is something else I've learned about veterans they try to be there for each other. There is a camaraderie, a family bond. It's a community that doesn't require serving in the same unit or even the same war. The same could be said about a veteran of grief. I don't know if this is true of all veterans be it war, grief, or something else. But as I dealt with losing Keith, empathy for those encountering the same thing grew in me. I was never one to shy away from the funerals of people I knew, but I started gravitating to the funerals of family members of people I knew. As a veteran of grief, I have been able to comfort people and try to help in tangible ways as people begin their journeys with loss and grief.
Keith is often front and center in my heart and mind during these times. I have not yet lost someone closer than a sibling and have not experienced what it is like to lose a child, a parent, or a spouse. I have done my best to comfort those who have lost more significant people in the time since Keith's passing. A dear friend lost his father and wife in short order. I have to be honest I can't imagine losing Amy. I know it would devastate me completely and while I know God would bring me through it, I know it's just a drop in the bucket in comparison to losing Keith. Amy herself lost both her parents within a few years of each other. It broke my heart to see her "orphaned" knowing that her loss was far greater than mine. Yet knowing how God has helped me through this lesser loss of Keith has helped inform me how I can minister to others as they become more experienced with grief.
I still miss Keith, especially on days like today. Tomorrow my remaining brother and I head over to Keith's house to help his widow with some practical needs. It will be bittersweet just a day after his birthday. All my siblings have tried to look out for our sister-in-law and our niece and nephew and I think we would all say that we wished we could do more. In sports veteran players often act as a surrogate coaches to rookies and other new team members. Grief is not a team that anyone chooses to play for. Isaiah 53:3 prophesies about Jesus describing Him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus, His word, and His people have equipped me as a veteran of grief. I'm not sure if I'm paying forward, or pointing backward but regardless of the direction I'm so glad to try to be there for others when grief has them upside down.
Welcome to the 164th edition of the Playful Math Education Carnival
I am Dave your host for this month. This is my first time hosting this carnival and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. But in true growth mindset lingo, I don't know what I'm doing yet. As Dr. Teeth says in The Muppet Movie, "There ain't nothin' to it but to do it."
Thanks to the incomparable Denise Gaskins for giving me a chance to host. Before we get into gear just a little bit more about me ...
I started this blog 14 years ago back when I was a home educator and this blog was named Home School Dad. During that time I was a frequent participant and host of the Carnival of Homeschooling. I loved that carnival and especially loved hosting it. I also loved all the great math ideas I would see in Blogs like Denises.
When I was a home educator, I would often teach math games classes at our local home school cooperative. 5 years ago when I became a substitute teacher I would love to see all the great ideas that the teachers I was subbing for and all the wonderful resources that are out there.
This winter I became a building sub in my district. When I'm not in for another teacher I go from class to class and am an extra set of hands, this usually will happen during Math and ELA instruction and I was hoping to share a lot of the games and activities the teachers use in today's post.
Unfortunately, almost immediately into the semester I started subbing for the P.E. teacher for almost 2 months, and now I'm subbing in a special-ed classroom for the rest of the year, so I haven't gleaned as many ideas as I hoped I would. I think though I have assembled some good stuff for this month's edition. So let's give it a go.
She began by telling us some info about the number 163 so I'll start by giving you a little info about 164.
164 hours is about a week. In fact, if you take 164 hours (6 days 20 hours) and add 164 minutes (2 hours 44 minutes then add 164 seconds (2 minutes 44 seconds) you would have a total of 6 days 22 hours 46 minutes and 44 seconds which would be approximately 1:15 minutes less than a week.
164 is what I call an A square B number. It is the product of 41 times 2 squared.
Here is an idea I use as a parlor trick but have also been bringing into the classroom. This can be done on the whiteboard or smart board with one individual or you could have each student do it on their own whiteboard, paper, or computer
First, have the student write their date of birth month date, and year.
Our example student was born ten years ago 4/28/13
The next thing I have the students do is write in one column 4-year increments from their birthday until the day before their birthday 4 years later.
Our example student:
4/28/13 - 4/27/17
4/28/13 - 4/27/21
Once you cannot add any more increments of 4 years then you go by single years
4/28/21 - 4/27/22
4/28/22 - 4/27/23
Hopefully, while you are explaining this you'll get a student or two who will tell you that they don't have to do all that, the birthday person just simply needs to multiply their age times 365 and that will show how many days they've lived.
I will go ahead and have them make the calculation but then I'll go back and have them write out a 2nd column showing how many days they actually lived in a 4 year period:
4/28/13 - 4/27/17 1461
4/28/13 - 4/27/21 1461
4/28/21 - 4/27/22 365
4/28/22 - 4/27/23 365
I will then have them add the 2nd column up and compare it to their calculation. (1,462 to 1,460). At some point, a student will realize the first calculation did not account for leap days. I would then ask is this how many days our birthday friend has lived? I will then remind them that they lived today so they have lived 1.463 days.
Movies and Math
I have spent most of this month blogging about movies for the A to Z Challenge.
Katherine Johnson - One of the Nasa computers featured in Hidden Figures
Click here for a brief biography of Katherine Johnson from Mathigon
April 11th was my 25th wedding anniversary
and it made me wonder if there were any math milestones in April.
It turns out that April 11th, 1936 is the day Konrad Zuse (who looks in the picture below like a combination of baseball broadcaster Harry Carey and cartoonist Charles M Schulz.) filed a patent for the automatic execution of operations while working on the first German computer, the Z-1.
On April 11th 2020 mathemetician , John Conway died of complications to Co-vid 19. The above referenced link to April 11th,1936 contains this quote which I think is apropos to a Playful Math Carnival :
...You get surreal numbers by playing games. I used to feel guilty in Cambridge that I spent all day playing games, while I was supposed to be doing mathematics. Then, when I discovered surreal numbers, I realized that playing games IS mathematics.
Her journaling prompt about variations of tic-tac-toe got me thinking of other pen-and-paper games like the dot game. I did some research and learned about a game called Chomp.
By Lord Belbury - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86379139
I'm sure that all of you out there are probably more familiar with it than I was., but just in case here is a video describing the gameplay.
While researching this game I got to thinking of the 1999 classic book The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar Fraction Book.
I don't write many math posts on my blog, but if I did I would write posts entitled "Why do all the good children's books go out of print?" If I were a bookstore owner I'd always have 3 copies of this book on my shelf.
Teachers who don't have access to this book can borrow it virtually from Internet Archive.
I decided to make a version of Chomp for fractions. I call it Fraction Chomp, but I'm very creative with my titles. It's played exactly like described in the video except all grids should have pieces that are divided by 12 (examples 3by4, 8by3, 6by8,...) The players "chomp" a fraction of the pieces off the grid. The fractions they can use or 1/2 1/3/ 1/4 and 1/6. The play continues until one player can not make a fraction of the remaining pieces that is a whole number.
Imagine a 3 by 4 grid ...
The first player chomped 1/3 of the pieces leaving 8 left.
The 2nd player might chomp 1/4 of the remaining pieces leaving 6 left.
The first player would then chomp 1/3 and 4 would remain.
At this point if the second player then chomps 1/4th of the pieces he will eventually win since their opponent will have no choice but to chomp 1/3 allowing the second player to chomp 1/2 and the first player will lose.
However, if player 2 chomps 1/2 of the remaining 4 pieces they would lose as player 1 would also chomp 1/2 the remaining pieces for the victory.
The second link isn't a game but could still be fun in a group. It is from the blog Emergent Math and asks the question: Is The Subway Footlong Pass Worth It?
April was National Poetry Month
I participated in an online progressive poem.. Each day in April A poet added another line to a poem and posted it on their blog. Here is a link to the poem as of April 28th.
This got me to thinking about poetry and math in 2 different ways.
1. Progressive Story Problems
Have one of the students write a story problem. Then have a second student write another story problem that starts somehow with the answer to the first problem. A man has 6 horses 2 goats and 2 sheep. How many more horses does he have than the other animals combined? The answer is 2 Horses. The next question might start with 2 horses weigh as much as 10 sheep. The horses weigh a combined 2000 pounds what is the average weight of the sheep? The next question could start with about 200 pounds of anything and so on and so on.
2. Fibonacci Poem Problems
A Fibonacci Poem or Fib is a poem whose syllables follow the Fibonacci sequence
They are typically 6 lines and follow the pattern
1 syllable
1sylabble
2 syllables
3 syllables
5 syllables
8 syllables
Here is one I just wrote about my favorite ball team's current streak of ineptitude
I've enjoyed hosting for the first time. Next time I won't sign up for my busiest month of the year and I will start preparing much earlier than I did, Next month's carnival will be at Nature Study Australia
