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Greetings from Math Cats!

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     WHAT’S NEW AT MATH CATS
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* STORY PROBLEMS
http://www.mathcats.com/storyproblems.html

This brand new area of Math Cats presents math story problems two ways: as printable worksheets and as interactive pages with mini magic chalkboards unscrambling the answers into number sentences and word sentences.

These student-created story problems are organized by difficulty level, starting with "kitten" and moving to "house cat," "alley cat," and "leopard." I'll be adding more pages and levels as I receive more story problems. I hope you'll encourage the children in your life to send their own story problems to Math Cats!

* FOUR NEW MICROWORLDS ACTIVITIES
http://www.mathcats.com/microworlds.html

*  Multiply It
Use sliders to change the numbers being multiplied while a rectangular grid constantly rebuilds itself as the numbers change.

*  Card Trick
Select a card, and after asking you a few questions, the computer tells you which card you have picked. Can you figure out how the trick works? This project is shared by Daniel Ajoy of Ecuador.

*  Subtraction Quiz
Use online Base Ten Blocks to help you solve quizzes of 3 subtraction problems with regrouping.

*  Broken Calculator
Decide if your broken calculator will have 1, 2, 3, or 4 missing keys. Then see how many ways you can build specific numbers without using those keys. For instance, if you want to make 62 and your 6 is broken, you could key in 70 - 8 =

Subtraction Quiz and Broken Calculator have been shared by Garry Clark of Australia from his wonderful new CD of Mathematical Activities. Read on to learn more about the CD!

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     RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
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* MATHEMATICAL ACTIVITIES CD by Garry Clark
http://www.northnet.com.au/~mathsactivities/mathact.htm

This PC/Mac CD presents over 100 clever mathematical activities spanning a wide range of skill levels and concepts. All of the activities are developed with MicroWorlds and are presented through the free MW Web Player, which is included on the CD. These projects have all been developed by Garry Clark, a math lecturer at an Australian university. Many of the activities use online manipulatives and an open-ended approach to exploring math. This is a CD for the whole family: some projects are appropriate for children as young as preschool, and I found many logical thinking activities to challenge and fascinate me as an adult. I am much more impressed with this homemade CD than any commercial math software I have seen. In my many years as a teacher and more recently as an educational consultant, I have never recommended a commercial software product--except for MicroWorlds itself, which I love--but I highly recommend this CD.

Not only that, but the whole process of interacting with Garry Clark on my purchase of his CD was a pleasure. When we encountered initial difficulties in transferring my U.S. dollars to Australia, he happily set up a PayPal account to make this process quite painless, and I was amazed that one week after I placed my order online, I had received my CD from the other side of the world. We corresponded about his CD, and he immediately incorporated my few suggestions into a new easier-to-navigate version of the CD. Of course we can never imagine that a commercial software company would produce and send out a new version of their product within days or weeks of receiving one user's input!!

As you can probably tell from my Math Cats site, I love making math activities freely available for all. But this CD is a true bargain (U.S. $30 for a single user and U.S. $40 for a site license, including overseas shipping and handling). I do hope you will visit his site and place an order.

* INVESTIGATING PATTERNS: POLYHEDRA PASTIMES by Jill Britton
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0769027822/mathcats

Polyhedra Pastimes is a book geared for grades 5 - 8 (with many ideas accessible for grades 3 and up), full of stimulating hands-on activities with 3D geometric shapes, presented through clear lessons, illustrations, and blackline masters. Most of these activities have a "wow" factor making them as fun as they are educational. (Don't these topics sound enticing? Tetrahedron from an Envelope, Polyhedron Bubbles, Pop-Up Dodecahedron, No-Glue Icosahedron, Tetrahedron Kite...) The book is on sale at Amazon.com (see the link above). The URL below takes you to Jill Britton's wonderful collection of links which tie in with the book's activities.

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbpolyhedra.htm

* TALKING CALCULATOR
http://www.premier-programming.com/talking_calculators.htm

The Talking Calculator is a free downloadable product. My young daughter and I love it for different reasons! She loves to hear the calculator say the numbers out loud, including very large totals (this is good reinforcement for students learning how to say large numbers in the millions and billions). I love it because it keeps a written record of the equations entered, and these can be copied and pasted into another document if you wish.

The download procedure is a bit funky: you have to register to access the download area, and then you are prompted for your user name and password (which you don't know!) so you just hit Cancel and proceed. It is a large (15 MB) PC-only download. But it's worth the hassle! When I'm working on the Math Cats site, my daughter comes along to ask me if she can please use the Talking Calculator now.

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     MATH CATS IS HONORED
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* An Editorial Board of experts for the Illuminations site of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has chosen the entire Math Cats site as a Selected Web Resource (grades 3-5, geometry), joining four specific Math Cats projects already selected in assorted categories. Most of the Selected Web Resources on the Illuminations site are specific activities or lessons within larger sites; the few sites recommended in their entirety tend to be among the most highly regarded math sites on the web, and Math Cats is truly honored to be in this fine company.

http://illuminations.nctm.org/swr/index.html

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     KEEPING IN TOUCH
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As the school year draws to a close, be sure to drop me a line if your e-mail address will be changing so that you'll continue to receive Math Cats News at your new address. Simply reply to this message (or visit the Math Cats' Mailroom at http://www.mathcats.com/mailroom.html) to tell me your new preferred address. (If you wish to unsubscribe, reply to this message with the word "unsubscribe" and your e-mail address.)

After a long silence from Math Cats News (from early February until today), brace yourself!! You can expect several new issues between now and mid-June.

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If you like the Math Cats site and Math Cats News, I hope you will help spread the word. Please forward this Math Cats News to others! If you have received this Math Cats News as a forwarded e-mail and would like to subscribe, you can sign up in the "4 older cats" area of Math Cats:

http://www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html

Thanks,

Wendy Petti, the one human at Math Cats
mathcats.com
wpetti@mathcats.com