- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Friends of Math Cats,

The first issue of Math Cats News was e-mailed on the morning of October 31st to five subscribers from four countries. This second issue is being mailed on November 21st to 25 subscribers from six countries:

U.S. (17)
Canada (2)
Australia (2)
England (2)
Belgium (1)
Malaysia (1)

Welcome to our 20 new subscribers! Now, if we continue to quintuple the number of subscribers every three weeks... (hold on... let me just plug those numbers into a little spreadsheet formula...) why, the entire world will be subscribed within the next nine months! Isn't that incredible? --Sadly, too incredible. Of course, we are always teaching the kids in our lives to apply logical thinking to the problem at hand, and logic does tell me that this growth will not continue exponentially. But... it never hurts to dream!

WHAT'S NEW AT MATH CATS

* Polygon Playground
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html
Come play with math at the Polygon Playground in the Explore section! You can drag and arrange hundreds of colorful polygons to create your own online art. You can even change the background color. The introductory page includes a little slideshow of ideas to get started, including: patterns, tessellations, symmetrical designs, and polygon animals. I'll be adding upside-down triangles and pentagons soon, for more artistic possibilities.

* Idea Banks
http://www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html
(The only entrypoint is through the "4 older cats" door on the Contents page, or through the direct link above.)
I have been gradually compiling ideas for creative and effective math teaching into a collection of Idea Banks in the new and evolving corner for teachers and parents at Math Cats The ideas have been shared by scores of teachers at teachers.net (reposted with permission). The idea banks include annotated links to other helpful sites and resources. Currently there are six Idea Banks:

1) approaches to math instruction
2) math activities for families, math carnivals, and classroom math centers
3) place value
4) addition and subtraction
5) multiplication
6) rounding

More Idea Banks coming soon: math and literature, geometry, graphing, fractions, order of operations, odd and even, and more. The existing Idea Banks will be continually updated as I locate and incorporate more good ideas.

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF MATH CATS:
MATH CATS and HOLIDAY CRAFTS

* Make your own geometric space forms!
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/spaceforms.html
The models in this section make great tree ornaments. You may not really believe that elementary kids can create geometric space forms from scratch using a compass and straight edge to draw their models, but believe me, they can. For many years, I guided third-grade students at Washington International School in creating their own polyhedra (from the 4-sided tetrahedron up to the 20-sided icosahedron) using these directions. My six-year-old daughter has recently begun making the simpler forms, too.

Design Ideas:
1) Cut triangles out of many different kinds of wrapping paper and glue them to the faces of the polyhedra.
2) Get books of surplus wallpaper patterns from a wallpaper store and use these to construct your models.
3) Draw a coordinating geometric design across the different faces, or draw a different design on each face.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a number of other paper models in this section of Math Cats, including templates for polyhedra which will not require anything except cutting and folding the pre-drawn models (for those who have "compassphobia"). There will also be instructions for creating clever paper constructions such as the "hexaflexagon" and others, which transform to several different designs as you flex and "open" the completed forms.

SPOTLIGHT ON A SITE

George Hart -- Geometric Sculptor
http://www.georgehart.com

Zome System (geometric construction sets)
http://www.zomesystem.com

These two sites go hand-in-hand, because George Hart is a co-author of the brand-new book, Zome Geometry, available for purchase through Zome System.

GEORGE HART:
George Hart's site features photos of many of his fascinating geometric sculptures; basic instructions for making paper polyhedra; over 1000 virtual polyhedra which can be zoomed and rotated; links to many other sites of creative geometry explorations, and much more. It is a wonderful place for kids and adults to experience the union of math and art. I am making a pilgrimage to the math art studio of George Hart (on Long Island, New York) next Monday, and he has agreed to let me interview him for Math Cats. Soon, you will find this interview in the Explore section of Math Cats. If you and/or the kids in your life have a chance to visit his site before Monday, November 27th and would like me to ask him a question or two on your behalf, I'd be delighted. (Of course, you may always write to him directly, but if you send your questions to me, then they will be represented in the interview at the Math Cats site.) I would love to visit George Hart as a representative of all of you "math cats" from around the world.

ZOME SYSTEM:
The Zome System is a clever system for assembling a huge variety of geometric models using plastic rods and spherical connectors. Sets range in price from $9.95 (U.S.) up to $159.95 for a set with over 1,200 pieces in the full range of lengths and styles... plus a bit more for the Zome Geometry book. Believe me, they don't know I'm plugging their product, but I can't wait to receive the order I just placed for myself (along with sets to give my nieces and nephews for Christmas). The Zome System seems like a wonderful way to explore 3D geometry: creating art through math.

MATH CATS INTERNATIONAL MATH SURVEY

In our first issue, I invited our subscribers to poll the kids in their lives and send in questions for our first Math Cats International Math Survey. I am pleased to post some questions from the first group to respond. These come from the Butte Math Club in Palmer, Alaska, sent in by a "Math Club Mom" who explains that: "Butte Math Club is a multi-age group of kids, their friends, relatives and neighbors, who meet Friday mornings just to play with math. So far we've made an abacus and learned how to use it, made tangrams, learned how to play dominoes, and played a bunch of math games... Our mission is to erase math anxiety and show kids the point of learning all those math facts and formulas. Our one rule is: This club is strictly extra-curricular--therefore we do not allow anything that looks like a textbook into our club. We have people from our community coming in to show us how they use math. You can see the excitement in these folks when they start talking about how they use math in their favorite hobby, or in their career. I hope that kind of excitement is contagious." Here are the questions posed by the club:

1) How big is your family?
2) What time do you get up in the morning?
3) How many hours of daylight will you have on winter solstice?
4) How big is your home: square feet, number of rooms, basement or not?
5) What is the average temperature of your area for this time of year?
6) Do you get snow? How much?
7) How do you get to school?
8) How close to you do your parents' relatives live?
9) What is your favorite book, and your favorite author of books?
10) What is your favorite game to play?

I encourage you to pose any or all of these questions to the kids in your life and send the tallies to me at wpetti@mathcats.com

I will share the results in the next issue of Math Cats News. Your group(s) of kids can then compare their answers with the answers of the other groups and can look at the variations between the groups. Great graphing possibilities! Please include the typical age of your group(s). It would be helpful if you could include the name of your school or group, too, so that we have a way of referring to you. Please let me know if you would prefer for your own name to be included or withheld when I post the results. You may send your results on a spreadsheet as an e-mail attachment or enter them directly into a message... whatever is easier for you!

I hope you will all participate: more data = more math and more fun! If you don't work directly with a group of children, perhaps you can pass these questions on to a teacher you know.

If your group would like to pose more questions for our next math survey, that would be great, too.

Thanks,

Wendy Petti of Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com
wpetti@mathcats.com

(P.S. If you ever want to unsubscribe, just drop me a line at the e-mail address above. You can write "unsubscribe" or use the words of your choice to convey the message!)