Book 2 resources

Creative Activities in Mathematics Book 2 provides nine different class activities suitable for students in upper primary school (Years 4 to 7), along with teaching notes and staged lesson plans.

About the authors

Derek Holton is a mathematician and an Honorary Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Duncan Symons is a Lecturer of Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Melbourne.

Student materials

Download a full set of activity sheets that provide a framework for student responses. These can be printed or copied for use in class.

Download activity sheets

Additional online resources

Part 1: Number and Algebra

Chapter 1: Hours in a day

• Leap day timeline - http://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day-timeline.html
• Leaplings - http://patch.com/minnesota/edina/what-s-a-leapling-fun-leap-year-facts
• Leap years - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/time/leapyear/
• Days of the planets - http://www.universetoday.com/37481/days-of-the-planets/
• How long is a day on Jupiter? - http://www.universetoday.com/15084/how-long-is-a-day-on-jupiter/
• The Hebrew calendar - http://www.judaica-guide.com/the_hebrew_calendar/
• Why are there 24 hours in a day? - http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/11/15/3364432.htm
• Decimal time - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time
• Internet time - http://www.timeanddate.com/time/internettime.html

Chapter 2: Magimaths

• Mind-reading card trick - http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_card_trick1.htm
• Two wrongs do make a right - http://www.cs4fn.org/mathemagic/twowrongs.php
• Mathemagic - http://www.cs4fn.org/mathemagic/mathemagic.html
• Guess your number - http://izismile.com/2011/02/01/it-will-guess-your-number.html
• Magic shuffles - http://www.cs4fn.org/mathemagic/magicshuffles/
• Wizardy - http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html
• All change - http://www.cs4fn.org/mathemagic/coins.php
• Mind reader - http://www.sandlotscience.com/...
• I can read your mind (video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVrmQipRvpY&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Chapter 3: Mr Mac’s iPhone

• Apple's guide to battery life - http://www.apple.com/au/batteries/
• Egyptian fraction calculator - http://www.had2know.com/academics/egyptian-fraction-calculator.html

Part 2: Measurement and Geometry

Chapter 4: Hubcaps

1. Rotational symmetry (video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlWXuT4R3oI
2. Indigenous Instyle
3. Dunghutti-Ngaku Aboriginal Art Gallery (DNAAG) - http://dnaag.com.au/
4. Rose windows - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_window
5. Rotational symmetry - http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/symmetry-rotational.html

Chapter 5: Goats and wheels

• Locus of points on rolling objects - http://www.math-mate.com/chapter44_3.shtml
• Cycloids - http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Cycloid.html
• Cycloids (video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohP0clzK5rc
• The cycloid family of curves - http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/cycloidmaple/cycloid.htm

Part 3: Statistics and Probability

Chapter 7: Sports shots

• Goal kicking - http://www.afl.com.au/news/201...
• Standard normal distribution - http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/standard-normal-distribution.html

Chapter 8: Roman gamblers

• How many dice? - http://nrich.maths.org/692

Chapter 9: The school fete

• Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine (video) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sqnptxlCcw
• The Likert scale - http://www.surveygizmo.com/sur...

Additional sites

• Maths 300 - https://maths300.com
• NRICH - http://nrich.maths.org/
• NZ Maths - http://nzmaths.co.nz/
• AMSI TIMES (The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools) Modules - http://schools.amsi.org.au/times-modules/