Tis The Season . . .To Do Math
Dreidels, Christmas trees, shopping, and snowflakes--what do they all have in common? Mathematics.
By Donna Iadipaolo
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and/or Kwanzaa, the joy and festivities of the season will enliven your classroom by connecting math to the holidays.
For instance, probability may be studied while playing the traditional Hanukkah game “Spin the Dreidel.” Tokens are first evenly distributed to all players. The tokens used may be pennies, chocolate money (called “gelt”), nuts, beads, dried fruit, etc. A dreidel is spun to reveal that the letter on top is either a “nun,” “gimmel,” “hay” or “shin.” Depending on what the player gets, s/he either does nothing, takes tokens from a pot, takes half the tokens from the pot, or actually adds to the pot. If an actual dreidel is not available, students can make dreidels by folding the tops of milk cartons and then sticking a pencil in the box. Patterns for dreidels can also be found on the Web. Or you could further encourage mathematical thinking by creating an actual geometric net, the pattern for a dreidel.
The mathematics of shopping during the season may also be explored by having students create a holiday shopping budget plan. Students could not only calculate how much they plan to spend in purchases for others, but also calculate all the hidden costs or discounts available, such as taxes, shipping costs, or coupons. This might also be a perfect time to examine the dangers of credit card debt, and specifically the mathematics of credit card interest and finance charges.
The tradition of putting up Christmas trees can be a source of wonder as well this time of year. You might ask students to gather data on the average heights of various kinds of popular Christmas trees. Does the Scotch Pine, the White Spruce, or the Douglas Fir have a taller average height? How might we examine measures of centers more generally for these trees?
One of my favorite topics for mathematical contemplation, however, would have to be a study of snowflakes. Contrary to popular belief, a true symmetrical snowflake is not the norm. However, math teachers can certainly team up with science teachers this time of year to study the different shapes of snowflakes, the crystals that comprise each snowflake, the relation of shapes that make up snowflakes, or the relationship between temperature and a snowflake’s shape. More simply, students can rely on cutting out shapes to form the symmetrical paper folded kinds and examine its patterns, congruent shapes, and transformations. Enjoy the season with these other lessons that connect to the holidays.
Winter Holidays and Math:
Students answer questions about a simple line graph that shows total Christmas tree sales from 1993 to 2000. They take their own survey to study how many of their classmates' families have real trees and how many have artificial trees.
Students attempt to budget $1000 for Christmas shopping. They execute problems with subtraction, multiplication, and addition of decimals and use higher-level thinking skills to interpret their answers for word problems.
Crystals, Christmas, and Science
Students examine how different crystals are formed, observe crystals in the making, observe with a hand lens and cite the geometric qualities, relating the necessary natural occurrences needed to create crystals.
Students discover the characteristics of polyhedra. Through hands-on activities and interactive videos, students investigate and retrieve information on polyhedra and crystal structures. Students study angles and symmetry. They participate in an Internet Scavenger Hunt.
Understanding Credit Card Interest
Students explore credit card interest. They discuss how credit cards work, and they examine a sample credit card record. Students discuss the interest rates and the additional costs associated with credit cards and interest. They examine how to apply interest rates and figure out how much an item will cost with interest added to the purchase price.