Welcome to the June Edition of the Maths Week Ireland Newsletter, where we share some of the great things to see and do this month. After 10 issues of lockdown weekly newsletters, we are reverting back to our monthly schedule. 
Authorities, North and South, are planning for schools reopening in September. At this distance, we don't know what form this will take. It will likely be a phased approach with some continued need for remote learning and support. If you have any ideas how we can continue to support please get in touch. Maths Week will take place as usual in October, and we are planning for these different likely scenarios.    

Don’t forget to put Maths Week 2020 into your diary:
10^th to 18^th October 2020
Get in touch at mathsweek@wit.ie

In this weeks Maths at Home Newsletter

• Have You Got Maths Eyes competition shortlisted entries
• Problem Solving Resource
• Upcoming events
• Teacher recommendation
• Maths in the media
• Targetboards
• Douglas Buchanan Maths Beyond the Textbook

June 9^th to 16^th

Bloomsday Festival Maths

Tomorrow 16 June is Bloomsday and the date in 1904 that James Joyce set his epic novel Ulysses. Joyce said: “I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality”.  

The book is difficult territory without a guide. A recent online event from Dunsink Observatory organised by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) will guide you through mathematical, scientific and astronomical references in Ulysses. It features readings from Barry McGovern and music and song from Darina Gallagher and Sinead Murphy.  You can watch a clip featuring Maths Week's Eoin Gill below

The full video will be available free tomorrow on DIAS YouTube channel. You can see a range of DIAS events there also.

Learn more and register at askmath.momath.org.

Join award-winning professor and author Steven Strogatz as the National Museum of Mathematics announces the inaugural winners of the first annual Steven H. Strogatz Prize for Math Communication. 

Stand-up comedian and recreational mathematician Matt Parker will be on hand to kick off the event with his own special brand of humor.

The Strogatz Prize — a worldwide contest providing cash awards to high school students with outstanding math communication projects in categories such as art, performance, social media, video, and writing — will be presented during an online award ceremony on Sunday, June 28, at 8:00 pm BST. 

All are welcome to this special event. For more information and to register for this free event, please visit strogatzawards.momath.org. 

3.     Nuggets for Sale  - May 28, 2020 - Nuggets for Sale App

4.     Squareland  - May 21, 2020

5.     Digit Sums - May 14, 2020

6.     Color Triangles  - May 7, 2020 - Color Triangles App

7.     Blue Dot Solitaire  - April 30, 2020 - Blue Dot Solitaire App

8.     Skyscrapers  - Skyscrapers (younger) - April 23, 2020 - Skyscraper App

9.     Wolves and Sheep - April 16, 2020 - Wolves and Sheep App

10.   Frogs and Toads  - April 9, 2020

11.   Lightbulbs  - April 2, 2020

12.  Tower of Hanoi  - March 26, 2020

 Eimear Ní Mhurchú from Gaelscoil Phort     Lairge, recommends
 https://www.topmarks.co.uk/   and https://www.theschoolhub.ie/
 For materials as Gaeilge she uses the templates   that come with the as Gaeilge curriculum.



Topmarks is a leading independent educational website for children, teaching professionals and parents. The website features great, educationally sound online games and whiteboard resources that are both recreational and linked to the maths curriculum. Topmarks gives children the opportunity to learn online, through safe, fun, and engaging games and activities.

The school Hub has been created by the team at Rainbow Education and it now contains thousands of interactive activities to help teachers in Irish classrooms deliver the Primary School curriculum across all subjects. A school subscription costs €69.00 a year and then all computers in your school can log into the School Hub. Anybody can then enter the MATHEMATICS segment on the Hub Wheel where they can access hundreds of virtual maths manipulatives including interactive: clocks, weighing scales, money coins, fraction walls, charts, angles, and an interactive dictionary explaining all terms in a very visual way.
 

DCBEAGLE CHALLENGES

BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK – Maths Week Ireland
 
June 2020

Douglas Buchanan ~ dcbeagleb@gmail.com ~ www.dcbeagle.com ~ @dcbeagle1
 
Colours
In these times of uncertainty throughout the world I thought the ideal theme would be colour and creativity in mathematics. Not only can it be a tool to gain confidence in the subject but it is therapeutic for all.
 
Clarissa Grandi’s website Artful Maths covers many activities with her strapline being, “bold, bright and beautiful ideas for mathematics teaching, learning and play”.

The website includes:

Mathematical Art Lessons – curves of pursuit, Celtic knotwork, impossible shapes, insect symmetry, mazes and labyrinths, modern art, cardoids, patchwork paper patterns, constructing snowflakes, Islamic geometry.

Origami – origami lessons covering a wide range of activities from the simple to quite complex, origami clubs. She stresses expensive origami paper does not have to be used.
       
Puzzle games – this is a list of apps (several asking for a small fee) covering our topic and some of the graphics are spectacular.

Her blog – makes interesting and inspiring reading and one activity highlighted is the creation of mandalas.
 
Mandalas

Clarissa writes: “The word ‘mandala’ means ‘circle’ in Sanskrit, and mandalas have a deep spiritual or cosmic meaning in many cultures and traditions. For our #Maydala purposes, a mandala is any circular design exhibiting pattern and symmetry. Mandala making is accessible to all. The repetitive nature of these designs means that drawing them can be a wonderfully absorbing and meditative process, and it's a process that results in stunning geometrical patterns - bonus!”
On the same page you have lessons given by Kathryn Costa (https://100mandalas.com/)  and you and your pupils will be hooked!

Cartloids                               


 
 
 





This month’s puzzle

Buying buns
Buns were being sold at three prices: one for a penny, two for a penny, and three for a penny. Some children (there were as many boys as girls) were given seven pennies to spend on these buns, each child to receive exactly the same value in buns. Assuming that all buns remained whole, how many buns, and of what types, did each child receive?

In last month’s puzzle – the solution stated there were 20 people. Can anybody enlighten the readers where that value came from?

 
Games of the month – We are always looking for easy games for pupils to use to build up their confidence in the subject and they are free. There is a large array of online games covering many aspects of the KS2 curriculum on the Maths Frame website.
 
Colouring Squared
This website covers Key Stage 1 and 2 concepts where pupils have to find solutions and they have a colour key. The square on the grid then has to be coloured in and in the end, there is an image on the page. Hint: to save paper open the PDF file in WORD or similar and then the pupils can colour (fill) the squares in on the screen.
 
Stress relief colouring
Just Color provides a wide range of pages for colouring. The opening page is for adults but there is an icon for children’s editions.
 
Buying buns solution
There must have been three boys and three girls, each of whom received two buns at three for a penny and one bun at two for a penny, the cost of which would be exactly 7p.
 
Final words
Let us be positive and look forward to a better future. Keep safe.