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Can You Believe This is Math? Download the Units

Can You Believe THIS is Math? is a collection of 20 units that can be used to enrich, supplement and complement the elementary mathematics curriculum. Each unit is comprised of 5 hands-on activities that represent “the best of the best” of the curriculum resources that were developed by teacher candidates as part of the Connect-ME shared repository and Mathematics@Home family math calendar that Dr. Lynda Colgan coordinated and managed between 2000 and 2008.

Curriculum correlations are provided for each activity (grades and strands). Special thanks to Adam Swanson (BEd 2010) for his enormous effort in sifting through hundreds of webpages and organizing the best resources into themes.

Curriculum Expectations

Unit & Theme	Activity	Download (PDF)
1: History of Geometry	Pioneer Math
	Viking Navigation
	Measuring the Area of a Trianlge the Egyptian Way
	Yin Yang
	The Game of Hex
2: Tangrams	Making Tangrams
	Animal Tangrams
	Number and Letter Tangrams
	Double Tangrams
	Flower Tangrams
3: Origami	The Art of Origami
	Origami Puzzle
	Origami Box
	Folding a Paper Crane
	Making an Origami Sail Boat
4: Tessellations	Making Tessellations
	Printing with Squares
	Islamic Art Tessellations
	Magic Carpets
	Stained Glass Symmetry
5: 2D Geometry	Hidden Polygons
	Butterfly
	Lines of Symmetry
	The Blocks Puzzles
	Toothpick Takeaway
6: 3D Geometry	Traveling From 2D to 3D
	3D Shape Safari
	Solid Shapes and Their Nets
	Make Your Own Soccer Ball
	Make a 3D Star
7: Math Magic	A Fun with Math Card Trick
	An Amazing Magic Dice Trick
	Fascinating Magic Squares
	Math Number Tricks
	Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days
8: Math and Nature	How Much Water is on Planet Earth?
	Trash Math
	How do Maple Seeds Travel?
	Puddle Fun
	Planning a Garden
9: Animal Math	Measuring with Squirrels
	Shark Attack
	Pet Pictograph
	Your Life as a Dog
	Lions Race to 100
10: Sports Math	Suiting Up
	What's Your Speed
	The Soccer All-Stars
	100-Metre Dash
	Is the Stanley Cup Championship Rigged?
11: International Math	Number Names from Around the World
	Mancala
	Kwanzaa Place Mat
	Mayan Math
	Three Men's Morris
12: Deep Space Math	The Great Space Scale
	Toilet Paper Solar System
	Alien Communication
	Planets for Sale
	Making Craters
13: Musical Math	Shake, Rattle and Roll
	Musical Volume and Pitch
	Musical Fractions
	Musical Triangles
	Graphing Notes
14: Money Math	Canadian Coins
	Money Bingo
	Your Height in Money
	Bathroom on a Budget
	Heads or Tails
15: First Nations Math	Model Igloos
	Measuring with Your Body
	The Polar Bear
	Game Sticks
	The Legend of Bigfoot
16: Math and the Human Body	Golden Ratio and the Human Body
	Measuring our Bodies
	Making a Model Arm
	Napier's Bones
	What is your Heart Rate?
17: Traveling Math	The Penny Farthing Bike
	Paper Airplanes
	Map of Sherwood Forest
	Distance to the Horizon
	Math on the Map
18: Fibonacci's Math	Amazing Fibonacci Numbers
	Fibonacci's Rabbit
	Fibonacci Numbers in Nature
	Fib Bee Nacci Puzzle
	The Golden Rectangle and the Golden Ratio
19: Probability	Dice Game
	Rock Paper Scissors
	Tossing Shells
	The Handshake Problem
	Make Your Own Spinner
20: Early Years Math	Dots and Fingers
	Counter Collectors
	Crack the Secret Code
	Shapes All Around
	Me as a Measure