MathPickle

Put your students in a pickle!

Beijing to New York

Curricular puzzles for K-9 teachers

MathPickle is supported by Nancy Blachman, its Patreon community and The Alberta Teachers’ Association. Thank you!

One of the best features of your puzzles is how they engage a wide spectrum of learners, something that is difficult for teachers. Your math puzzles are remarkable and children enjoy and learn from them regardless of their mathematical understanding. This is as close to a “silver bullet” as I’ve seen.

Jason Kornoely

Fourth Grade Teacher, Pine Ridge Elementary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

I stumbled upon your site, MathPickle.com, this morning and two hours later I’m still there. Just wanted to drop you a brief note to say thank you for all the great resources, ideas, and inspiring videos! I can’t wait to use some these materials this Fall with my elementary mathematics methods students as well as try the unsolved problems with my two children.

Amy Tanner

Assistant Professor, Education Department, St. Catherine University

For the poster of MathPickle’s ideas on elementary math education go here.

It is impossible to be a great math teacher without teaching great mathematics.

In elementary school a quality math education has these objectives in order of importance:

1) Problem-solving

2) Tenacity-building

3) Arithmetic

A PuzzleTime favourite from last week: Add the fewest number of toothpicks so that Willie only has one way to lie down.

Ben Sparks and Brady Haran team up to solve a delicious puzzle.

Mathologer highlights some beautiful mathematics.

Simon Anthony solves a highly symmetric sudoku with some special rules.

Teaching is an experimental science.

James Tanton and the Global Math Project has created an exceptional framework for teaching bases that is essential in every elementary school classroom. It’s called exploding dots.

The Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival and its founder Nancy Blachman refine the pedagogy of problems and promote a non-competitive alternative to competitions. They have a strong commitment to the Spanish community.

Dan Finkel’s Math for Love is a website full of engaging mathematics. He rethemes many puzzles appropriate for elementary school students and creates his own beautiful problems. Prime climb is his board game.

Brady Haran’s Numberphile is one of the top math channels. Most of the videos are not appropriate for the elementary school classroom, but there are many exceptions like this video on the dollar game by Dr. Holly Krieger.

Mathologer produces beautiful videos for his youtube channel. Most target middle and high school students, but this video deserves watching by elementary school teachers as well.

Grant Sanderson’s phenomenal videos on his 3blue1brown youtube channel are stunningly beautiful. They are best for high school and beyond.

Please use MathPickle in your classrooms. If you have improvements to make, please contact me. I'll give you credit and kudos 😉 If you are using MathPickle with adults, please mention the website. If you are from a private school, please ask parents or administrators to donate.