Math and Magazines – a limitless source of ideas!
Math and Magazines a limitless source of ideas!
Math and Magazines a limitless source of ideas!
Schools are wonderful recyclers. Were always finding ways to use and reuse all sorts of everyday objects that others would throw away. Old magazines are some of the most flexible classroom resources that youll find. They can be used in just about any area of the curriculum (yes, even PE if youre imaginative enough!), so build up those magazine piles and get ready to enjoy this free teaching resource! Here we look at just a few ways in which magazines could be used within mathematics. The ideas below vary in complexity from simple color sorting for the youngest children, to complex spreadsheet design for your older and most able students.
1. Sorting and matching - Cut out pictures of different colored objects (or ask the children to find and cut out pictures). Scatter the various pictures in one pile and ask the children to sort them into colors on large sheets of paper and display all the red things together, then all the green ones and so on.
2. Sorting and matching Students cut out pictures from the magazines of any objects they like, and put the pictures all together on a large sheet of paper. The teacher then chooses two of the pictures, holds them up and explains how the two objects are similar perhaps they have the same color, or both have circles, or are both made of metal, are both cars of some kind etc ask the students to make pairs of pictures in the same way and explain how they are similar.
3. Money problems - Use the fashion or retail sections of some of the magazines, ones with prices shown. Either create a work sheet of problems to solve, or have the students make their own questions (and an answer sheet) for each other based on their shopping pages.
4. The importance of numbers - Give each pair of students a single page from a magazine and get them to work out how often on that page (both sides) numbers are written, mentioned, used in any way (highlighter pens could be used). You could leave it at this, with a brief discussion of how this demonstrates how frequently we refer to and need to use numbers. Or it could extended - make a class graph and do some whole class or group analysis appropriate to the age and ability of the students. (e.g. average number of numbers on each page, how many numbers in total in the magazine, which numbers occur most often? Are more of them written in words or in digits, etc?)
5. Time and duration - Use the TV section of a magazine and refer to it as a teaching resource to discuss time, duration, 24 hour clock. E.g. how long does program A last? If I switched on the TV to channel R at 8 oclock at night, what program would be showing? Etc.
6. Area how many magazines are needed to cover various objects desk top, window pane, door, classroom floor etc? For older or more advanced students, you might ask them to measure and work out the area of the magazine cover, specific pictures or adverts.
7. Averages select 2 different types of magazine (one more tabloid, the other more intellectual). Pick an article (or one page of an article) from each magazine. Ask the students to calculate the average number of words in a paragraph. Why do they think one has significantly more words than the other? Alternatively work out the average length of words on each page. The conclusion should be similar. Be careful not to encourage judgemental attitudes saying one magazine is designed to be read by all sorts of people whether or not theyre good readers, while the other is aimed at better readers would be sufficient.
8. Percentages Look for special offers, money off or other kinds of reductions in the adverts, and percentages quoted in articles and news stories (e.g. 20% of our readers thought.). Highlight any mention of percentages, to see how often percentages are used and therefore how important it is to learn to use and understand percentages. Or write 5 different amounts on the board. Students have to find 5 different percentages in their magazines, and work out that percentage of each amount on the board. Calculators can be permitted for this.
9. Costs and profits Let the students imagine they are the editor of one of the magazines. Give them a list of costs (the amounts and complexity can reflect the age and ability of the students), e.g. they have to pay writers $50.00 for every article or story written; they receive $50 for every advert ($10 for classifieds); It costs $0.05 to print every page; They sell the magazine to stores for $1 per magazine; they have to pay their own staff $3000 per month; it costs $500 per month for bills (lights, heating, phones etc). How many copies of the magazine do they have to sell before they start making a profit?
10. Spreadsheets take the scenario in activity 9, but this time the children design and make a working spreadsheet, with built in calculations, which will help the editor to monitor costs. They should be able to change any key figure (number of copies sold, cost of bills, amount paid per article, etc) and the spreadsheet immediately recalculates all related figures to show their impact on the profitability of the magazine.
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