Math-A-Magical Puzzles

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin created many inventions, including the Magic Square?  (A magic square is a box of numbers arranged so that any line of numbers adds up to be the same number, including the diagonals!)  Richard Walz has written a historical fiction book about this.  It is fun for the students to read while at the same time it gives them a great deal of historical information.  It also contains many activities that can be used along with the book. 

On Sale May 6-8

I love to use Magic Squares in my classroom.  The construction and analysis of magic squares provides practice in mental arithmetic, operations with numbers, geometry, and measurement plus it encourages logical reasoning and creativity, all in a game-like setting.  Furthermore, they are a powerful tool for teaching students basic addition skills since each row, column, and diagonal must add up to be the same sum. 

Check out my newest product entitled The A, B, C's of Number Tiles.  All of the 26 letter puzzles of this 42 page handout are solved in a similar way that magic squares are solved. The activities vary in levels of difficulty. Because the pages are arranged alphabetically, and are not in any particular order based on difficulty, the students are free to skip around in the book. Since the students do not write in the book, the math-a-magical puzzles can be copied and laminated so that they can be used from year to year.