Learn a Calendar Trick ~ Explain the Math!

Welcome, New Year!

The first week back in January is a great time to introduce your students to the fun patterns in calendars and teach them a few tricks they can perform at home.

Previously I’ve shared about incorporating “math magic” in the classroom and some fun math card tricks in Learn a Card Trick ~ Explain the Math! It’s all about patterns!

EXPLORE PATTERNS

Explain to the students that you’re going to teach them some calendar tricks, but first, you’d like them to explore and discover some patterns on calendar pages. Kids will enjoy that the tricks work with ANY calendar, including calendar pages way into the future!

Pass out pages from old or current calendars or make copies of any of these calendar pages and distribute a half-sheet to each student. You may even want to laminate them so students can use dry-erase markers. Have them look for various patterns, as suggested here:

• Direct them to outline or lightly color a 2×2 square, anyplace on the calendar. Ask, “What do you notice?” Tell students it’s okay to write down obvious patterns but encourage them to play around with the four numbers to see if they can find less obvious patterns. Outline at least two other 2×2 grids and try your ideas to see if they work for all 2×2 squares. After allowing students to share, present the patterns on this slide.
• You might also like to try these activities: Calendar Capers and/or Calendar Calculations.

CALENDAR TRICK #1

All that you need for this trick is a calendar page- any month, any year- and a calculator. You can share the video below with your students, but I think It’s always more fun to begin by performing the trick on students! View the video to prepare your demonstration of this first trick (video link here). Once you have performed the trick with several students, explain how it’s done (or share the video). Then, ask them if they can explain why this works. Challenge students to produce clear explanations of the math behind the trick. This is sometimes the most difficult part for students even if they understand the math.

Once your students have had ample time to think about, discuss, and share their ideas about the math behind the trick, you may have discovered different ways to explain the math. I’ve created a teacher page with explanations and extensions to this trick and Calendar Trick #2 below. Subscribers have access to all teacher pages and answer keys for activities shared on the site, but If you do not wish to subscribe, you can request the teacher guide here.

MORE CALENDAR TRICKS

Students will use what they learned in the first trick to find additional patterns and perform new tricks. The video below is less than 3 minutes and presents additional “tricks” (link here). You might even challenge students to create new calendar tricks that are different from all the tricks shared in the videos. They will be able to do it!

There may be in a conversation in our Facebook group about this, and we’d love for you to join us. Of, you can leave a comment below. Find additional activities perfect for January HERE.

Happy New Year!