How to Make a Gift for Your Math Teacher

Math is more than just boring old numbers - it can be puzzles, silly problems, and scavenger hunts. Here are some ideas you can use to make fun, math-based gifts.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Gift Ideas

1. Make puzzles for your classroom. See the section on how to make a "One Golf Tee Puzzle."
2. Cut out mind-teasing puzzles from construction paper. See the section on how to make a paper puzzle.
3. Make-up silly written math problems. Begin by making up a math problem and working out the answer. Now, make up a story using the numbers from your math problem.
4. Design a scavenger hunt using your math book and things in your classroom. Make the hunt where students can remain at their desks and look for things around them - on the wall, floor, ceiling, or other students.
5. Personalize a ruler with paint.
6. Decorate a can with numbers to hold the teacher's pencils.

One Golf Tee Puzzle

7. Use a piece of Styrofoam about 5 inches by 5 inches.
8. Find the center of Styrofoam piece and mark it with a pen.
9. Make a mark every 5/8 inch from the center going in all four directions. You will make three marks each direction from the center. You should have dots that look like "+."
10. Measure 5/8 inch and mark on each side of each dot. This will now give you a "+" with rows of three dots - and a total of 33 dots all together.
11. Poke a golf tee firmly into each dot.
12. Remove the tees, and color each hole with a black marker.
13. Place a golf tee in each hole except the center hole.
14. Solve the puzzle by jumping one tee over another in any direction until you only have one tee left on the board.

Paper Puzzle

15. Cut an 8-inch x 8-inch piece of paper.
16. Measure from the bottom of the paper up 3 inches on both sides and make a mark with a pencil.
17. Use a ruler to make a straight line between the marks.
18. Cut along the line. Now you have one piece of paper 8 inches x 5 inches and one piece of paper 8 inches x 3 inches.
19. Lay your ruler on the smaller piece of paper from corner to corner and mark the diagonal with a pencil.
20. Cut on the diagonal line, and label one piece C and the other piece D.
21. Measure 3 inches from the left side on the bottom of the larger piece of paper and mark with a pencil.
22. Measure 5 inches from the same side, but this time at the top of the paper with a pencil. The marks will be at a diagonal from each other.
23. Place your ruler on the pencil marks and draw a diagonal line between the marks.
24. Cut on the diagonal line and label one piece A and the other B.
25. Place C and D together on the diagonal and A and B together on the diagonal and place pieces together to make an 8-inch x 8-inch square, which equals 64.
26. Place C and A together to form a triangle and D and B together and place the triangles together to make a 5-inch x 13-inch rectangle, which equals 65.

Tips & Warnings

• Older teenagers with adult supervision can make this out of a piece of sanded and varnished wood for a nice coffee table puzzle.
• If you need several puzzles, glue pieces of cardboard together until you have a thick piece to use as your base. Use drywall nails, which you can buy by the pound, in place of the golf tees.
• The question is: How can you arrange the same pieces to get two different answers?