Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Algebra Dice!

I often find that I have to explain to people in public that I'm a teacher to explain seemingly strange behavior.  Today was one of these times but it was worth it because I'm crazy excited about this find.

I was in 5 Below and happened upon a jar that looked like this:


And in looking further I spotted a few that had said "2x" "3x" and "x" on them.  Yeah I needed them.  Oh and they were 25 cents each.  I proceded to stand at an empty register and empty the entire container to make sure I got all the ones I wanted.  

I ended up with these guys:


I'm seriously so excited.  This is the kind of thing I don't even think twice about because I know they will get used in awesome ways.

The first thing that comes to mind is just roll out an equation/inequality activity.  Roll the dice, end up with something like the picture below and solve. Awesome.


Or a similar type activity but differentiated using the number dice.  Lowest group gets 1-6 dice, middle group gets 1-12 dice (top right in the picture) and high group gets the bigger numbers.  And those ideas are just off the top of my head.

[Update]: If you don't get as lucky as I did at 5 Below or if you don't have one close I found a couple similar options available online:
  • Lakeshore Math Dice Tub a little more expensive- $30 but you get 90 dice.  They don't have the ones with variables but they have some other cool ones.  Maybe a good purchace for an entire department to share
  • Xtreme Math Games These are what I have plus exponents and integers.  They also have some really interesting dice inside of dice ones that could definately be fun for tons of stuff.  $8 for a set of 12 dice.
  • Spectrum This one looks like a perfect mix, but is more expensive than the others- $80.50 (!) for 100 dice.  Another good option to maybe see if school could buy for the entire department.
  • Amazon has a cheaper option.  You can pick up individual dice for $0.85 each and get exactly what you want.  Certainly not as cheap as $0.25, but not bad if you're only going to get a few. (the link is to the exponent dice, scroll down to "customers also bought" and you can see other options.
  • Amazon You could also just pick up some blank dice and DIY these..these on Amazon are $8.84 for 36 red, white and green dice.

7 comments:

  1. OMG. I need these dice. I am going to 5 Below today hoping to find these! Luckily they just opened one near me. What an amazing idea! PS I am in the process of blogging about my new favorite blogs and you are #1 on the list :)
    ☼ Kate
    To The Square Inch

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    Replies
    1. Aren't they awesome??! I can't even explain how excited I was. I hope they have them at yours!

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  2. Holy cow; genius! We don't have a 5 Below, but I think I'll be hitting Teacher Heaven to see if I can find these. Thank you!

    Lisa

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    1. Good luck! I think you can find them online too..they're called algebra dice

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  3. I did the same exact thing this summer. :-) I was like a lunatic at the register emptying out the container.

    I think I have $10 worth of those things.

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    Replies
    1. Love it! I have already used them quite a bit, they were a great find!

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  4. I'm not sure about the operations dice, but for the numbered dice try gaming stores or bookstores. I have had a set of those in one form or another since I was 14 for playing Dungeons and Dragons.

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