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You could make a bulletin board out of this idea if it's OK to put up after school starts. Math shape art: Draw on the chalkboard different geometric shapes. Talk about the attributes of squares, circles, triangles (both isosceles and equilateral if you need them), rectangles, ovals, etc. Assign each group or row to a different shape and tell them they may use only that shape on their drawing paper. Shapes may be overlapping, of different sizes and rotated. After they have filled their paper with shapes, (using rulers for straight edges and black marking pens to make the outlines if they are available) they are to take their crayons and, pressing very hard, fill in each area. No color should touch another like-colored area. These projects look nice when they are done and take about an hour. There is also one I do with the kids writing on it, but it's in my classroom, so I know the marking pen isn't going to be doing any writing that is not allowable in school! I write the numbers 1 to 100 and have the students put equations after them, using only the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. They may use each only once, and they may not use the numbers as digits--in other words, 4 and 5 may not be put together to make 45 or 54. They may use any operation(s) they wish. Because I have them write in black permanent pen, they must write their equation down first, have a friend sign it to prove that it is OK, then they show it to me and I give them the pen. They may sign their name after their equation--use a regular ink pen for this unless you have LOTS of room. I'll bet, if you spread the numbers out, you could fill up; all four bulletin boards with just this idea--the only catch would be the kids writing stuff they weren't supposed to. After rereading this, I'm not too sure how clear it is. For instance, 25 = (2+3) x 5 or 25 = [(4+5) x 3] - 2 etc. If you have room, it's nice to leave space for more than one equation to be written for each number.
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A Neat Looking Bulletin Board: Cut out pictures of two flashlights, had a beam coming from each and crossing each other so there was yellow triangles of light from each. He had it on a white background, but I think a dark background would make them show up better. He had a compass (blackboard size) and flash cards around with other math instruments on the board. The slogan is "Enlighten Your Mind to Math". It looks neat!
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Dice baseball is very easy. Each student makes up a team roster and a score sheet (if you don't know how to do a score sheet, ask your gym teacher or other knowledgable person). Two people play. The first player rolls until they get three outs (see table below). Then the next person goes. There are only "hitters" no outfield play. We find the median and mean of each player, graph the results, etc. You can do all sorts of things with this from art (painters' hat for each "team", make pennants,) to writing (write a story about your team and the game). 7 innings are required for a completed game or it's a rainout. 2= out 3= out 4= single 5=out 6= double 7= out 8=out 9= triple 10=out 11=out 12= homerun
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