Build Newspaper Towers...and Test Their Stability! 5th Grade Activity

As your young learner studies structures, he may hear that the strongest shape is the triangle. Put this architectural idea to the test by building two different newspaper towers with your child. He'll test and observe each structure's stability…trying his hand at engineering as he explores this important architectural concept.

What You Need:
Newspapers
Masking tape
Heavy desk stapler
Large paper plate
Pennies

What You Need:
Your child will be building two towers, one made out of cubes (horizontals and verticals) and the other consisting of triangles (cubes with diagonal braces). Each tower will be two cubes tall. Start by helping your child roll newspaper into tubes. Take one sheet of newspaper, folded so that you see one full page. Roll from a short side, making a tube approximately one inch thick. Tape. Make 20 for each tower.

Using staples and tape, help your child make a cube. Take 8 more newspaper tubes, and build a second cube on top of the first. Reinforce the joints with tape. You have completed one tower, two cubes tall. Repeat step 2 to build the second tower.

The braces are also of rolled newspaper but need to be slightly longer than the original tubes. Take one sheet of newspaper, folded so that you see one page and fold this page in half, top to bottom. Roll from one corner to other. Tape. Make 11 braces.

Staple or tape one of these braces diagonally across each side, the top and the base of the bottom cube in the second tower. Repeat the process with the four sides and the top of the upper cube.

Carefully stand the towers upright. Do they both stand easily? It may take some shifting to get the one without braces to remain upright. Place a paper plate on each tower. Add pennies until one tower topples. Which one turned out to be strongest? Why does he think that is?

Great Maths Websites

The links below are some great sites for the children to practice their maths skills:


http://www.aaamath.com/


http://www.coolmath4kids.com/


http://www.mathcats.com/explore.html


http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml


http://www.funbrain.com/numbers.html

A Prime Number Maths Game - 4th Grade

What is a prime number? Check out this great way to learn. Find a deck of cards and deal them out. We hope your hand has a lot of prime numbers in it! If it does, you have a good chance of winning. If not, we wish you luck when you reach your hand over to the draw pile. Before you know it, you’ll have the first several prime numbers memorized and some great skills to take with you back to math class.

Terms to Know:
Prime Number: a number with no factors excepting itself and 1 (The first several prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, and 23. The number 1 is not a prime number and is instead classified as a unit.)

Factor: a number that divides evenly into another number

What You Need:
Deck of playing cards

What You Do:
Shuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player.

In this game, Aces = 1, Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, and Kings = 13.

Players take turns discarding cards, face up and one at a time, into a discard pile. Players may only discard prime numbers or a group of cards whose sum is a prime number. If a player is unable to discard a prime number, they must draw from the deck until they find or create one.

Play continues until the pack is depleted. The winning player is the player with the fewest cards left in their hand.