I have been working on the funnest thing - a Luck-o-The Irish Math Tree. Yes, it has been so fun and your home school or classroom would have a great time making the tree. You can teach math with this tree very easily - decimals, fractions, reducing fractions, addition, you name it. Math is fun when it is art. Under the tree I put a large Pot-O Gold! And on the Gold I put values, for each gold coin (we were working with adding decimals and money so I did .05, .50, .25, .50, 1.00 and so on... I made prizes for the kids who figured out the value of the gold coins in the pot.
Materials
Brown Paper Roll (you could even use brown packaging or wrapping paper - it takes a whole roll)
1 Green Crepe Paper Roll (any shade of green - it looks great if it is a different shade than the green colored paper.
Colored Paper (Green too, any shade) I think I used about 50 - 100 or so
Black Poster Board - For the Pot that the Gold is in
Gold Paper (I used a Bright Yellow) - a few sheets - less than 10
Sharpie Marker
Tacks, Staples or Packaging Tape
Snake rolled Brown Paper
Take your Brown Paper and cut it in long sheets, my paper roll was about 5 feet wide so I cut each sheet into 2 pieces vertically. (Time to talk about vertical and horizontal is now, because you use this concept a lot as you make your tree.) Each long snake is about 5 - 6 feet long. Precision is not as important in this area because trees are random. Crinkle and roll the paper the long way. If you are using tape make your crinkling will be more side to side and each snake should only be about 4 feet wide.This is going to be the bark, branches and roots of your tree. The kids love to do this and you can have a number of kids doing it at the same time. The rolls will look like long snakes. I had the kids start at a corner so that the ends are pointed. It isn't hard to do - anyone can do it really. It takes approximately 20 - 40 of these long paper rolls to make the tree, depending on class size and tree size.
Roots
Start fashioning the tree on the wall. You will want to begin with a few roots. Simply lay the pointed end of each long snakelike roll horizontally (talk about horizon line and horizontal) along the bottom of the wall just above the floor. Staple or tack the end. the end. Packaging tape may work too, have students make small rolls of tape and put onto one side of each snake - but be careful that you don't remove the wall paint when you take down your tree. Come to the place where the trunk begins to go vertical and staple again. Keep stapling tacking as you go. If you are taping then have the tape on beforehand. I found for the entire process staples were the best, you will need to fold out the staple gun the long way (there is a little tab on the bottom of most staple guns, kids don't know this, and make sure you tell them the dangers of stapling themselves or others, I let kids staple but only after telling the story of the kid who stapled his friends knee, some teachers choose to staple it all themselves but it is not easy to do alone, kids can hold the rolls as you staple) Make sure you staple where the paper is thinner, on an edge. I made about 5 - 7 long roots that came together from each direction and began forming the trunk
Trunk
Tack each end and the middle of each long snakelike roll as you fashion your tree trunk. It is fun. Remember that each long roll should go up and down on the wall vertically. (Talk about vertical pointing upward) To make the trunk simply put a number of brown snake rolls together without any spaces between. Make the trunk of the tree about a foot wide. begin another snake where one leaves off. Don't make all snakes start and stop at one point, miss align snake beginnings and endings (this is the best). Don't think about it too hard. Have students stand back and look at the work once in a while - helping others decide where to put each brown snake roll and make the tree look good.
Branches
Branches are made with the long brown paper snake rolls just like the trunk. Remember, branches of trees begin wide and get smaller as the tree goes upward, so don't get too small too fast as you begin your branches. Start by making 2 separate branches about 6" each (splitting off at the top of the trunk.) It isn't hard. Then split these 2 separate branches into 4 branches - about 4" each or so. Continue your visual division process. (This is a great time to talk about division.) As you get to small 3" branches you will be working and tacking on the ceiling (you ladder, or table will be needed - I used some of the taller students at this point to tack things up - I was jsut too short!) You don't need a lot of ceiling branches - 4 or 5 long snakes is enough.
Willows
The long crape papers are the willows. Each student can make a few. Crepe paper should be cut into 4 feet, 3 feet and 2 feet long. (again, it isn't a precise art, trees are rather random) This tree looks like a willow tree and these long pieces of crepe paper strips will be tacked to the ceiling hanging down vertically around the branches. (great time to talk about vertical and horizontal when your make a tree) I use one tack per strip, to hang them. I made sure they were not too long so kids didn't mess with them. If the kids are helping they are proud of the tree and will usually not mess with it.
Leaves
Fold 2 pieces of the green colored paper in half the long way and fold them both again the long way.(we call this long way folding of paper the "hot dog bun" fold) Cut 3 1/2 heart shapes at the fold to make 2 hearts each fold and 6 hearts per sheet. Don't worry the size (again trees are not precise) just have students utilize the paper the best that they can - makes the least mess to pick up afterwords.
Combining Leaves to Willows
Staple the heart shape leaves onto the long crepe paper pieces. The top bumps of the heart should be on the crape paper - the pointed tip will hang out - off the paper. I stapled only one time per heart. I also made sure there were a few hearts stapled to each side of the paper. When you hold the crepe paper up the points of the hearts should slightly point at a downward angle. I put somewhere between 5-10 green colored paper hearts on each long crepe paper, depending on the length of the paper. Now tack the long willow leaves hanging down from the ceiling all around your branches - you don't have to have branches everywhere you tack. I did an entire area kids love to read under the tree in the bean bag chairs that are there.
Pot
Fold the black poster board in 1/2 cut out a pot like shape. I made the top slightly curved downward and the bottom slightly curved up. Cut between the top and bottom curve on the edge away from the fold in a slightly curved outward shape as well. This makes a pretty big pot. Use the entire poster board - only trim away little amounts.
Gold
Simply find a can the size you want for the gold. Mine was about 4" diameter. Draw your circle and cut out each. These circles are your gold pieces. Write whatever value you want for each coin on the circles with a sharpie marker. We were working with decimals and money so I made each piece a divergent monetary value, using a decimal point in each one. Add the coins to the pot. Put some coins falling out of the pot and put some coins in a pile under the tree. I make the smallest area worth the most value and the largest area worth the least, just to mix it up a bit and get the kids thinking. Each student can add a clover under the tree for that special touch. This is a great extra time activity, some kids get finished with the math questions early - if they do they can make more clover.
Oragami uses math principles as well. Here is a video link to the ones that I did under my tree.
Math Questions that you could ask - about your Pot O Gold.
What is the coin of highest value?
What is the coin of least value?
What is the coin of highest value in each area?
What is the coin of least value in each area?
What is the value of coins in the pot?
What is the value of the coins falling out of the pot?
What is the value of the coins under the tree?
What is the value of all the coins together?
What is the value of the coins in the pot and under the tree together?
What is the value of the coins outside the pot together?
What is the value of the coins in the pot and falling out of the pot together?
What is the difference of the value of the coins in the pot and under the tree?
What is the difference of the value of the coins under the tree and falling out of the pot?
What is the difference of the value of the coins in the pot and under the tree?
What is the difference of the value of the coins under the tree and in the pot?
What is the number of coins in the pot?
What is the number of coins falling out of the pot?
What is the number of the coins under the tree?
What is the value of all the coins together?
What is the number of the coins in each area together?
What is the number of the coins in each area? (inside,outside and falling out of the pot)
What is the difference of the number of coins in and out of the pot?
What is the difference of the number of the coins in the pot and under the tree?
What is the difference of the number of coins falling out of the pot and under the tree?
Which area has the most coins?
Which area has the least coins?
Which area has the highest value of coins?
Which area has the least value of coins?
If the coins were real (inside, outside, or falling out of the pot) which area would you want to have?
