Number Devil Activities: The Ninth Night

Is it infinity or half of infinity?

The ninth chapter of The Number Devil submits the mind-boggling idea of infinity to young mathematicians and reflects back on concepts already introduced.

1) Infinite Poem

Write an acronym poem for the word "infinite".  Each line may be one word describing infinity or an entire sentence about things that are infinite.  Be creative.  Use a thesaurus for help coming up with synonyms for infinite.  Here's a simple example:

Incalculable

Never-ending

Frustrating

Inexhaustible

Numberless

Immeasurable

Tremendous

Everlasting

2) Number Pattern Bingo

For this game you'll need a bingo card for each student and one sheet of call-out words cut out, folded in half and placed in a bowl.  There are six different bingo cards, but multiple children can have identical cards.  Following the traditional rules of bingo, call out the kind of number to cover and any number that fits in that category can be covered, but only one number can be covered with each call.  For example, if "Fibonacci Number" was called out then the students could cover the 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89, or 144.  But only one Fibonacci number would be covered at that time.  The students will find that there is some strategy involved since some numbers are in more patterns, such as the number "1".  Here are cheat sheets to help identify which number is in which pattern.

3) Greater Than and Less Than Fractions

Use this worksheet generator to make a greater than or less than fraction worksheet.  It is free and does not require signing up.