Maths Club Ideas - Printables

This is a follow up to my post about maths club activities requiring only paper and scissors. If you have access to a printer you might like to use these activities that only need a teensy bit of prep.

I like using dotty circles, templates can be found half way down this page, there are some great activities you can explore. My favourite activity is investigating different ways of drawing stars, it has really great links to factors and multiples. Then you can look into some angles activities, triangles in circles or even angles in the stars themselves.

Dotty paper is great for creative maths projects, it comes in isometric and squared versions and is very versatile. Isometric drawing is great fun, print some paper here and have a go. I would recommend starting by drawing some simple shapes, this activity with four cubes might be a nice place to start, then you could look at other 3D shapes and how to draw letters.

Tessellations are another activity that can be done effectively on dotty paper. There are plenty of resources out there for this but for super quick prep I like this booklet that can be used with isometric and squared dotty paper.

There are many other things you can do with dotty paper too. Can you draw a square if you have a diagonal? How many rhombuses can you draw from a line?  Can you complete the quadrilateral? How many squares does the diagonal of a rectangle pass through?  And more.

If you want to try curve stitching you don't need a needle and thread, you can draw lines between the points with a ruler (though these are very beautiful). Drawing your own axes is a valuable part of the activity however there are some templates that can be found here.

Drawing celtic knots is a bit trickier than some of the other activities but it is can produce some beautiful results. Using squared paper is essential, I would recommend using larger squares for this activity. 

Hexaflexagons seem like magic when you first come across them. I would start with this lovely video by Vi Hart. Then you could get your students to construct their own hexaflexagons or you could use these templates from Aunt Annies Crafts. (Or you could even use this selfie hexaflexagon maker from Christian Lawson-Perfect for giggles!)

If you have some compasses then there are plenty of activities you can try out beyond the usual hexagons. Here is a problem about constructing a square inside any triangle,  here is another about creating a rotationally symmetric design, and can you prove whether this is a regular octagon.

I would also recommend taking a look at Artful Maths, it is a fab website with resources for 9 mathematical art lessons complete with power points and printable resources. I particularly like the curves of pursuit and the extra resources for more complex celtic knots.

Finally, I would recommend checking out a few instagram artists. Look at Regolo Bizzi for tessellation and weird 3d shapes and Samira Mian and Aziza Iqbal for Islamic designs. Their feeds are full of amazing inspiration and beautiful and complex tessellations. Exploring how these might have been created with your students could lead to some fruitful explorations you couldn't have planned.