Tell students to use toothpicks to make squares. Students should use a chart to analyze how many toothpicks are needed for a given numbers of squares. Students can use the toothpicks to make squares in different ways. For example, if a student decides to create her squares separated from each other, she will need four toothpicks for one square, eight toothpicks for two squares, and so on. She should see the pattern that every additional square requires four additional toothpicks.
Instruct students to paste rectangular cut-outs of graph paper on white construction paper. Have the students use these arrangements to show the relationship between multiplication and division. For example, a set of 10 by 20 squares lets students perform multiplication by counting all the squares (200). The students can divide the total number of squares by 10 or 20.
Tell students to create math riddles on poster board to introduce variables. The content of the riddles should require other students to guess the solution. An example of such a riddle is "8 of me makes 96. What am I?" This riddle is asking students to solve the algebra equation 8x = 96. You can post students' poster boards around the room and have them try to solve the riddles.
Instruct students to create short-story books, but with a twist: The last page should be an ending in the form of a math question. For example, if the story is about selling lemonade, the story can build up to the characters calculating their earnings. The last page can be a picture of the money covered by a sticky note that gives the formula for calculating the earnings. Students can read their stories to the class and ask other students to figure out the answers.