Dan Finkel

The image shows a circular arrangement of six flower-like shapes with 21st Century Pattern Blocks, leaving an empty, flower-shaped space in the center. Each flower has a yellow hexagon at its center, surrounded by twelve blue rhombuses, and six pink triangles.

Pattern block play! #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

2. How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen

Not as long as the others, but genuinely funny and fun. Great illustrations by Quentin Blake too.

There's contextual updating you may need to do with both books (they were written a long time ago), but I think they both hold up beautifully.

1. The Saga of Erik the Viking.

This one was my favorite when I was a kid. It's by, of all people, Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame. And though they made a stupid comedy movie of it at some point, the book is beautifully written and a genuinely exciting adventure.

I've been meaning to write back to a post of yours from months ago looking for kids books like The Wild Robot for your kids. And this one reminds me of that, since my wife is reading Harry Potter #3 to our oldest (6.5) right now.

So here are two less well-known books you and your kids might like:

Manipulatives in Math Class Are So Worth It - Math For Love 0 0 votes Article Rating

Welcome!
mathforlove.com/2026/01/mani...

Poster promoting workshop series on Unlocking Numeracy

If you're a teacher or educator in the state of #Maine who works to teach or support math for 3rd - 5th graders, you can sign up for a series of virtual workshops I'll be leading to support Numeracy.

#iteachmath
Learn more and apply - registration closes Friday!
forms.office.com/g/4HXtFY8tST

Here's a super small game you can play anytime with no materials.
mathforlove.com/2026/01/trif...

That's a great turn

That's basically the highest praise I ever hope to get!

We've been playing the younger kid version with our 6.5 year old too. It's been fun... kind of wondering when he'll graduate up to the full version.

Maybe someday they'll continue the tradition and play against each other!

1: Kids who had more time for free play...made way more progress in the lesson.
2. Using [manips] upped dramatically how much math the kids did.
3. Even when [they] weren’t doing exactly what we’d asked, they were doing math.
4. Manipulatives make it easier – even automatic – to differentiate.

Manipulatives in Math Class Are So Worth It - Math For Love 0 0 votes Article Rating

New blog post!

On the value of manipulatives in some recent work with first graders.

mathforlove.com/2026/01/mani...

The most veteran of the first grade teachers in this team always advocates for this point too, and I so appreciate it. When you have to account for every minute, it's hard to justify free play, but the payoff is dramatic.

Manipulatives in Math Class Are So Worth It - Math For Love 0 0 votes Article Rating

Dan advocating for hands on math mathforlove.com/2026/01/mani... @mathforlove.bsky.social A wise teacher taught me his no.1 point and I >never< regret it.

Cover of a math textbook, featuring star polygons made of string.

She created some of the original dice images I've used for #unitchats for many years. She also made this gorgeous image that we used (with her permission) as the cover of one of our curriculum books.

This is a real tragedy. I noticed she'd dropped out of the general #MTBoS conversations in whatever new forms they were taking, but had no idea she was ill. She was such a wonderful contributor to the community 💔

December 2025 — Early Family Math Welcome to EFM's December Newsletter! Read, Count, Play – Every Child, Every Day! It is essential that every caregiver in the world reads books and does math with their young children! ...

Finding myself absorbed in the details of this story of someone tutoring a student who has learned to dislike math, and how they worked their way to joy (as well as proficiency).

www.earlyfamilymath.org/newsletters/...

And to be fair, I don't think I've ever played by the actual rules. I'm much more positive on the game than I used to be, though. My son used to love it, and learned a ton of math from it.

There's a hilariously passive aggressive rules insert in our monopoly set, saying, basically: "This game doesn't last too long! You just keep changing the rules to add money into the game and to keep people from losing, and that's why it's long! Just play by the actual rules!"

The designs are displayed in a 3 by 3 grid, featuring 3 unique pattern block designs from my June 2025 collection. The first and third columns show the heptagons that were used to create the radial designs shown in the middle column. The designs are created by using two differently arranged heptagons–the inner layer uses six heptagons of the first arrangement, the outer layer uses twelve heptagons of the second arrangement.

In June 2025, I continued to explore radial designs by arranging heptagons around a central hexagon in a new arrangement! #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

Coming soon: Battle of the Species The breakthrough game where animals battle in epic and hilarious showdowns in their native habitats and beyond.

On a fun side note, I've been working on a new board game with my brothers. Really a fun project :-)

We'll Kickstart it in 2026 (first Kickstarter in over 5 years!).

Take a sneak peek below. You can also sign up to get notified when we go live!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/fin...

The designs feature 4 unique pattern block creations from my June 2025 collection. The first row at the top shows the heptagons that were used to create the radial designs shown in the second and third rows. This collection highlights radial designs created by arranging six heptagons (pointing towards the center) around a central hexagon.

In June 2025, I continued to explore radial designs by arranging heptagons around a central hexagon in a new arrangement! #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

The designs are displayed in a 3 by 3 grid, featuring 3 unique pattern block designs from my April 2025 collection. The first and third columns show the heptagons that were used to create the radial designs shown in the middle column. The designs are created by using two differently arranged heptagons–the inner layer uses six heptagons of the first arrangement, the outer layer uses twelve heptagons of the second arrangement.

In April 2025, I explored radial designs by arranging heptagons around a central hexagon. #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

#ITeachMath SO MUCH MATH

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)

The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used

> neal.fun/size-of-life/

What if one tiny change could make a huge impact on how students learn in your math class? Learn to use openers to energize & motivate students in grades 1-9.

Learn more about Dan Finkel's @mathforlove.bsky.social How to Use Mathematical Openers online workshop: grassrootsworkshops.com/wor...

I think Better Explained is really nice for this.
(I'm also a fan of James Tanton and 3Blue1Brown)
betterexplained.com/articles/int...

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Capital Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Capital

The real deep cut in this comic from @smbccomics.bsky.social is the 37%. That's a serious math reference right there.
www.smbc-comics.com/comic/capita...

The designs feature 4 unique pattern block creations from my February 2025 collection. The first row at the top shows the octagons that were used to create the radial designs shown in the second and third rows. This collection highlights radial designs created by arranging six octagons around a central star.

In February 2025, I explored radial designs by arranging six octagons around a central star. #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

It's Mental Math Monday with @mikeflynn55.bsky.social. How would you mentally calculate 88×8 without using any 8s?

The images are arranged in a 4 by 4 grid, with the center four squares merged to highlight a larger design. It features 13 unique pattern block creations from my 2025 collection.

This month I’ll be sharing some of my favorite designs from 2025! #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath