Fun Friday: Christmas Excel Fill Puzzle

A puzzle similar to this one was featured last month. I’ll repeat the instructions for completion here, but this time I’m not going to tell you what the puzzle is in advance.

This puzzle uses the fill feature of any spreadsheet application. Simply start a new workbook and fill in the listed cells with the indicated color to create a picture.

Before you begin, adjust the cell widths so that each cell is a square. Click the blank space above the first row’s 1 and to the left of the first column’s A. This will select the entire spreadsheet. Then click on the divider between column A and column B and drag until the cells are squares.

To determine which cells to fill:

C2 à means find the square in column C and row 2, click on that cell, then click on the fill color.

C2:D2 à means click and drag to select cells C2 through D2 and then click on the fill color.

Now click in the indicated cells and fill with each color to form a picture.

Orange: W2, V3, W3, V4:V7, D8, U8, C9, E9:G9, U9, B10, E10, H10, D11, F11, H11, F12, H12, E13, H13, E14, G14, D15, G15, C16, G16, B17, C17, G17, B18, F18, A19, F19, A20, E20, AC20, AF20:AH20, A21, E21, AB21, AD21, AE21, A22, B22, D22, S22, T22, W22:AB22, AD22, A23, C23, D23, J23, P23:V23, AB23, AD23, A24, B24, D24, I24, K24:024, R24, U24, AA24, AE24, C25:I25, K25, R25, U25, AA25, AE25, C26, I26, K26, R26, V26, AA26, AE26:AH26, C27, H27, L27, Q27, V27, Z27:AE27, C28, H28, L28, Q28, U28:Y28, D29, H29, M29, P29:T29, E30:G30, K30:O30, G31:J31

Do you know what it is, yet?

Red: X2:AB2, X3:AB3, U4:AC4, U5:AC5, T6:AC6, T7:AC7, S8:AC8, P9:AC9, F10, G10, L10:AB10, G11, K11:AB11, G12, K12:AB12, F13, G13, K13:AB13, F14, J14:AB14, E15, F15, J15:AB15, D16:F16, J16:AB16, D17:F17, I17:AB17, C18:AB18, B19:AB19, B20:V20, B21:P21,C22:K22

How about now?

Yellow: W1:AB1, U2, V2, AC2, U3, AC3, AD3, T4, AA4, AB4, AD4, T5, AA5, AD5, S6, Z6, AD6, S7, Z7, AD7, P8:R8, Y8, AD8, L9:O9, Y9, AD9, K10, S10:X10, AC10, J11, Q11, R11, AC11, J12, P12, AC12, J13, O13, AC13, I14, N14, AC14, I15, N15, AC15, I16, N16, AC16, H17, M17, AC17, M18, AC18, I19:M19, AC19, G20, H20, W20:AB20, F21, Q21:V21, L22:P22, E23:I23, K23

Hint: In each of the above, the first part of a cell code is always a letter. So if it looks like a zero, it is really the letter “O”. The same goes for the number one and the letter “I”.

Examples:

                O11 is the letter “O” and the number 11. (column O, row 11)

                I16 is the letter “I” and the number 16. (column I, row 16)

Good luck and have fun!!

Tech Tip: Illustrating Operations with Excel

Excel is all about formulas and functions. Or is it?

By introducing only one or two spreadsheet skills at a time within a mathematics framework, even little guys and gals can be introduced to spreadsheets as early as first grade.

Spreadsheet Concepts

To begin, demonstrate the following spreadsheet skills.

Terms: cells, columns, rows

Skills: resizing columns, filling cells, applying a border to cells

Resizing columns:

1. Click the gray square above row 1 to select all the cells in the workbook.
2. Place your cursor over the line between columns A and B.
3. When it changes to a double-arrow, click and drag to resize the cells until they look like squares.

Filling cells:

1. Click and drag to select one or more cells.
2. Click the Fill Color bucket.
3. Click a color to fill the cells you selected with that color.

Applying a border to cells:

1. Click the Border button.
2. Select the All Borders choice.

Math Applications

For the following activities, students prepare their spreadsheet by resizing the columns so that the cells look like squares. Then they fill squares with colors to illustrate a specific operation. Images of what the finished product might look like are below.

Illustrated Addition

Illustrated Subtraction

 Illustrated Multiplication

Illustrated Fractions

 Simple. Fun. Relevant. Visual.

And each activity can easily be finished during one computer lab session or station rotation within the classroom. 

Fun Friday: Quadrant One Connect the Dots Puzzle

Use a sheet of graph paper to plot the following ordered pairs. Then connect the points in the order you graphed them to make a picture.

Techie Connection: You can also type the ordered pairs into a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel. The x values would go in the A column. The y values would go in the B column. Then click and drag to select all the numbers and create a Scatter Chart with Smooth Lines (Insert ribbon/Scatter).

Enjoy!

(7, 12), (6, 11), (5, 9), (4, 10), (2, 10), (0, 8), (0, 4), (1, 2), (3, 0), (4, 0), (5, 1), (6, 0), (7, 0), (9, 1), (11, 3), (11, 8), (9, 10), (7, 10), (6, 9), (5, 9), (5, 11), (6, 13), (8, 14), (8, 12), (7, 10)