He’s a master of puppets and math.

Tim Chartier, a puppeteer since he was 10 years old, is distinguished visiting professor at the National Museum of Mathematics on East 26th Street in Manhattan, also known as MoMath.

“I actually went into math as a backup for the performing and then figured out that I really enjoyed math to the point that I was willing to perform it at the doctoral level,” said Chartier, a math professor at Davidson College in North Carolina.

He has found a way to mix his two loves with an early childhood puppet series using live and video performing arts to bring math to life for pre-K and kindergarten students.

“A lot of the math is not that difficult in terms of what I am doing, but part of it is making math funny, is probably the most original part that they remember,” said Chartier.

After the show, the kids get a behind the scenes look, and a lesson in puppetry.

Chartier’s partner in this is wife Tanya, an educational therapist who also is a puppeteer. The two are also trained mimes, learning from among others, famed French mime artist and actor Marcel Marceau.

One important lesson for the kids, the spacing and timing involved for opening a puppet’s mouth.      

“Most people because of clapping we think of syncopation we tend to close our mouths on each word, but the reality is that you are wanting to actually open your mouth when you speak because that how we really do it in real life,” said Tanya Chartier.  

The kids have a blast during the show and class, and somehow, within all the silly fun, is a math lesson.

“The angles of going here, or up here, you want to keep going up or diagonal, so there is math in a lot of different ways, but the angles is kind of number one,” said Ellis, a 7-year-old who attended one of the shows.

Tim and Tanya Chartier will be at MoMath for another month, so there are opportunities to catch them at a variety of events.

Tim Chartier also created a series of online videos using puppets. Find out more at momath.org.