Yummy math game

[Yelena McManaman]

Since starting this course I've been paying much more attention to how Mark plays and reasons. Yesterday I showed him a picture with three sand shovels and three sand buckets laying on the beach plus three toy boats bobbing on the waves. And there was a sand castle, of course. I told him that children were playing on the beach, but they all left and forgot their stuff. Then I asked him how many kids he thought played on the beach? He said - 4. I asked him - how many shovels were on the beach. He said - 3. Then I asked him, how many sand buckets were there? "3". How many toy boats? "3". So, I said, are you sure there were 4 kids on the beach? Yes, he said. Then he explained that the forth boy was building a castle while everyone else was just playing in the sand :)
 
Also, here's a game that I looked up in a Russian math book (it's suitable for older kids that don't choke on small pieces of food). We played it today. Child closses his eyes and you put a few small berries on his tongue. Then you ask him to tell you how many berries are in his mouth before eating them. We modified it a bit after a while by mixing berries and small nuts (different enough texture). First, I asked how many items were in his mouth total. Then I asked him how many berries and how many nuts. Of course, this game has its limitation. I don't think you can go any higher than 5, unless the berries or pieces of fruit are very small :) Ah, I think mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips would work great :)

 

- Yelena

[Maria Droujkova]

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 7:46 PM, Yelena McManaman <yelena.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

Since starting this course I've been paying much more attention to how Mark plays and reasons. Yesterday I showed him a picture with three sand shovels and three sand buckets laying on the beach plus three toy boats bobbing on the waves. And there was a sand castle, of course. I told him that children were playing on the beach, but they all left and forgot their stuff. Then I asked him how many kids he thought played on the beach? He said - 4. I asked him - how many shovels were on the beach. He said - 3. Then I asked him, how many sand buckets were there? "3". How many toy boats? "3". So, I said, are you sure there were 4 kids on the beach? Yes, he said. Then he explained that the forth boy was building a castle while everyone else was just playing in the sand :)

This is a PERFECT story explaining the importance of roleplay in math. Good thing you asked what 4 (vs. 3) was about!
 

 
Also, here's a game that I looked up in a Russian math book (it's suitable for older kids that don't choke on small pieces of food). We played it today. Child closses his eyes and you put a few small berries on his tongue. Then you ask him to tell you how many berries are in his mouth before eating them. We modified it a bit after a while by mixing berries and small nuts (different enough texture). First, I asked how many items were in his mouth total. Then I asked him how many berries and how many nuts. Of course, this game has its limitation. I don't think you can go any higher than 5, unless the berries or pieces of fruit are very small :) Ah, I think mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips would work great :)

Wow, this is a pretty sweet game :-) Thanks for sharing. I've never tried it - I think it may even be fun for grown-ups!

It uses the principle of "hide-n-seek" in a very sensual way.

Also, you can try to use pieces of several different fruit with this game, and ask the kid to guess which fruit it was. You may be shocked, but MOST kids can't tell apples from pears, or different sorts of berries from one another. Especially picky eaters. And games like this help them to develop better eating habits by paying more attention.


Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.