Kinetic Maths

Shiloh Acres

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Those are all good. :)

My brain isn't working forward-enough right now. I'm teaching younger ones than that. Today I just did a game with them with two bags and x-number of counters .... one child hid their eyes while the other divided the pieces between the two bags. The first child gets to choose one bag and count the pieces, then figure out how many are in the other bag. That's subtraction though .... right at the moment I can't think of a way to make it into multiplication and division ... just toss it out there in case you can. :)

It was a great hit though. :)
 

Bubblingbrooks

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Get her in the kitchen and use the measuring cups, all the way up to the gallon jar.
10 -1 she is like me and needs a tangible hands on learning for math.
 

freemotion

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I LOVED playing with an abacus when I was young. Also, an early teacher had boxes of colored sticks, kinda like big match sticks, that we would lay out on our desks to learn basic math concepts. You can do basic multiplication with these, setting out, say, 3 groups of four sticks each and counting them up. Any small objects would work. I always loved (still do) groups of objects all the same size. I love the way they feel.

Oooo, those flat glass globs you get at craft stores would be fun!
 

Shiloh Acres

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freemotion said:
Also, an early teacher had boxes of colored sticks, kinda like big match sticks, that we would lay out on our desks to learn basic math concepts. You can do basic multiplication with these, setting out, say, 3 groups of four sticks each and counting them up.
I use stacking math cubes. They stick together and you make "towers" out of them. They come in various colors, so it can be easier to understand how many groups of how many.

Similar things work as well, like legos. It's a bonus if they stick together so you can manipulate the stacks. Thought I'd mention it in case she does have something she can use that way too. It doesn't have to be a math toy. :)

Ohhhh .... I also had a scales that held numbers that were weighted according to the number. Actually, I remember playing with that as a kid myself, so I got my daughter one. There is a big one that works great for multiplication, but any little object of equal weight so that you can balance out weights with can be kinetic and visual too, with a balancing type scale of any kind.
 

adoptedbyachicken

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Every thing you do every day has math in it. Find the math and talk to her about it.

When you go outside to feed a horse hay don't just say they get 2 flakes (or whatever) unless she needs practice counting. Say they are 1000 pounds and horses are fed one pound of hay for every 100 pounds they weigh. So she gets to divide the 1000 pounds by 100 to find how many pounds of hay to feed.

In the kitchen if she needs to multiply or divide I'd find a recipe that is too big or too small and have her double it or half it.

In the grocery store tell her to figure out how many apples to buy. How many people in the house, how many days before we shop again, how many apples a person might eat in that time, whatever factors you want to use. Move on to a vegetable, then the soup cans.....

Fuel up the car, tell her how many gallons it took, and what the price is. Have her find the total. How many miles did that take us? Have her figure out your mileage. Use of a calculator early is good but at first round the numbers to something easy, or even make them up so she can use the blocks or toys mentioned previous till it clicks for her.

Depends on her age how complicated you go. But yes! Make sure math is fun and that she get it early on.

We had some luck with the Mathisfun website too, they have games there for her to play, and really simple explanations.
 

patandchickens

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It may also be useful to do these things with addition/subtraction too... for instance making 4 rows of 3 cookies each and then counting them out the one way (4x3=12) as well as the other way (4+4+4=12) and the other (3+3+3+3=12) can help make connections about what multiplication and division really "mean", in practical concrete terms.

Pat
 

lorihadams

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we use popsicle sticks in different colors (from the Dollar store)

I helped my 3 yr old set out her dolls and stuffed animals for a tea party and then made her divide everything into equal portions for everybody.

Dried beans make great counters too.
 
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