Pre-K Money Math
I’ve started giving my 5-year old an allowance of $2 per week. Last week he didn’t get to spend any of his money. So before going to a flea market I reminded him that he had not $2, but $4 ($2 from last week and $2 from this week) in his “account”.
His first reaction was “Wow, that’s really a lot of money!”. Next, he switched into his inquiring mode:
DS: “Can I spend all of it?”
Me: “Yes, but then next week you will only have $2”
DS: “Ok, what if I only spend $1 this week?”
Me: “Then you will have $3 left and then next week you’ll get $2 more. Do you know how much you will have?”
DS: “How much? A million?!”
Me: “Not quite. See if you can count on your fingers. Three and two more”
DS: “That is $5”
Me: “Yes. But that’s if you only spend $1 today. If you spend $2 today, you will have $2 left and will get $2 more next week for a total of … $4”.
DS (excitedly): “Mama, money is like mathematics!”
Me (even more excitedly): “How so, honey?!”
DS: “When you get money, it’s like addition. When you take money away, pay, it’s like subtraction!” (Jumping up and down now) “This is good. So like mathematics!”
This was a terrific moment of discovering math outside of our books and manipulatives (which are great, but not something you come across outside of a classroom or a teachers’ store).
So now I’m thinking about math games that involve money and making a list. So far I have this:
1. Sorting the contents of our piggy bank
2. Lining up pennies to show how many are in a nickel, a dime and a quarter (doing that with all coin denominations, actually)
3. Grouping pennies by 10 (since my son can count to 10 confidently) and figuring out how many groups of pennies we have.
4. Penny toss – this is an idea from Peggy Kaye’s “Games for Math” book. Draw a game board with 8 sections, each with a number between 1 and 10 in it. Then take turns tossing a penny onto the board. Take as many paperclips (or other small objects) as the number your penny lands on. Count your paperclips after 2 tosses to see who won.
5. Exponential penny toss – this is something that I saw here. It’s not exactly for little children, but I can’t imagine a 5-year old NOT having fun with an experiment where his parents actually ASK him to toss 100 pennies.
6. Since we’ve been talking about different geometric shapes lately (thanks to The Greedy Triangle book), we might try to see how many of the shapes can we build with 10 pennies. How about 20 pennies?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJ3TrDveE8
7. Origami – looks like my little guy needs a wallet now to hold all his money. So we’re going to make an origami wallet. Fortunately for me (since I’ll be doing most of the folding), it’s a simple project.
What money math games and activities have you tried with your kids? I’d love to hear about and add them to my list.
Posted in Grow
Math Can’t Wait for Counting
The last few days my son’s play is full of numbers. All of a sudden he started noticing numbers everywhere, on and in everything.
He wants to know how big his collection of garbage trucks is. He also wants to know what “50” looks like.
Then he makes up a chant/game that goes “1 is a 1 and that’s how it is; 2 is a 2 and that’s how it is; 3 is a 3 and that’s how it is”, etc.
He tries to tell time on digital clocks and prices on price tags. He is amazed and thrilled when he notices a cornerstone with the number “2008” in the wall of our YMCA. “Wow, that’s a big number!” and then traces each numeral and names it out loud.
This is something totally new to both of us. Up until now my son expressed very little interest in numbers. Sure, he knew 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, but as he’d say himself, he counted “without enthusiasm” and going beyond 5 was a struggle. And now he routinely and willingly reaches beyond 10 in his own counting and asks me to count to 30, 50, 100.
What am I trying to say here? Well, one is that it seems not pushing him to rot count was worth it. More importantly, I had plenty of time and opportunities to learn first-hand that there is no reason to delay introducing a young child to math just because he doesn’t yet count or knows his numbers.
There are so many games and activities that kids who are too young to count can participate in. Sometimes we, the adults, think that if a child doesn’t know such a simple thing as numbers, he is not at all ready for “higher” math.
But since counting involves speech and keeping track of objects one by one, it develops together with words and with general spatial abilities. Most young children mix up names of counting numbers and can’t reliably keep track of which objects they have already counted and which they have not. As these skills develop, counting becomes easier too.
So I am glad that I haven’t waited to introduce functions, symmetry, fractals and more to my son. Hopefully now, with his interest in numbers and counting, we can take all these games and activities to the next level.
Posted in Grow
Rube Thursday
Happy Rube Thursday, a day to celebrate Rube Goldberg machines, the over-engineered contraptions that perform a very simple task.
Have you built any lately? Building an RGM with a little one presents its own unique challenges. One is that RGM requires a certain (high) level of precision in order to work. And even with everything being properly aligned, you will usually have to run the machine a few times before it actually completes its task.
Should you leave building RGMs until your child gets a bit older? No way! Instead, let’s start by making some vary simple machines. How about an incline plane for children to roll marbles or toy cars on? The set up is super simple and is entertaining even for the littlest ones.
In the set up above, we used a remnant of a peg board, some nuts and bolts that fit the holes and lots and lots of rubber bands. The goal was to hit and topple as many foam pieces (inside the box) as possible.
Another idea would be to create a slide using cardboard tubes. One of the setups we had in the past was marbles rolling down a tube and splashing into water tinted with food coloring. Once we had enough marbles in the plastic milk jug with lots of holes punched in it, the jug overflowed and we had our own “fountain” (although in our case it looked more like a drip irrigation system).
So let’s try something this weekend. Let’s build a very simple contraption that includes 1) an incline plane for marbles to roll and 2) water! Let us know how it goes and send pictures of your contraptions to yelena@moebiusnoodles.com
Posted in Grow
Rube Thursday
Happy Rube Thursday, a day to celebrate Rube Goldberg machines, the over-engineered contraptions that perform a very simple task.
If you think about it, a car can be considered a Rube Goldberg machine, especially if you use it to drive from one store in a shopping mall to another one. Speaking of cars, if you ever watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you undoubtedly saw a fantastic contraption used by Commander Pott to cook AND serve some sausage and eggs.
httpv://youtu.be/IejJ_H6NaZM
And why not make something just as awesome this weekend? If all that’s stopping you is that you don’t know where to begin, check out PIE Institute’s Exploratorium Idea Library. Not only will you get inspired by their Marble Machine, but you can download a PDF with complete instructions and a parts list! It looks so cool, that you just might turn it into a mega marble run as seen on the TinkerLab blog.
Image is from Exploratorium’s blog, The Tinkering Studio.
If you think marble runs are child’s play, then you need to watch this video (yes, it’s a commercial, but it’s an AMAZING commercial):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_CDLBTJD4M
Rube Goldberg machines rule! Happy tinkering!
Posted in Grow
