Teaching Addition within 10

Here’s a little recap of what Mavi has learned of our Math lessons for the past weeks.  And  the best part of it is that Mavi has learned how to do mental calculations! Yehey!  I’m so happy that he has discovered this all by himself.  He’s like “I’m using my brains to count Mom”.

We are using Singapore Math workbooks, and we use manipulates as well.  Read here if you want to know how we integrated workbooks and manipulatives. We’ve been using manipulatives for some time (Montessori and other learning materials) and now that he is older, we’re going to use less of these. 

Math Curriculum 2014-2015

Sharing Mavi’s Math curriculum for this school year.  In our home math is done as a supplemental study after school.  We don’t exactly do it everyday but I have weekly goals for each scope noand I am making that Mavi accomplish that task per week.  This post also serves as a reminder for me, in case I will look back 5 years from now for Vito’s Math curriculum as well :D

We are still using our Montessori Math materials and still adapting the philosophy.  But I just feel that need that Mavi needs to more forward.  As what Susan Stephenson said in her book Child of the World

“This child nearing the age of six or seven is passing beyond what is known as the sensory-motor developmental stage, when movement and exploration through the senses is a basic need in all learning.  Now he will gradually move to a cerebral exploration, giving up the manipulative materials according to his personal timetable. The years 6-12 are relatively stable, and the main academic work can now be done.”

With Math, I allow Mavi to use manipulative materials (Montessori and other learning materials) if he wishes to.  But I want him to learn how to do mental counting as well. 

• Number Patterns
• Number Bonds
• Addition within 10

• Subtraction within 10
• Shapes and Patterns
• Ordinal Numbers and Position
• Number to 20
• Addition and Subtraction within 20
• Length
• Mass
• Graphs
• Number to 40
• Multiplication
• Division
• Time
• Number to 100
• Money

If you have been following my blog, you know that we’ve done some of it in the past few years though play.  Right now, we’re working on it with workbooks and lots of additional activity sheets(homemade).  

So in times that we don’t work on Geography and Science, Mavi and I are definitely working on serious Math. Oh and yes, we’re using Singapore Maths… literally :D  I ordered a few workbooks used by students in Singapore from Popular Bookstore. Remember that we used to life there so I’m a little bit aware of what kind of books to purchase. And I have relatives living there as well.

Will post more as progress.

Next Level: Patterning

Did you know that the ability to recognize pattern is one of the most important intelligence skill ? Aside from mathematics, it can also be found in behaviour, routines and in nature.

Speaking of routines, we came across this activity in our workbook of pattern relating to a series of movements of a certain object. Take for example this link cubes in a grid.  Here Mavi has to guess my next move using the patterns of how I remove the cubes from the grid. 

Amazing isn’t it? We are so used of learning patterns of numbers, colors and shapes and patterns of movements, behaviours and such didn’t even crossed my mind!

And you know what I’m thinking as well?  We can also do dancing patterns!

Now, I just wanted to share this too. As part of learning patterns, Mavi developed a “stairs”

 

Then he realised that all number combinations are number bonds or parts of number 10!

1 and 9 (violet)

2 and 8 (blue)

3 and 7 (light green)

4 and 6 (brown)

5 and 5 (black)

6 and 4 (white)

7 and 3 (red)

8 and 2 (orange)

9 and 1 (green)

He’s like “they go together!”.  I love it when he discovers and learn things on his own. Amazing!

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Integrating Workbooks and Hands-On Materials

With math, I use workbooks and Math Montessori Album which I purchased from KHT Montessori. In this post, I will show you how we integrate workbooks and Montessori Math.

So we start with     a workbook. As you can see we are currently reviewing the place value. Using the book, we discuss this a little bit, then close the book and prepare our Montessori materials for a hands-on activity.

In Montessori, there are a number of ways on how to present place value. I have talked about this before using the Golden Beads. This time, we used the Stamp Game tiles.  Here's my presentation of hundreds, tens and ones. Each digit can range from 0 to 9.

Then I set up an activity for Mavi to see if he was able to grasp the concept.  I don't want to overwhelm him so we only worked up to tens. The number tiles you see here is from our Hundred Boards.

After the hands-on activities and when he's ready we work on the workbooks. Adding hands-on activities to textbooks/workbooks/activity sheets makes the learning less tedious and more exciting for little fellows. So either way, workbooks or hands-on activities you'll be fine.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Teaching Ordinal Numbers

Earlier today, while all of us are so lazy to start our day, we read Chicken Licken while having breakfast.  Mavi started to memorize the order of the farm animals in the story and I decided to integrate ordinal numbers into it. 

Our Chicken Licken was from Usborne and got it via Book Depository.  The animals used is from Safari Toob Mega Farm Collection and Safari Toob Feathered Dinosaurs. [aff. links]

I made Mavi read the book and instructed to place the animals in the order of how they appeared in the story. So basically, if your child knows how to read and at this time, familiar with ordinal numbers he can work on this independently with minimal supervision.  But for preschoolers, the mother/teacher should demonstrate the concept of ordinal numbers by placing the animals according to the sequence of their appearance in the story.

PS. We didn’t have a turkey figure so we didn’t include it in our activity.

 

Other books that can be used in teaching ordinal numbers [aff. links]:

• Are You My Mother?
• Brown Bear Brown Bear
• A Very Hungry Caterpillar
• The Very Busy Spider

Another way to demonstrate ordinal numbers is by using similar objects (in our case dinosaurs), labels and instructions.

Mavi reads the instructions and happily obliged.  My instructions were simple… like “place a yellow rubber-band on the 4th (fourth) dinosaur”.

You can find more Math activities on my Pinterest Board:

 

Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Math Ideas on Pinterest.

3D Shapes

A few weeks ago, we revisited 3D Shapes.  We previously had this activity using cards and our paper models.  They were a hit!

My son never showed interest on 3D shapes and neither was I.  All I could ever remember was those grueling memorization of formulas in my Engineering class. I never liked geometry LOL.

Because the papers are now gone, I bought wooden 3D shapes in Absorbent Minds.  I bought the small one as we don’t have enough storage here.  Well, he was quite into it this time.  I have to explain why there are called 3D. We made basic shapes (squares, rectangle, circle etc) by pressing the wooden 3Ds on a playdough.

          

Next we tried forming the shapes using craft sticks and plasticine. I’ve seen this activity multiple times in other blogs and thought it was easy to make. But I was wrong! LOL.  They were actually hard to form :) But nevertheless Mavi and I enjoyed it.  We laughed hard each time a shape is broken LOL.  The plasticine didn’t hold the stick that much. I wonder if marshmallows would be a better alternative?

          

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
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Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Teaching Number Bonds

We’ve been learning about number bonds for the past days.  We are taking a break from our Golden Beads Addition and exploring other  approach to spice up our math lessons.  It’s a surprise that after these activities, Mavi was able to memorize most of the number combinations thus the ease of performing addition for him.  We’ve done a couple of math activities before and I was surprise that these activities accelerated his math skills.

Materials we used (see affiliate links at the end of the post):

• Montessori Decanomial Beads
• Link Cubes
• Number Bonds Activity Sheets by The Pinay Homeschooler

Activity 1:  Introducing Number Bonds.  Here we talked about the “whole” and “parts”.  I gave a brief presentation of number bonds, using link cubes and our decanomial beads.  Mavi described it as “different combinations of numbers that make up bigger numbers.”

    

 

Activity 2:  The story of…

Here Mavi completes the number combinations using counters and link cubes.

Activity 3:  What makes a number?

An activity that allows the child to match two numbers that will make up the number written on top.  Again, I made him use the link cubes to help him.

Activity 4:   This sheet has robot images on it that needs to be cut and used as objects for counting and completing the table below.   

Activity 5:  Guess the number of Legos hidden in the cup.  This is like making a number story. 

I have 6 Legos and 2 are in the pink cup.  Can you guess how many Legos are there in the green cup?

We reused the sheets in Activity 2.  We crossout the number combination that comes out during the guessing game.

And that’s how we looked into number bonds.  My son had a great time and up until now he keeps on practicing number combinations by making stories and games.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!
Natural Homeschool's Montessori Linky

Golden Beads Addition (Static and Dynamic)

In this post I am going to present how to do static and dynamic addition using the Montessori Golden Beads.  I purchased our Golden Beads at Absorbent Minds UK and I am happy of the materials despite the price. These materials can be purchased in any Montessori Shop.

ADDITION STATIC

Mavi would work on this in the morning. I find it hard to make him do Montessori activities in the afternoon as he tends to be tired or prefer to have  free play.

Anyway, we would set up the materials together  and he could finish the task with little assistance from me.  I prepared the equations before heand in Post-Its rather than using the small number cards. During the entire session he would pick 4 to 5 Post-Its in our magic box and would solve the equations one by one.

Shown below is an equation he worked recently.

So given the equations Mavi will layout the beads. We read out the quantity of the beads from left to right.

Now to add, combine the two sets of beads.  Emphasize  that addition is putting together. Once the beads are combined, count the unit beads first, and work through the tens and hundreds (to thousands if available).  Here Mavi would take note of the quantity by getting a large number card to represent the quantity. He would do the same with the tens and hundreds. Now note that we are currently doing addition up to hundreds only. 

To represent the sum Mavi stacked the number cards together as shown below. We would the  read the number together. Now we do this most of the time because he keeps on forgetting how to read large numbers.  If number cards are not available you can always use printable number card or just let the child write the sum on the paper.

DYNAMIC ADDITION (REGROUPING OF ONES)

Dynamic addition is commonly known as the process of addition wherein we need to carry over an amount.  In Montessori they do this by regrouping. The process is similar to static but the regrouping takes place when we now combine the beads.

Based the on equation that my son was working on, 8 and 7 sums to 15, which 10 and 5. Now, what we did here is to replace the 10 units a ten gold bar and retain the 5 unit beads. Add the new ten bar to the left and you can now start counting the total sum by counting the regrouped beads ( start counting from the right).

 

DYNAMIC ADDITION (REGROUPING OF TENS)

Similar process is applied when you need to regroup the tens. Replace 10 ten gold bards to a hundred bar and move it up to the left.

Then count the total sum of the beads from right to left.

And that’s it! So simple! You might think it is complicated but once you started working on it, it’s fun and can be addicting… well, that’s according to Mavi :)

Happy Monday!

Numbers for Toddlers (Ages 1 -3)

I am sharing this as I have received multiple emails from fellow Mommies, asking how did I introduce numbers and counting to Mavi. To answer your questions, here are  the Math-related activities I gave to Mavi when he was about 1 to 3 years old. Note that the timeline of the activities here are not in order.

1]  Familiarization of Numbers using playdough. We made number symbols using PlayDoh.  I first introduced 1-9 and as we progress we did 10 to 19. I shared our Numbers and Letter playdough mats last year.

2] Number matching puzzle.  This is one activity I kept on repeating. 

3] Matching number symbols to objects.  I randomly made this using a cardstock.  As you look closer, I just draw the objects and then used water bottle caps for the numbers. He loves those water bottle caps! 

4] 1 to 1 Correspondence.  Again, I just made the graph.  He counts the number of circles (with the number symbol on the side) by putting a stamp on it.  Here, I showed him that the number represents the amount circles present.

 

5] Numbers and Stickers.  Oh how my son loved this!! I cut out pieces of paper, write a number on the upper left side and place the same number of dots.   Then Mavi and I would count along as we cover those dots with stickers. After which point to your child that the number of dots/sticker is represented by that number symbol.sl

6] Pin Colored/Counting Wheel.  I honestly forgot the source of this material but this is one of our favourite.  I  labeled wooded pegs with numbers and colors so we can match them with ones on the wheel. (If you happen to know the source please leave me a message!)

7] Montessori-Inspired Activity.  The concept behind here is similar to the Spindle Box of Montessori.  I used plastic cups and craft sticks instead.  Label the cups and place the correct amount of sticks on it.

8] Do a Dot Markers.  Now this is not necessary but I just have to mention that we love these markers and we love using it in counting!  I still have these markers which I bought in Singapore in 2011.  I can't wait to use them with Vito.  Be warned though that these are not water-washable.

9]  Homemade version of Montessori Number Rods.  So I made number rods using foam and used magnetic numbers for the symbol.  This helps a child develop an understanding of the quantitative relationship between numbers.

10]  Ordering numbers.  So simple, we used magnetic numbers and I just wrote the numbers 0 to 9 on a piece of cardstock for the control chart.  At first Mavi would match the magnetic numbers to the numbers in the cardstock.  As we progress, I made him match the numbers in order of what is written. We would recite the numbers after each activity.  Repetition of this activity will help the child understand the concept of ordering and counting.

11] Number Crafts. Oh the first activity on numbers!! Expose them to number symbols similar to your alphabets.  You can do this by doing crafts or reading books together.

12] Number Flashcards.  Oh we found a way to make our flashcards useful.  We count those pictures on the flashcards using counting chips. My son loved this!!! 

These are all easy to prepare activities.  You see I am always on the look out for activities that doesn't need to be expensive, that doesn't need for fancy materials or toys.

Happy Sunday!

Reading and Writing Numbers

I make it a point to make our Math a little bit interesting for Mavi. Yes, like some kids, he doesn't like Math (yet). So whenever we do Math activities, I try my best to put some twist into it to make it more interesting for him.

For example, this case he's learning how to write and read 3 digit numbers (hundreds). As I mentioned before he has no problem with reading, but writing hundreds and thousands seems off for him.  Like, he writes 324 as 300 24.   So this activity aims to help him practice how to write the numbers properly.

I setup six container box and filled it with the number tiles from our Stamp Game.  I also added a paper strip into it with color coded lines to guide him where to write the hundreds, tens and ones digit (same color with the tiles).

 

He's ecstatic to open each box and uncover the total number. 

             

Arranging the tiles per column, he counts the hundreds (red), tens (blue) and ones(green) then write those numbers in the paper strip.  Then we practice reading the number, pointing that the zeroes are left behind.

 

Surprisingly, after finishing the 6th box, he asked if could do more Math.  So I took out our worksheet and work on some addition problems and I made him use our cube links.

  

He has an audience you see.

 

I observed that he only used the links when dealing with big numbers (tens) but otherwise, he uses his hands :) 

And there goes our brief update for our Math activities. I am still planning what to do this June and I promise to share my plans once I'm done.

For more Math-related activities: Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Math Ideas on Pinterest.

Ciao!

PH Math for May

I've been assessing my Mavi's progress in mathematics for the past days.  Math is the least of his interest as of the moment.  So during our Math hiatus, I was checking my list and so far he knows and understands everything on it.  In fact he is way beyond his years according to his teacher.

Now as summer vacation is approaching I'm thinking that we should be a little bit more serious with Math this time by being religious to our schedule :)

So for May here's what we're going to have for Math:

Skip counting.  We started with 2's and next will be of 5's and 10's.

Here we are using the beads in our Decanomial Bead Bars with Box and the number tiles from our Hundred Boards for the label.  He pointed out "Mom, it's just a pattern!".  Of course, he's referring to the 0,2,4,6,8 :) And that's what I wanted to instill in him... that in Math some concepts is all about patterns!

   

After the beads and label activity, I made him skip count all the way through 100 and counting it backwards as well.

 

Number Symbol and Quantity (Tens)

Here we're using the same materials.  My objective here is for Mavi to master the identification of number symbols and its equivalence in quantity. 

Activity 1:  Place the correct number of beads, given the number symbols.

Activity 2:  Identify the number symbols,  given the quantity.

 

Activity 3.  Writing the number symbols.  Mavi has no problem writing the numbers from 1 to 100.  But it's a different story when it comes to hundreds and thousands :)

Number Symbol and Quantity (Hundreds)

The same activities with the tens but here we are using our Bead Material and Wooden Small Place Value Cards 1-9999 .

Activity 1:

Activity 2:

Activity 3.  Mavi is still confused writing the hundreds and thousands.  When he wants to write 321, he writes it like 300 21, similar with 1100... he writes it 1000 100.  Now this is pretty normal but I just think that we needed to practice more on this during our spare time.

Hundred Board with Control Chart. I am still on the process of exploring hundred board games.  I have collected a few ideas from fellow homeschool Moms and I can't wait to try it with Mavi.

PS. This post includes affiliated links