Finding Maths Learning in the strangest places

I was at MacDonalds in the weekend with my children and as we sat and ate one of my children looked down at the tray sheet and saw a picture of a bend chip on it. He said, 'I wonder if my chip is as long as that one?' He then proceeded to lay his chip on top of the other chip to check the difference in size. What happened then was a competition between all of us to select chips that we thought would match the size of the chip picture. This involved us making estimates (or guesstimates! which are educated guesses) about the length of the chips.

Who knew Maccas could be so educational!

Cooking up a pictograph

We have had lots of children interested in cooking so over the past few weeks we have been making and trying different foods and flavours from cultures other than ours. We made korma curry which is a mild coconut flavoured curry. We cooked rice and each child had a sample before coming back for a larger helping if they enjoyed the taste. At mat time we had a discussion about who enjoyed the korma curry, who didn't and who didn't even try it. We decided to record our findings using a pictogram. After we made our graph we 'read' it using comparative mathematic language such as more, most, less, same. We counted and we asked questions such as how many?, how many more than, how many less than, did (child's name) like the korma? Our young friend wanted to know if he was as tall as the graph and this also initiated another mathematical investigation from the children.

Numbers are everywhere

Numbers are everywhere so let your child use their knowledge to recognize numbers in practical ways.

e.g. Can you find me a birthday card for Jo. She will be 6. (10/10 your child will find the right card)

e.g. What page is it that shows the wolf blowing down the straw house?

e.g. Which numbers on the phone are nanny's?

How many can you do?

Have fun with your child. Challenge them....

"How many jumps (or any other activity) can you do?"

Get your child to count each jump.

Why not challenge him or her to a jump off...who can jump the most?

Recognizing zero

To extend your child's thinking about numbers include zero (0) in your counting sequences when counting forward and backwards.

e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...

e.g. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0


Talk about zero meaning none or nothing

Counting on

As mentioned in previous postings number rhymes, songs, stories and games are a great way for children to become familiar with saying and using numbers in fun and meaningful ways. When children are quite competent counting to ten (and then later to twenty) try adding a bit more challenge by starting counting at a number other than 1.

e.g. 5, 6, 7, 8...

Colours

Encourage your child to learn their colours. You can support this by talking about the colour of things e.g. The grass is green....The black dog is eating....You are wearing your red t shirt.

Asking your child to get things for you using colour clues is a fun way to learn the colours e.g. Can you get Daddy the black hammer...Where is mummy's green sock?...Pass me the red sauce...

Have fun with colours by putting cellophane on windows at home or making cellophane mobiles that hang at the child's sight level. Make different cellophane coloured glasses or binoculars from old cardboard tubes from gladwrap/tinfoil. Crystals hanging in windows make wonderful colour patterns that can be discussed. After rain look for rainbows and identify the colours together.

Writing numbers

Give your child opportunities to write numbers. At kindergarten we have charts with the numbers to 20. The tamariki (children) enjoy writing these numbers. It is great practice for them in forming the numbers. Don't be alarmed if their formation is not accurate. Remember small children are still developing their coordination skills and fine motor skills require longer to develop with each child developing these at different rates.

Ideas:

• Old calendars are great for children to use.
  
• Letter box numbers are fun to trace around
• Try tracing number stencils.
• Make numbers in the sand at the beach (start with child's age, house number etc)
• Put large numbers on your child's bedroom wall (or get number frieze)
• Buy number magnets for your child to play with (name them for child then let them)
• Buy or borrow from library, number puzzles

Remember to count with your child regularly so they become familiar with the number names and the order of the numbers. Start counting forwards firstly 1-5, then when that's learned try counting 1-10, then 1-20. Once the forward counting is mastered count backwards following similar pattern with 5-1, 10-1, 20-1.

Don't forget to count in your native tongue too if English is not your first language.

Number rhymes and songs

Encourage your child to count through singing songs and chanting rhymes. Do the actions and count on those fingers and toes too to help reinforce the concepts.

Rhymes/songs:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive (counting to ten)

Ten little Indian boys (teaches counting to ten and back from ten too)

10 fat sausages sizzling in the pan (concept of subtraction)

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Five little ducks went out one day

Ten in the bed

Five little peas

Two little Dickie Birds sitting on the wall

Ten green bottles sitting on the wall and if one green bottle should accidently fall...

Maori numbers 1-10

1 tahi

2 rua

3 toru

4 wha

5 rima

6 ono

7 whitu

8 waru

9 iwa


10 tekau