Some of you might enjoy this article in New York Times:
Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them
It talks about a program called Building Blocks where preschoolers are taught simple math concepts, such as number symbols and counting. Kids that went through the program did much better in kindergarten math than those who did not.
I had not realized that preschoolers are normally not taught much anything about numbers or counting. This program clearly proves how beneficial it is to do so, and how the kids' brains are definitely ready to learn counting at age 4 (and it can happen earlier, as well).
Tampilkan postingan dengan label preschool. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label preschool. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 23 Desember 2009
Kamis, 28 Agustus 2008
An AHA! abacus moment in the life of a preschooler
I've been doing math lessons with my 3-year old using the 100-bead abacus. Usually we do a few problems where she tells me a number to make and I tell her a number to make, back and forth. Today she asked me to make 51, and I asked her to make 68. These went smoothly since she's getting pretty good at this now.
Then we did a few "more than" problems. I said, "Let's say your sister has 5 cookies and you have one more than her. How many do you have?" This is a new concept to her so we need to do it slowly and carefully with the abacus: first make her sister's cookies, then let her have the same amount, then give her one more.
Then we do a few subtraction problems such as 7 − 4. She moved 7 beads, then "took away" or moved the other way 4 beads, and how many were left? 3 beads. I showed her also 50 − 10 = 40.
She started doing her own problem, "Let's do 9 − ..." and while she was thinking, I quickly proposed "... minus nine". Nine minus nine. Well, she moved nine beads, then COUNTED the beads one by one moving them the other direction, and was left with none... and what a SURPRISE it was to her! She had to start giggling!
I immediately showed her another one, 4 − 4. She did 10 − 10 herself. And THEN I showed her 100 − 100, which made the greatest giggles of all!
It was just so cute so I had to share. Plus, now you know several ways how to teach math concepts with the abacus.
Then we did a few "more than" problems. I said, "Let's say your sister has 5 cookies and you have one more than her. How many do you have?" This is a new concept to her so we need to do it slowly and carefully with the abacus: first make her sister's cookies, then let her have the same amount, then give her one more.
Then we do a few subtraction problems such as 7 − 4. She moved 7 beads, then "took away" or moved the other way 4 beads, and how many were left? 3 beads. I showed her also 50 − 10 = 40.
She started doing her own problem, "Let's do 9 − ..." and while she was thinking, I quickly proposed "... minus nine". Nine minus nine. Well, she moved nine beads, then COUNTED the beads one by one moving them the other direction, and was left with none... and what a SURPRISE it was to her! She had to start giggling!
I immediately showed her another one, 4 − 4. She did 10 − 10 herself. And THEN I showed her 100 − 100, which made the greatest giggles of all!
It was just so cute so I had to share. Plus, now you know several ways how to teach math concepts with the abacus.
Sabtu, 16 Februari 2008
Learn to recognize numbers game for preschoolers
I just wanted to share a little "game" that helped my 3-year old preschooler to recognize her numbers here a few weeks back.
This game is SO simple that it's almost laughable; yet it went over VERY well with our tyke! I am still amazed. There is no strategy involved, it's so simple I almost hesitate to call it a game. But I did call it a "number game" to my 3-year old and she loved it.
I used foam numbers and plastic numbers, and just made a heap of them between us. I would pick one, hold it up high and call out loud its name, such as "Number five!" and put it to my personal pile.
She would then find the same number (I made sure there were at least two of each) and did the same, called out loud its name and gathered the number to herself.
Then it was her turn to pick any number from the pile, call out its name, and put it to her pile, and I had to find the same number.
After all the numbers in the middle pile were gone, her task was to arrange her numbers in order. That's it.
Actually we don't have to play that anymore because she learned to recognize them so quick. She's also learning to count, but just like all kids do, her fingers are sometimes faster than her mouth saying numbers, or vice versa, and so she doesn't always get it right. She enjoys watching big sister do computer games, such as at Time4Learning or UpToTen. Now they two can also play UNO together (since she recognizes the numbers!).
This game is SO simple that it's almost laughable; yet it went over VERY well with our tyke! I am still amazed. There is no strategy involved, it's so simple I almost hesitate to call it a game. But I did call it a "number game" to my 3-year old and she loved it.
I used foam numbers and plastic numbers, and just made a heap of them between us. I would pick one, hold it up high and call out loud its name, such as "Number five!" and put it to my personal pile.
She would then find the same number (I made sure there were at least two of each) and did the same, called out loud its name and gathered the number to herself.
Then it was her turn to pick any number from the pile, call out its name, and put it to her pile, and I had to find the same number.
After all the numbers in the middle pile were gone, her task was to arrange her numbers in order. That's it.
Actually we don't have to play that anymore because she learned to recognize them so quick. She's also learning to count, but just like all kids do, her fingers are sometimes faster than her mouth saying numbers, or vice versa, and so she doesn't always get it right. She enjoys watching big sister do computer games, such as at Time4Learning or UpToTen. Now they two can also play UNO together (since she recognizes the numbers!).
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