Green Options » math

Felt Boards: Quick, Portable, Do-It-Yourself Fun

Julie Finn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:22:57 +0000

If your family includes a preschooler and people who aren’t preschoolers (such as yourself!), it can be challenging to find a family art activity that can equally engage the skills and creativity of each family member.

In my family, which includes two people who are preschoolers and two people who aren’t, one of our favorite family art activities is to make more creations for our little girls’ felt board. Felt is easy to cut, holds its shape well and doesn’t ravel, can be drawn on with permanent markers and glued with hot glue, and, if you work with wool felt or an acrylic felt made from recycled plastic bottles, it’s an eco-friendly craft material, as well.

Simple fun.

Munch Your Math: A DIY Pizza Game

Julie Finn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:59:43 +0000

I have this weird thing about math, which isn’t helped by my tendency to do complicated-to-me quilt block calculations at 10 pm (A 4.5″ quilt block has a quarter-inch seam allowance on all sides. How many blocks will I need to cut to have a finished 40″x60″ quilt? I want to put a heart-shaped applique on every other quilt block on this quilt, NOT including the border blocks. How many applique hearts do I need to cut out? Yawn…).

Of course, I earned my math aversion by doing decades worth of really, really boring, irrelevant, and repetitive math worksheets in school, so that now I have difficulty doing relevant, interesting, not really that complicated math as an adult. It’s my goal, then, to keep math super-fun for my little girls. There are only so many games of Uncle Wiggly or 1-25 BINGO that an adult can play, however, so I’ve taken to DIY-ing my kids some math activities out of recycled materials. I made them an arithmetic matching game, and now I’m going to make them a fractions pizza game. Here’s how:

Giant Bugs on the Floor!

Jennifer Lance — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:22:00 +0000

I still remember the day my daughter graduated from wooden peg puzzles to real puzzles with interlocking pieces. It felt like a rite of passage, as she explored the spatial relationships and put images together. My daughter’s first puzzle was the Melissa and Doug Bugs Floor Puzzle. Three years later, this puzzle is still a favorite, and the large pieces are easy for little hands. When put together, the Melissa and Doug Bugs Floor Puzzlemeasures 46.5 inches wide! Made of 24 heavy grade cardboard pieces, this puzzle holds up well to repeated use. Melissa and Doug make many other wonderful large full puzzles, including wooden versions that are more expensive. The Melissa and Doug Bugs Floor Puzzle is affordable at about $10.

Please visit our biweekly post on GNM Parents: A Little Greener: Forgo the Amusement Park and Take Your Family Camping!

Melissa and Doug Sound Blocks

Jennifer Lance — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:31:00 +0000

We have both the Melissa and Doug Wooden Sound Vehicle Blocks and the Melissa and Doug Wooden Farm Sound Blocks. By matching up the images on both blocks, children are positively reinforced with the corresponding sound. Just like other Melissa and Doug natural toys, the sound blocks are made of high quality wood. My daughter thinks it is funny to switch the blocks to the other set’s base, thus the train will moo like a cow. This is only possible if you have both sets of sound blocks and appropriate for an older child to problem solve. For younger toddlers, the sound blocks offer a simple two piece puzzle that rewards them when they succeed. The sound blocks are affordable, at about ten dollars, and they make a nice gift. We were given one of our sets, and I had purchased the other set for my son’s first birthday.

A Natural Counting Toy

Jennifer Lance — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:51:00 +0000

The Guidecraft wooden ring counting toy is a great, simple math manipulative. My father bought this toy for my daughter for her very first Christmas, thus we have had our Guidecraft ring counter for five years! For this first Christmas (and everyone since!), I sent a friendly email reminder to all our family members that we did not want plastic, battery-operated toys. Some family members listened, some did not. While searching the internet for natural toys, my sister found the Guidecraft ring counter and told my mathematician dad about it. Just like the abacus of a previous post, the ring counter toy allows children to explore mathematical concepts and make discoveries. I still remember when my daughter spontaneously made her first ABABAB pattern with the yellow and blue rings. The Guidecraft ring counter has been essential for teaching my 2.5 year old son his colors. Placing each colored ring on the appropriate post also builds motor skills and reinforces sorting skills, as well. The different quantities can be compared for greater than and less than comparisons too. The possiblities are endless with this simple, natural toy.

Discovering Math with an Abacus

Jennifer Lance — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:39:00 +0000

Many theories on early childhood education promote children’s natural curiousity to discover mathematical concepts. Given manipulatives, children naturally experiment, hypothesize, and build their own theories. An abacus is a great toy for building such knowledge, and Melissa and Doug make an affordable wooden one of high quality. Many other kinds of manipulatives, like marbles, get lost around the house. I like that the counters are securely attached to the abacus making clean up an ease. On an abacus, the counters are arranged in sets of ten that slide along a metal rod. Initially, I showed my daughter how to add simple problems with the abacus. ON HER OWN, she has discovered the tens place is represented on each row, how to add larger two digit numbers, and how to subtract using the abacus. I have been amazed how her abacus play has evolved to this level. On paper, she is not be able to carry numbers when adding two digit numerals or borrow during subtraction, but she has naturally discovered these properties with the abacus. Of course my two-year-old son just likes to slide the counters and play with the abacus. Eventually his play will lead to numerical sensibility. This toy is really a tool that has its origins in antiquity. It is known to have existed in 1000 BCE in Babylonia and China, according to Wikipedia. Merchants around the world still use this ancient calculator, so it is perfect for our children!