Friday 22 November 2013

Maths: odds and evens with the Maths Dino

I have recently noticed how great my six year old Honi is at maths.  There is only one problem...
 
The trouble with Honi is that she hates what she does not understand first time.  For example, when we were doing about 3D shapes today, unlike my older two girls no explanation was needed: Honi knew exactly how many sides and corners were on each shape just by looking at a picture of the shape in a book, without having to have one physically in her hand. 
 
She was so pleased with herself, I was so happy for her.
 
Then we looked at the odd and even number page and...

MELTDOWN!

It's too hard she declared!  I can't do it!

So I brought out her Maths Dino! 
 






















If you want to make one of your own you can find out how in my blog post...

Dino Multiplications which is the first time I got the idea to make him. 
 
He is brilliant. He is Honi's favourite maths tool so far!
 
As soon as she saw her Maths dino and the plastic flowers we use she was completely up for discovering odd and even numbers!
 
All we did was  use pink flowers (you could use buttons, beads or pasta shapes) for the even numbers. 
 
I spent time talking to her about how all the numbers were in the 2 times tables and how the all ended with a 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8.
 

Then we used green flowers to find all the odd numbers.  I told her how these all end in a 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9.
 
Immediately she could see the pattern visually and had the patience to learn as she was busy doing something with her hand, learning kinaesthetically, through movement.
 
She went back to her workbook (no one could have stopped her if they tried at this point) and with no help at all not only finished the page in record time but happily and with no mistakes.
 
I love that I have found a way to teach my Honi and I love how it is highlighting how bright she really is!
 
I hope someone else out there will benefit from this which is why I am sharing...

 

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