Number Cards and Roman Numerals (with FREE Cards)

As you all know, we are rowing books from Five in a Row (we are loving this so far!).  This lesson in Roman Numerals is in line with the book The Glorious Flight (My son enjoyed every single page of this book! He even made a video narration of this book which you can watch here.).  This is the first time Mavi encountered such numbers and he was surprised to learn that the numbers are represented by letters!

I made use of our wooden Montessori number cards for this lesson and roman numerals handwritten on a paper (I ran out of printer ink!).  We started off with the units (ones).  He got the pattern right away and continued working up to the hundreds.




We stumbled on the thousands as I myself was not knowledgeable of the the Roman Numerals in thousands LOL.  We searched the web for the corresponding symbol for this.

He realized that he only needs to memorize a few letters because the representation is almost the same as counting 1,2,3. According to him, he just have to remember that…

ones is for I

five is V

ten is X

fifty is L

hundred is C

five hundred is D

thousand is M

five thousand is V with one bar on top

 
He worked on the rest of the numbers with less assistance from me and here he is so proud of his work! 

And now, if you are interested you can download your FREE printables of the Number Cards and Roman Numerals by clicking this link. Hope you find this helpful. Thank you! Don’t forget to like and pin this!

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Introducing Picture Graphs

One of the most important topics which I find very useful when I was in the university and as a professional for some time was picture graphs.  As an engineer, we always looked at statistics, comparing data and interpret them to come up with a solution to a problem.

Now, this is where our picture graph lesson comes in. I introduced this to Mavi because of my experience, and of how useful this in real life.

There are a lot of ways to come up with data collection activities and interpreting the output using picture graphs.  Here I will show you how we did it at home in two ways.

Roll a Dice

Roll the dice a number of times (depends on you) and record the how many instances the number appears.  Discuss the graph to your child.

Link Cubes in a Bag

I placed the equal number of link cubes in the bag, Mavi and I have to pick up a cube one at a time.  We then have to put an X or mark the chart when a certain colour appears.

In each activity, try to describe your graph and ask questions like:

1. Which link cube did you pick the most?
2. Which link cube did you pick the least?

Another suggestion is that, you can create a WEATHER CHART.  Let your child record the weather, if it’s sunny, rainy or cloudy.  We were supposed to do this, but you know in Ireland… it is always RAINING… so this idea will not actually work for us :D

So there you go!  This is a very very easy activity to prepare. Use anything that you see in the kitchen, no need for printables… just create the chart in a piece of paper and that’s it!  Enjoy the activity and goodluck!

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Fun Math Activities for Numbers 20 to 99

So we’ve been practising our Mathematics since we came back from our big break.  We’re almost done with our study on 2 digit numbers (20 to 99).  Now you might be wondering why we need to stick around here. Well you see, though Mavi knows his addition and subtraction by heart, there’s still a lot more in mathematics than that.  To explain, here’s a few of our “brainy” activities (this is how Mavi describes it!).

Count Me!.  Using our decanomial beads, I laid out 20 sets for Mavi to count using what he has learned previously on counting tens and ones! 

Place Value.  Here’s it is in Singapore Math. I copied the activities in our Math notebook so that we can reuse the workbooks from Singapore for Vito.  Mavi works on this using mental math, no manipulative needed.

Find the number. This thinks that this is a very tricky game. I made a lot of questions and clues for him to find the correct number using our hundred board.  This is to test his analysis. Example:   8 less of 35 is?

 

Smallest and Greatest number. Given the number series (I prepared 10 for him), identify the smallest and greatest.  Again he finds this difficult, but upon teaching him the trick, he was able to answer the questions quickly.

Another version is to arrange the given set (15 sets) from smallest to greatest and greatest to smallest. Arranging from smallest to greatest was very easy for him, but he complained that doing the other way around is more difficult. He gets confused between numbers.  I even added 1 digit number (number 6), to my surprise he considered it as “60” rather than “06”.  So I therefore conclude that conventional counting, that is from smallest to greatest is waaay more easier for them than the other way around!

                

Why don’t you try this with your kids and let me know how they feel about it! 

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FREE Stamp Game Sheets

Like my Stamp Game sheets that were used in our Static Addition and Dynamic Addition activities?  You can get your copy now by clicking the image below. Or by clicking this link.


For the first page, I printed it multiple times. Then, I cut it in the middle and created a booklet.  For the second page, we used it to practice writing numbers as seen in my Static Addition post.  And the last page, I randomly wrote a number and Mavi has to indicate the correct number of thousands, hundreds, tens and units.

Dynamic Addition

Our dynamic addition starts with a brief discussion of what makes a 10 using a unit (1’s), 100 using 10’s and a 1000 using 100’s.  This is a visual presentation of smaller units that we can group together to form a bigger units.  From here, I told Mavi that whenever he encounters this when he plays Stamp Game, all he needed to do was to “substitute” the group with a bigger value. 

 

 

The concept of dynamic addition in Montessori is the same whether you use golden beads, stamp game or bead frame.  Here’s how we do it:

• [Top left photo] Mavi would take out a strip of paper with a written equation and copies it in our booklet.  [Top left photo]
• [Top right photo] He would layout all the stamps according to the equation.  Then perform the addition by combining the two sets. See our Static Addition for this.
• [Lower left photo]  Count the stamps starting from the unit’s place value. He counted 13 units, grouped the 10 units (green) and replaced it with a 10 (blue).  As you can see, he was confused at first he put the 10 (blue) in the units area.  This I emphasized that he has to place it on the correct area in the place value mat.
• [Top right photo]  He recorded the sum after he worked on the tens and hundreds, applying the same concept of regrouping.

Note:  Mavi has memorized a lot of number pair in addition.  Most of the time he doesn’t use the stamps or beads, he automatically do the addition work.  Sometimes he would start on the thousands going down to the units. I have to explain that he always need to start from the smallest unit.  This is because he will produce an incorrect sum once the equation is dynamic.  That is the number changes (addends) because of the regrouping.  And he understood this somehow when finished a few equation strips.

Well, that’s all for dynamic addition for now.  This is just an introductory to my 6 years old.  We’ll practice more of this next year. 

FREE Skip Counting Learning Materials

Here’s our homemade math learning material for skip counting.  You can avail a FREE copy by clicking on the image below.  We’ll use this next week so keep visiting my site if you want to see how we use it at home. Enjoy! 

Montessori Inspired Skip Counting

I wonder how you teach kids to skip count?  When I was younger this was one of the thing that I despise the most. Why? Because basically they just want us to memorise it.  With the available resources now, I want my boys to love skip counting…. as I always tell Mavi, you will use this technique all the time for the rest of your life :)

We had a few practice on this but I never had a the chance to come up with a serious unit or lesson for this.  Now he’s a bit older to understand and appreciate, I decided to come up with sheets to get him into the skip counting thingy.

First I created the hundred sheets, and discuss the concept about skip counting (by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s).  I cross-out the count in our sheets and made him mark it using our Do-a-Dot markers.

“Look Mom! It has a pattern!”

Now using these visuals, we put it into action using our decanomial beads and hundred board number tiles (both Montessori Math materials from Absorbent Minds UK).

Here we have the counting by 5’s. 

 

And I compared it to the counting by 10’s. 

And his least favourite skip counting is by 2’s (because it takes a long time to read 10, he said LOL).

Now well be practicing this for the entire week.  I’m coming up with materials so we can use the concept using non-Montessori materials.  I’ll be sharing it with you so watch out for it.

 

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Static Addition

My son has been doing a lot of addition exercises (static) using both the stamp game and bead frames.  I created equation cards, place value mat and stamp game booklet for the exercises.  I’m sharing how we do static addition using both materials.

Static Addition using the Stamp Game. 

1.  Take out an equation card and copy the equation in the booklet.

2.  Using the equation, select the stamps for both numerals placing them on the place value mat.  

3.  Now say “Let’s add the amounts together.” Push the rows of stamps together (combine them), starting with the units.  Count and record the number.  Do the same thing for the tens, hundreds and thousands.

4.  The four rows of the bead frame represents the decimal.  The upper green beads is for the units, the blue for tens, red for hundreds and the lower green beads for thousands.  Now using the same concept as the stamp game, count and move the appropriate beads from the left to right side. Once you’re done counting, record the numbers.  In this case, Mavi used it to check his work.

Here’s Mavi working several times. Can’t believe he’s glued.

 

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Mastering the Decimal System

I decided to shift back our Montessori materials to review our decimal system, skip counting, addition and subtraction using Montessori Materials. We’re almost done with our Singapore Workbooks so we’re taking a break from all the paper works and shift back to tactile activities :)

THE DECIMAL SYSTEM

We used the Montessori golden beads for presentation and the stamp game and bead frame for the activities.  My main goal here is for Mavi to really understand how the system works, to refine his knowledge of reading and  number formation.

 

QUANTITY AND SYMBOLS

The beginning of the lesson I presented to Mavi how to write the 4 digit numbers. This has always been a difficult subject for him, for he cannot understand why some units must take the place of 0's in tens, hundreds and thousands. We practiced forming the numbers using number cards and in writing as well.

He compared the digits to the body parts LOL.

For the exercises, I created a number checklist table.  Given the number, Mavi will give me the correct number tiles and bead frame counts . This activity is similar to Bank Game, but we’re not using the number cards and golden beads.  As you can see in the pictures below, he has to show me the correct quantity using the stamp tiles and bead frame.

                                  

 

FORMATION OF NUMBERS

This exercises is for Mavi to master how to write the correct number forms.  Given the quantity in number tiles, Mavi has to write the correct amount in our activity sheet.  I liked this activity, as he was able to understand the relationship of decimals.  This also enhances his skills in reading and writing large number units.

Our next step would be static and dynamic addition using the stamp game and bead frame.

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Tally and Finger Counting Cards

I mentioned in Facebook that this activity (one to one correspondence) of numbers is one of my son’s favourite works.  Here, we used the number symbol cards, Montessori beads, counting finger cards, dot cards, number words and bear counters.

You can get the number cards, tally and finger counting cards from this post of Linton Academy.  The number dots were made by yours truly. Unfortunately, I lost the file and couldn’t retrieve it.  But this is so easy to do.  The number words were homemade as well (handwritten).

Enjoy!

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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. 

Anyway, here’s what he has learned so far:

Ways to Add

• Number Bonds. We’ve studied number bonds before so it was easy for Mavi to apply his knowledge once we’ve touched Addition.  You can also get a free NUMBER BOND ACTIVITY SHEETS by clicking this link.

• By counting on from the greater number.  This is something new for Mavi.  I told him it’s a trick that he can use to add numbers.  He liked it and he’s been using it ever since. 

Making Addition Stories

Another part of the lesson that Mavi really really love doing was making stories! Favourite characters in his stories were his classmates and the dinosaurs lol.  This is an introductory part for problem solving which we will be doing as we progress.

Next would be subraction. I wonder if he will like it in the same way he did in addition.

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!

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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.

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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”.

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