Hi all, my dd is having a hard time with grade one math. She is very good at sheets that are visual ie: four drawn dinosours + four drawn dinosours = 8 dinos's. I have a very hard time finding sheets like that on any free sites. Any idea's? :roll: I would also love to know how you taught your math challenged child. Thanks, mom2girls
Buy those small dot stickers. You can get them in either plain colors, or with pictures of some kind on them. You know what I mean? Anyway, take a bunch of 3x5 cards and fold them in half. Then make a set of "dominoes" with them. You can use these to teach both addition and subtraction. For example, take 3+2. You can show the "domino" that has 3 and 2. If you turn it one way, it shows 3+2. If you flip it over, it shows 2+3. You can make it go side-to-side or up-and-down. If you show the whole thing, you can "take away" one side to show subtraction. Again, it can go horizontally or vertically. Show her the card, and have her tell you the number sentence. Also, you can take the stickers left over from making the cards and make worksheets. Fold your paper so you have six or eight squares per page, more if you have larger paper, and put the stickers on it. Have her write the number sentences. Or YOU write the number sentence (without the answer). Then she can put the stickers on and write the answer. If you run out of stickers, have her use buttons or beads or (best of all!) M&M's. Once she puts them on the paper, she can draw around if you want.
I drew my own work sheets, it took a long time but I kept it simple, apples, smiles, kites, tree, candy canes, stars, etc... simple shapes, There is aslo a math counting book with math counting frogs I got from I think mcgraw hill or bob shaffer co. It says things like how many frogs can sit on this log, or leaf, or boat etc.. and then it says using using green and orange frogs how many ways can you make seven? and things like that. It also has frogs that you can cut out and use if you dont have the plastic ones, it tellls you what colors to color them and there are different sizes so you can do things like how many small frogs can sit on the log and how many medium frogs can sit on the log... also, you can draw a circle on a page, draw a number in the circle and let the child put stickers or buttons in the circle with the correct #. Also, as my kids got older I showed them to do adding and subtraction with simple dots, if it were a problem like 5+3 they were to draw five dots(like they are on dice) and 3 dots. then add them, and if it were subtraction they drew the larger # on the problem and put a slash representing the other # and count what was left over. If you really want to get into something expensive there is a math program called touch math, I got a catalouge on it and it looks like it would be good for them, we just couldn't afford the books.
As they get used to the counting way of learning it, you can also show them counting spots on numbers. I will have to draw up something on paintshop and send it to you or something if you don't understand...but very simply 1 is a straight line...so it has one counting spot or "power point" as I have heard them called. 2 has the hook at the top and the point at the bottom where the direction takes a sharp turn...those are its 2 counting spots. 3 has the 3 spots that jet out (where it starts, the one in the middle, and where it ends, so those are its counting spots. 4 has where the L starts, where it changes direction, where it meets the l and then the l itself just like the 1. 5 has the point where the - starts, then where it meets the rest of the number, where the "hook starts", where the bulge is, and then where it ends...and so it goes on...if you don't like the points that I mentioned you can of course make up your own. This was just a very visual way to teach addition wihtout needing extra manipulatives or pictures...the child can be encouraged to simply count the points but it may be helpful for them to accentuate them for a while to count them (or make a darker spot there on the #. Good luck
Heather, could you please send this to me? I was told about it YEARS ago on a Spring Break mission trip, but never could figure it quite out. I think it would help my middle one. Thanks!
You could also make your own worksheets using ink stamps. You know the kind that is self inking with a small picture? Or you can buy small ones at the craft store that you use an ink pad with. Your dd can also use them for making pictures as well.
Here are some of the things I did with my little ones: cook--simply count at first, then "Good--that was one cup--how many did we need altogether? Okay, how many more do we have to go?" There is a lot to do with teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, quarts, gallons (or, of course, metrics, if that is what you normally use). Even count things that don't normally matter to you: "We'll use 8 cups of water to rinse the beans--can you measure that for Mommy?" drink your water!--start with, say, a half-gallon pitcher (8 cups) every day. Together, try to drink it all. At the end of the day, see how much is left (in cups). "So how much did we drink today?" My 9 and 10 yo still keep track of their water consumption (seven years later!) they loved the challenge so much. plant a garden--how many seeds, or how many rows, or how many rocks can we find to put on the border, or how many weeds do you think we can pull in five minutes. How many ladybugs did we see today? Pick a bouquet of two kinds of flowers...You get the idea. have lunch--would you like your sandwich in halves or fourths? Would you like to see how to make a butterfly out of those pieces? Here are four pretzel sticks--if I want you to have five, how many did I miss? Should we start with a fourth cup of juice or half--how about a tablespoon? Have fun! How many shoes is our family wearing today? What time is lunch? So how much longer should we wait? If you sing from a hymnal, point out the numbers. Before long, your child will want to find them herself. Keep your eye open for opportunties and be relaxed--sometimes the little ones just need a bit of time to grow. This has often been the case with my ds, especially in math. He'll get in a rut, and I just back off a while. In a couple weeks, it seems his mind just processes what I had been trying to teach, and he suddenly "gets it". I have also heard that fun little games, like "This Little Piggy" or "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (with toes or fingers) help with the basic number concept of one-to-one correlation. Before I ever heard of such a thing, we played lots of those games. In turn, I would carry each child on my back to their bed, playing the game of their choice all the way down the hallway. They loved it. So, life was "first grade" math for my children. I just waited, let them grow, and patiently took advantage of every opportunity I could find. (I must give God the credit for the patience and the opportunities!) Then, when we started "the book", second grade came rather painlessly--they already knew a lot.
Lots of hands on practice with manipulatives now will REALLY pay off later.... I used very simple things to teach the oldest two math. Will do the same with number 3 son coming up. I used lima beans (they are bigger, anything works though) and a medicine cup lid. I used a permanent marker to color one side of the bean. Then you just use how many beans you need and have HER write down the number sentences to look like this ______ + ______=_____. Then she throws the beans out of the lid and writes down how many she started out with (5) Basically the answer first..how many are red (3)....how many are not red (2).. You can do this a variety of ways.. Write down the red one first, or write down the plain ones first or the answer. This too strengthens the fact that addition facts are related. We turn them around and we have the same answer. This is visual, plus by her writing the number sentence it helps her to transfer to that stage where they become more abstract (counting in their heads). It takes a WHOLE lot of practice visually before they master *counting on or up* in their heads. You can even make the sheet cutesy. I cut manilla construction sheets into halves and staple it to make a book. Then work on all the *5's* or *8's*, you can even decorate the outside of each page. One page is all of the *5's*, the other is all of the *7's* facts,etc. In addition, tape a number line on the bottom of her workspace to keep visually reminding her of which number is higher and how many numbers up it is. have her look at that instead of her fingers or use manipulatives. Play a game called *count down*....Tell her you are going to see how fast she is . Starting counting up and when you say *GO* she is to start counting backwards...say *GO* again, now she goes up... This helps the numbers come much more easily. My boys varied this game by standing up and facing me when they counted forward and turning their backs on me when they counted backward. They thought it was cute, so it worked for me!!:roll: Too, I made a hopscotch with masking tape and added by *hopping* on the number. We changed the game a little. They throw a die and then hopscothed that number. Throw again, and hopped that many too..Which number did they land on? It doesn't take long to rig that dice, I have several *rigged* ones laying around.. The boys really loved this one too....... HTH
Sami and the little boy I was teaching were facinated with money so we played a money game. I put 30 pennies in a cup and they "Spilled" some out. they would then count the ones that spilled and then trade in the pennies for nickels and dimes. After we had played regularly for a couple of weeks they could both count to 25 with no trouble and begged me to add quarters, so they quickly learned that 5 pennies = a nickel, 10 a dime and 2 dimes and a nickel = a quarter. The game is over when I run out of available dimes (Later Quarters) They get tons of practice counting and can now count money up to 25 cents. (they also know four quarters is a dollar but can't count to 100 yet.
Sure Jackie...I will get it togeather today and send it to you...sorry it is taking me so long to reply here...
These are some great ideas in here! I just wanted to share that later hopscotch works well for multiplication, too! One year we got burnt out on multiplication and my ds seemed to be stuck in the 3's. :cry: So we played hopscotch. Each child had a times family for the day. (I will use 3 for an example.) We used juicecan lids with numbered stickers to pick the numbers, 1-12. Let's say we picked 7. The child would toss his marker on the 7, then call out "his" problem: "3x7,21!" Then he hops up the line, counting by 3's. (He hops on 1, he says "3"; on 2, he says "6"; and so forth.) He hops over the 7 (where his marker is) on the way up, to be picked up on the way back. Of course, on the way back, he counts backwards by 3's! This really picked the children's spirits back up. Hey, Mom can even play, too!
My dd will love the hopscotch idea! she is crazy about that game :smile: What great idea's everyone. Tracy
