More Math Games with Jellybeans

"Students may be skilled at addition, yet not understand in what situations that skill might be applied. This failure to extrapolate is most apparent when students are asked to solve word problems. They may have the technical ability to solve problems when numbers are provided, but be lost when asked to extract the same numbers from words. "
We have been making up math word problems with pictures for about a week. These pictures come from a book called Instant Math Storymats, but you could sketch your own.


You can take turns making up stories that involve counting, adding, subtracting...
and skills like multiplication and division are simple for even a five-year old...


if they are part of a story, like dividing fruit represented by colorful jellybeans between two story friends.
My youngest particularly likes stories in which he plays one of the characters.

"To discover for themselves the workings of (multiplication) students have to think; this thinking is the point of all our questions and, in the end, is the point of all mathematics."


Both quotes are from Mathematics is a Way of Thinking, by Robert Baratta-Lorton.


Popular Posts