5/9/06: Adding with 7’s
During today’s drop off, I tested Byron and saw that he could add 9’s and 8’s pretty well (by taking 1 and 2 away and add ‘teen’ to what’s left over). I then asked Bryon if he was ready to add 7’s.
“Sure!”
“Well, all adding 7 is about is take 3 away to your tummy and add ‘teen’ to what’s left over! Wanna try one?”
“Okay.”
“What’s 7 plus 4?”
“two-teen” he promptly reported.
“hm…, close. If you stick 4 fingers out and take 3 to your tummy for the 7 that’s already there, what do you have then?” (Note: I do my best to avoid the word ‘wrong’. It sends the unwelcoming message to a young child that he is not getting it. You don’t have use the word ‘close’ if you can find something else that says, ‘you are almost there, but not quite. Give it another try.’)
“so, here is 4 fingers, and 3 go to my tummy…..1-teen!”
‘Great! And 1-teen is…..”
“Eleven, of course!”
We then practiced a couple more. Sensing his excitement for his school, as we got closer, I switched to who is doing what at school and with whom. (Oh, boy, does he like to talk about his school!)
Happy Zen Math!!
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