Math Idea: Visual way to understand multiplication and division

Using a few simple items, you can help your student "see" exactly what it means to multiply or divide.  Now this is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination-but a different way to do it...and a great one for the workbox.

*Please note-unless you want the equations to be on your cards permanently -do not use a Sharpie-use a Vis-a-Vis wet-erase marker.  I accidentally grabbed the wrong pen for the photo op.  You will need a few bags of marbles, or [like I chose] those glass gems from the dollar store. I will need to snag a couple more for the higher level mult./division problems-but 2 are a good start.  I found the Post-It note look alike room decor thingies at a Dollar Tree. But since you never know if you can find them or not-just choose something you feel your child will enjoy, which has a surface large enough to write out the equations. Laminate as many as you think you'll need, so that you can reuse them over and over again.  Pre-fill your target multiples or divisibles in the Ziplocks.   I was able to get enough bags made for 2,3,4,5,6,and7 X7 before running shy of the gems. The beauty is that I can reuse the stuff to create a new set at any time.

The object is to have the appropriate amount of gems in a Ziplock bag. They then move the gems into groups per the card's instructions.  So for the multiplication-the bag has 14 gems.  The rule is the child is to group them according to the number listed first (so 2 sets of 7) then the next one (7 groups of 2). They can then add up the sets to get the answer. I think I will have the boy use a reg. sheet of notebook paper, to write out the equations then the answer.  For whatever reason, he seems to not be "getting" why one would multiply or divide-it eludes him.  Being that he is a visual/tactile learner-this little project will hopefully "show" him the why/reason/results.

For Example:

Now I could have easily done this with a multitude of items [I did use matchbox cars with my oldest son], but knowing this particular student will easily get side tracked-that is not going to work.  And if I didn't have them in bags-they'd end up all over the house being used for various things such as a track outline for his cars. This way-they are contained. That is also helpful for those with little ones around-not that they couldn't open the bag, but it is somewhat corralled. I wouldn't suggest having the student do more than 5 at a time-to avoid over load.  Also-I think doing just multiplication or division is better than mixing it up which would also prevent confusion. I do think they suggested writing it out like, "Separate these into 5 sets of 2" or something like that-but with the little cards-there is no way I can scribble that on it.

UPDATE:  Found this in the book, Math Wise: Over 100 Hands-On Activities that Promote Real Math Understanding by Jim Overholt and Laurie Kincheloe. Pages 109-111, labeled "Ziplock Division".

Math projects for Elementary students

I cannot say enough about this awesome site! Home Education Resources has some fantastic downloads for way cheap! I mean the fraction tarts were like a buck 50! And it is very well done. So, I bought it, printed and laminated them, and now it is ready to go into the boy's workboxes, when we start the ole fractions in math. You can find a ton of really cute and fun activities at the Home Education Resources homepage. The donut one (under language) looks soooo cute-unfortunately, it is below my boy's skill level (I forgot about this site until just this spring-so I missed my op to use that one). These are copyrighted products, so please honor that.

UPDATE:  looks like the donuts and the pie fractions are no longer available. I am so bummed but there are new items on her site.  If I find anything similar I will post about it.

I dug this little sweetie out of my collection of stuff.  It is a set (there are 10 of the 100 boards in there, I gave some to my friends, but I also let the kids write on a few (so we're down to 4 good ones). It has the 100 boards, and all the number tiles to do several different activities to teach many skills. Obviously, laying the tiles from 1-100 is the main one...but there are activities in the booklet that teach place value, patterns and they can even turn the tiles over and build pictures on the board too. I bought this when I first started homeschooling-WAY back in the early nineties. They still make it-but you have to buy it thru someone. OK, I see this company has it for $27ish Teacher's Paradise, but it says out of stock. I suppose you can do a more thorough Google search if it interests ya. I actually do not see any problem with a person making their own 100s board and then making the number cards too.

Well, anyhoo-these are a couple more math ideas.

OOOH, Homeschool Share has all the new goodies posted

Well, this is exciting-finally, the wait is over! Homeschool Share has uploaded all the new lapbooks, unit studies, notebooking stuff and of course-the brand new section: WORKBOXABLES! Yeah! There are a ton of ideas and projects just waiting for you, and they are all free downloads! Cannot beat that!



I submitted a Money Center file (which I believe I mentioned in a previous post) where you can download cards to put in the workbox for the kiddos, and number cards, ideas and a sign for your center area.

I am also tickled pink, that I was selected as the winner for one of the Early Bird prizes. I won the awesome Ultimate Lap Book Handbook (Thank you Tobin's Lab!)that I have been wishing to purchase for a long time. I submitted my lapbook based on the FIAR, BK 4 title: The Bravest of Us All, so if you are a FIARower, and you are considering this book, please head on over. This particular lapbook study involves a lot of weather mini-units, a touch of character study thrown in, and a wee bit of history too.

Well, there are lots to see, so take a look see and build up your Workboxable collection and more.

This is a really fun math work

This is a math work where the child adds the equation, writes the answer with a wet erase marker, then decides if the sum is odd or even. They then place it into the correct bin. There is a check sheet for the child to go over when done too (this is nice, it corrects itself, so to speak-they can tell if they answered the equation correctly and if they put it into the right box).

I found this at Teena's Teacher Tidbits at Etsy, under the math. She has some awesome file folder games/activities for Pre-K to 1st. Most, sadly are too youngish for my son, but I do see a few with subjects we haven't covered yet...so thought I would start with this one. For $4, I downloaded (you will have to create an Etsy account, which takes only a few mins.), printed, laminated and assembled.

I couldn't find the hot dog holders she has shown, altho admittedly, I have not scoured the picnic sections of most stores. I did however, find 2 plastic butter dish holders at the Dollar Tree. They work just fine. I simply hot glued the 2 condiment bottles to them, and use one of the trays (came with the butter dish) to hold the hot dog cards (all nice and tidy). This is a great activity for the workbox. I also wanted the boy to do some subtraction-but she doesn't have those in the hot dog project-so...I decided to simply type up equations on MS Word (checked the font size to get close enough) and also typed up the key sheets (odd and even answers) to overlay onto the images [these are white, instead of brown like the addition ones, but hey-visually it signifies that he is subtracting. I can also do this for multiplication and division when he gets to that]. I just printed another set. Then I cut the problems to size, glued on and laminated as usual. I also just over laid the answers to the menu. So now he can do 40 problems (20 each) and really work the odd/even concept into his head.

How cool is that? Well, cool! I am going to be looking thru her other goodies to see what else we can use. Now is the time to get all these made, b4 the fall semester starts.

Thought I would show a workbox activity to ya

I found this puppy on the site, for free (of course, you need to print and [recommend] laminate it) under the David's Sheep Number Words file folder. I actually found this thru the main site, File Folder Fun [thanks to my pal at Learning By Living]. There are a lot of really cute file folder games to create there. Since my son is a bit late on the reading skills, I have held off on teaching the spelling of the numbers...so this will work perfectly this summer and fall. I can also make the numbers up to twenty if need be (as it only goes to 15)...

I just laminated them onto 2 pieces of card stock...put dots at the bottom corners so he knows that is to match (now he does know his number order quite well, so this isn't really a problem, but wanted that there for any future users)



and then on the opposite side, there are the remaining numbers.



I also laminated the sheepsies to keep them all nice and pretty. I store it in a ziplock bag. So now I have a fun and teaching math activity for the workboxes. If I wanted to stick with a theme, I could do these, a craft relating to sheep, a story about sheep (I think I have one about Sheep in a Jeep) and maybe a DVD or something about em. I could have easily used this to tie this into the A New Coat for Anna Lapbook (the one I made is on Homeschool Share to download, it can be found under the free lapbooks page)as well. There you have it-a wooly way to learn the spelling of numbers.

Math idea for the box

All I did for this work, was to type up in larger font, several numbers-
I did one for counting 1-20, and a grid board to lay them out on. The student would just lay the numbers down in order.

This one is for counting by 2s. I also have by 5s. I still need to do by 3s. Anyway-so I printed them, cut them out and laminated em. His note told him to go by 2s...so he spread em out, and then ordered them accordingly. Not a terribly difficult thing to do, but good for him because he is a visual learner. Also, it was a great warm up for his math that day.

So again-all you need is a font of your choice, paper, printer, scissors and laminator. I store em in a ziplock bag. I will get a pic of the board/1-20 numbers up soon for ya. Nothing complex, but helpful.