... can be a bit chaotic.
Nod, age 3, was allowed to just play with a bunch of rods, doing whatever he liked. What he liked was taking the cuisenaire rod ruler
(a ruler with a cuisenaire sized groove in the center for laying down rod trains and measuring them), filling it with small rods and sliding them off into the box. What he liked next was catapulting the rods across the room. This was condemned soundly by the 11 y.o. boy, which amused me more than words can tell, because it's exactly what he did when he was 3.Blynken, age 5, has only met the rods once or twice before, so first he was allowed to play however he liked, and then I asked him to pull out one of each color, put them in order from biggest to smallest, and then tell me what the numbers were- if the biggest one is a ten, for instance, what number is the next one down? If you lay the yellow one down next to some ones, how many ones make the same sized row?
The 11 year old Boy- hey, he really isn't THE Boy anymore most days, is he? At any rate, he was asked to build numbers, including four digit numbers (we own a thousands cube), and then to write them down on a portable whiteboard
. Then he was asked to build two two digit numbers and add them, and then he was asked to build a two digit number, such as 34 and give me 27 and tell me how many he had left.Then each of the two older boys was given a hundreds block and they took turns rolling a di and using cuisenaire rods to fill in the hundreds block. They could trade in blocks as they liked to make their rows neater, but to win they had to get the exact amount needed.
Finally, they had to pick them up and sort them properly. We have a lot, as I have picked up odds and ends of sets over the years at various curriculum sales and thrift shops, but there is the original box of our first set with its properly arranged trays to fill, and a wooden box which holds hundreds boards and tens rods. The rest spill over into a basket.
The picture above is the clean up.
Oh, yes, at some point during play I turned on a CD of Dvorak because I thought we needed a calming influence.
If this interested you, you may also wish to read the following:
This week's
Math the Laundry Way- natural math activities for the preschool and under set.
Math the Play way- more math games with slightly older children
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Thank you for another wonderful educational excursion to your house!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a copy of Hidden Rods, Hidden Numbers there too? Crayons and I went through about half of those last year--we should get it out again and try some of the really hard ones.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have the actual Cuisenaire Rods, but have blocks that connect and look similar. I was thinking of purchasing the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet book. Do you think that would still work, and/or do you think it would be more helpful to get a set of the actual Cuisenaire Rods?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Where can I go to find a good overview of the Cuesinaire thing? I can't find any reference to the ruler you mention anywhere. And most of the links I have found seem to be places selling them, not any explanation and the same picture over and over!
ReplyDeleteThese look like a lot of fun for a 3 year old :)
I found it!
ReplyDeleteIt is called a cuisenaire rod track. It is not available at amazon.com but I found it here. http://www.fun-books.com/books/cuisenaire_rods.htm
I also found a Number Rod Track at http://www.numicon.com/resource-overview/spares_and_accessories/numicon_number_rods.html
ReplyDeleteI've had mine a while, and ours is only 30 centimeters. The others I've seen are fifty or even a hundred centimeters long. Rainbow Resources has one for only 3.95:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rainbowresource.com/
Cool. Just beware that they do make great launching pads for flinging the rods across the room.=)
ReplyDeleteCounting frogs and a plastic scale also make a great catapult. But on a positive note, my 2 year old thinks that math is the greatest subject ever!
ReplyDeleteOf course launching is the first thing a boy tries with a math manipulative. Maybe we need a math castle with math catapults and you add up the value of the rods as points as they hit the castle or army men . . . Yes, I have 4 boys, 10 and under, with one princess in the middle :-) And thanks for the link and mention of the carnival!
ReplyDelete