I won't lie I dislike Math. I did as a child and although through teaching found many engaging ways to learn it the subject remained my least favourite. Due to this fact it has always worried me as a subject in Home School; I would hate for the boys to grow up disliking it as much as I do.
One of the best things about teaching and then subsequently Home Education is finding ways to teach objectives within a subject and making it as fun and engaging as possible. I am a big fan on layering subjects and topics together at any opportunity so decided I would do this within our Numeracy.
Throughout Years 1 and 2 understanding Money and Multiples are a common objectives to learn. Despite James being Reception age I decided to use some of his objectives (Counting to Ten, Ordering numbers and learning Teen numbers) and layer a few of these topics together.
With James I started to teach him that a 1p coin is valued as one from there we counted along until we reached our end number. We then discussed that the value of one within the group of coins made a set number. (1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p = 6p)
We then repeated this activity a few times, each time changing the set amount to include numbers to ten and some teen numbers. (1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p + 1p = 12p)
We then looked at ordering the amounts and finding out which set were higher and lower in number. (We used our Number ladder to check how high the values were)
With William we looked at the value of 2p and 10p coins. In the same manner as James we counted out sets of these coins with changing amounts.
In each case we counted along in multiples (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc) and then counted in units within each set we would work out that the number of coins used and the value of the coin would create a sum. (9 x 10p coins = 90)
Instead of writing the numbers and sums down within a work book we decide to make rubbings of the coins alternating colours for each sum. At the end of each row we then wrote our findings.
The Boys loved looking at the different coins and learning that a set amount of these coins would create a balance; in their eyes to spend!
Once they got in to a routine of counting and then creating their rubbings they ended up working quite quickly both showing a clear understanding of their given objectives. I was pleased to see that they understood and to be honest the most challenging part of this for them was to not argue over which colour they were going to use next!
Hopefully when we come back to these topics they will hold some of their understanding.
What do you think?
Do you know other ways to create these objectives into fun activities? Would love to hear about them!
6 comments:
Relevant and fun, perfect 😊
Thanks Maz!! The boys enjoyed doing it this way and definitely fun for them.
Using coins to teach money and math is a great idea. These days though fewer people have cash on hand. I have very few coins, and those are more left over from way back before everything was credit card only. I guess I'll keep hanging onto those coins for this type of lesson.
I cant offer any advice on how best to tackle maths as a subject, but the idea of making it relivent to everyday activities (such as using money) sounds sensible. I hated maths too, partly becsuse I couldnt see how much of it applied to real life.
Thanks. I collected these types of coins over a few weeks in anticipation of the activity. For this very reason. I think you're right about using coins but I'd hope that it's still used enough.
I think I was exactly the same. But using coins is quite an important task so I liked the idea of applying it in both ways. My goal is to make it as relevant and engaging as possible so the boys enjoy it more than I did.
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