redbase Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Hi I want to do some problem solving in maths with my 4-5 year olds, with a focus on the more able in small group work. Anybody got any good ideas please??? Trudie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 keep it practical - a few ideas: sharing objects between the children. Are there enough? How many more do we need? How many different ways can 6 compare bears travel across the "pond" in two boats? Put a few compare bears/ cubes etc on a tray. Count. Cover with a cloth and remove some. Show the children how many you have taken. How many are left under the cloth? Give shapes for tesselating How many ways can we colour in a row of three boxes using two colours? Hope you can find something useful here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redbase Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Dear ASPK Thanks for your ideas, have been doing more problem solving activities over last few weeks and the children have loved them. One in particular for subtraction, where u put a number of small objects(teddies) on a tray and count how many there are. U then put a cloth over the teddies and the tray and ask someone to take some teddies away. The remainder stay covered under the cloth and the children have to work out how many are left under the cloth. I played this with a group of 8 reception children and they were all involved and totally focused. They moaned when we had to stop the game and had had learnt loads from such a simple activity! Trudie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Ho Trudie, Yes, I've done that too! Did you take a look at the power point from the teachers resource exchange network [you can find it on a google search] that I mentioned in a different post? It's a similar activity by Veronica Carter called something like "In the toybox" - comes as a zipped file but it's brilliant. There are a few other good ones there too. I often use compare bears for adding and subtracting and have modified a rhyme from somewhere or other: There are ... bears on my tray As you can plainly see If ... come to play How many will there be? or There are ... bears on my tray As you can plainly see If ... go away How many will there be? Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Oops, that should have read Hi Trudie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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