1st grade math help

[amis2girls]

I see handwriting and reading and I've searched through months of archives, but can't see this question...

DD is in 1st grade. She is doing great in everything but is getting frustrated with math. One week they were doing addition facts with 0, the next it was 3 + 4, and the next was 16 - 9. This is the first time something hasn't just come to her, and she is quite frustrated.

What are the tricks to teaching math? If I suggest practicing she tunes me out.

Thanks.

[sunnmama]

Math manipulatives help a lot of kids. We have these, and the kids love to play with them (my 22 mo has been playing with them all day!). She could snap together 16, and then remove 9, and "see" that 7 remain.

When dd was smaller, I also would draw number lines (so that she could "see" the difference between 16 and 7, or how much 3 and 4 made). You can also create a number line that the child can walk (maybe with chalk on the sidewalk), if that makes it more fun/tangible.

[LilyGrace]

Montessorimaterials.org has a strip board that is really handy in seeing addition and subtraction number relationships.

[Adele_Mommy]

I totally second the manipulatives recommendation, but you don't need to buy any special supplies. Just get a bunch of pennies and let her use them to count out the problems, or better yet, something like peanuts or raisins or something she can eat for the subtraction problems.

Also, it sounds like your dd's class is using some sort of sprial curriculum if they are changing topics that fast. That means the kids are not really expected to master the skill the first time it is presented. This is frustrating for some kids, but maybe it would help a little to know she will get more chances at the topics later.

[pranamama]

if you let them keep the pennies after a certain amount of correct answers, kids find it really exciting.

I got rolls of pennies, nickels (count by 5's) and dimes and it was fun and amusing to me.

[eepster]

When I was a kid we used M&Ms ::

[Violet2]

Hey I just went to a seminar for this kind of stuff.

The one exercise that I liked a lot was a probability exercise. We used little chips, one side is red, the other white. We shook them and dropped them on the table ten times and counted as well as recorded how many red and how many white.

The chart we recorded on had the following headings:
# red #white Total # chips
1. 6 4 10
2.
3.

The great thing with this is it allows for a child to learn the 'math facts' of different numbers.

So you could take 10 pennies. Shake them in a cup and let them spill.
6 are heads up, 4 are tails up. Repeat, now its 9 heads up, 1 tails up. Repeat, 5 and 5. You end up with a list of the different number combinations that add up to 10. And if you want to get fancy you can talk about probability and ratios.

The snap cubes are good too, but I imagine you have pennies on hand. It might be helpful to just keep reviewing the various math facts.

Also look into analysis/logic games like Blink (lots of fun).

There's also this addition/subtraction game.

HTH
V