Invisible Math

 Creation in Math

The children are introduced to use dice to decide how many glassy rocks they can take into their own containers. whoever gets to the top of the container will stop the game and then line up all the rocks on the table to count. Then they are provided a sheet to write their name, the number of rocks, the measurement (for practicing writing numbers), and the picture they created by the rocks.

Materials :

·         Clear rock (represent numbers on dice)

·         Dices

·         Measurement Tape (for coping the number on the measure)

·         Two containers ( for putting the stone)

·         Blank white paper (to create pictures or shapes)

·         spoon

This activity provided open-ended material to help children create basic representations of simple mathematical ideas and communicate mathematical thinking orally with a variety of visual representations. (Ministry of Education, 2014)  For example, when they throw the dice, the number of dots on the dice represents the number of rocks they will take. During play, they understand and monitor each other that they can not take more or less than the number of dots represented on the dice.

Through communication, the children can present thinking and arguments in a logical and organized manner. (Ministry of Education, 2014).  The activity was carried out based on children’s interests and scaffold based on the knowledge and skills of individual students. During the process, the children were asked questions to explore the math process in play. For example, how can we measure the length without measuring tape? In this way, the children not only develop solve-problems skills, and conduct investigations, to help deepen their mathematical understanding. (Ministry of Education, 2014). But also, they can select and use the best learning tools to perform the task when they are comparing the length.

Through playing, the children have met the learning objectives. they were able to use known facts in the area of working with the numbers. Most of them were able to count one-on-one correspondence to the number 50, but assistance was provided for some children too. During the play, the children learned that gathering the number of rocks in a spoon is quicker than taking it out one by one from the plate. They have also learned the more dots on dice they have got, the sooner their container will be filled up. furthermore, they have learned grouping names in colours.

Extension:

The activity can be extended to compare the quantities by using the same materials.