Entry 3 | Talk Math!

Picture this.

Now, can you guess how many went to St Ives? How can you work it out?

Think about these...
1)   How many cats are there?
2)   How many kittens are there?

Could there have been

1 man + [ 7 women x 7 sacks ] sacks + [ 7 x ( 7 women x 7 sacks ) cats ] + { [ 7 x ( 7 women x 7 sacks ) cats ] x 7 kittens ) kittens?

You figure it out! Remember it is not about getting it right. It is about how you explain how you derive to your answer.

Do you know that you cannot count things that have different nouns? Ah huh! You cannot count 1 apple and 3 oranges. Apple is of a different noun than orange. However, you can add 1 fruit to 3 fruits. Get it?

Bruner says after all, "Handle counting with same names." In early stages of learning, we should not leave out nouns. We should be using same names or identical nouns as they learn through concrete experiences.

Remember the Tortoise and Hare race? Which came first? How do you know?

Look at the picture below. Can you tell who came first?

Ah ah ah! You can never know until they finish the race! Just like the story of the tortoise and the hare. You only knew when the tortoise finished the race at the finishing line. Anything can happen before they reach the finishing lines you know. :)

Touching on this, do you know that you can use ordinal in 2 situations? First in the race is talking about time. When you are seated on the first row in the cinema, we are talking about space. Get it?

Let's try these!
1)  Third in class - Ordinal number in time or space?
2)  4th in the queue for popcorn - Ordinal number in time or space?
3)  Sarah came 5th for the lucky draw - Ordinal number in time or space?

So which is which?


















Time for 1 and 3! Space for 2! Did you get it right too?