The Number Rods
Sandpaper Numerals |
Mathematics is not just about number but is also about shape and size, area, space, time, pattern, length, weight, volume and capacity.
Many of the other areas of the curriculum, particularly the sensorial activities, introduce the child to these aspects of mathematics and help to prepare him for the mathematics apparatus.
The central aim of the mathematics apparatus is to present a mathematical concept in a concrete form first before moving towards the more abstract written form of mathematics.
For example, with the Number Rod exercise, there are ten number rods which vary in length (rod ten being the longest). Each rod is divided into sections which the child counts. This not only aids the child's counting skills but he also gains a visual impression of how much bigger ten is than one. He can also see that two is one unit more than one and that two is not only a number in its own right but it is made up of one and one.
The Sandpaper Numerals are then used to teach written number and then the two concepts are put together when the child has to match the written number to the correct number rod. Many of the first mathematics exercises focus on this concept of matching written number to quantity.
Other exercises include introducing odds and evens, fractions, tens and thousands and addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. |
