Nines Multiplication Tool

Peanut is working on memorizing the multiplication table. My daughters, just like me, struggle with pure memorization so we've been using different stories and techniques to help her memorize them.There are some facts that are easy and some that are really tough. Many of you may know the fingers trick for the nines. I showed this trick to Peanut but being very visual she needed to see the numbers so I came up with this tool for her. It worked!

So here's how it works. You ask the child what 9 times any number from 1 to 10 is. For example, what is 9 x 7? You flip up 7 and the answer is revealed! 9 x 7 = 63. This works for 9 x (1 through 10) because the first number of the product (answer) is the number before the non-nine factor (in this case the factor is 7 so the first number in the product is 6)

I color - coded the numbers in the product so that it would pop-out. I used a sheet of 8 1/2" by 11" card stock and folded it in half length-wise. Then I measured out 10 equal parts for the numbers and cut the flaps. After, I numbered each flap 1 through 10 and the bottom layer (under the flaps) 9 through 0. I glued the top half where I wrote "9 x __ = __". Once I finished I showed it to Peanut and she loves it. She has memorized her 9s and enjoys practicing with this tool.

Thanks for reading! Let's make math fun!

Learning In A Non-Traditional Classroom

We used a park as our "classroom" today to study math, science, history and p.e. Plus, we had a great time learning. You may be wondering how one visit to the park allowed us to study so much. Well, let me explain. We are studying English measurements of length. We took a 12 inch ruler and a yardstick and went on a hunt for items we could measure. Being that it's Autumn, there are leaves of all types on the ground, unless it's an evergreen tree (in comes science and learning about deciduous trees and evergreens). Lucy found different types of leaves and measured them. The smallest she found in the park was 1/4 inches long while the largest leaf was 12 inches long. We recorded the information that we obtained and will make a graph.

P.E. and Math: We played on the basketball court and shot hoops. Each basket we made counted for 2 points. Then we started over and each basket was 3 points, then 4 points each and then 5 points each. This reinforced multiplication and division. She divide the score that we were shooting for and divided it by 2 and found out how many points we each needed to make and then divided that by the point count and figured out how many baskets we each needed to make.

She played on this whirly-twirly thing and made a hypothesis as to whether she would spin faster pushed away from the center or when she moved in closer to the center. She guessed moved into the center. She was right! We then talked about why that is. Just like ice skaters, it is because of angular momentum.
On the playground is a huge "pirate ship" that the kids can climb on on slide down the slides. One of the fears of the earlier explorers, such as Christopher Columbus was pirates. On the "pirate ship" was this sundial. Before clocks, people used the sun to determine the time of day.

Thanks for reading about our educational adventures.