Play “How Many Ways Old Are You?”
Does your child like to tell people how old they are? It’s one number most young kids know very well! That’s why age is a great number to use to help your child understand what numbers are and the different ways we can represent them.
While You Play
Counting is a skill your child can learn very early! Counting objects one-by-one and assigning one number to each object — known as one-to-one correspondence — can be hard for kids to grasp at first, but this activity can begin building that understanding. You can also help your child to learn that numbers can be represented in many ways: as a numeral, as a word, as a group of objects, and as an age.
Materials
Directions
Explain to your child that, together, you are going to learn many different ways to show age. We use the age seven as an example here, but you can substitute your child’s age. Start by asking your child to use his fingers to show you his age. Ask him to count out his fingers one-by-one: “I am 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 years old!” Then ask, “How many fingers did you hold up on one hand, and how many did you hold up on the other hand?” You are introducing the ideas of one-to-one correspondence and also addition, showing that a number can be broken into two parts.
Find seven objects of a particular color or shape. For example, seven square objects or seven red objects.
Help your child to look for the number seven on objects inside or outside the house, like on a clock, in a newspaper or magazine, or on a license plate.
Cut out seven pictures from a magazine. Let your child glue them onto a piece of paper, and help him write the number seven as both a numeral and a word.
Count out seven pennies. Divide the pennies into two groups that add up to seven. Ask your child, “How many other ways can you divide the group of pennies to show your age?”
Roll a pair of dice and see how many times they add up to seven.
Go through a deck of cards with your child. Find all the seven cards. Then see how many combinations of cards will add up to seven.
Ask your child, “Can you think of any other ways to show me your age?”
Bonus: Ask your child how old he will be next year. How old will he be in another two years? How about in another three years? Help him figure this out by counting out the same number of pennies as his age. Then add a penny, add two pennies, and add three pennies. Each time you add a penny, ask your child to count the pennies.
Math