In this past week we have learned how important it is in teaching children simple math skills early. In a great blog. It talks about teaching pre-algebra skills to elementary students. In this specific example she used the famous Mr. Poppers Penguin books and wrote out word problems and showed two different ways to break them down to algebra problems.
I think that teaching these skills at a young age can help kids understand math better as they enter more complicated math classes.
I love this because you can use any example that your class or the student is interested in and show them how to turn a word problem into a math sentence.
Since it is currently baseball season I am going to use a mathematical baseball example of how to put word problems into basic algebra form.
Baseball addition example: In the last game the the Minnesota Twins played against the Chicago White Sox. Micheal Cuddyer had a single and a homerun. Joe Mauer had a double and a triple. Jim Thome had a Home Run, and Casilla, Velencia, and Rivera all rounded out the day with a single.
How many TOTAL hits did the Twins have?
Micheal Cuddyer + Joe Mauer + Jim Thome + Casilla + Velencia + Rivera= Total hits
2+2+1+1+1+1=8 total hits
Here is the link to the other great blog:
http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/2007/09/02/pre-algebra-problem-solving-2nd-grade/
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