Welcome to my blog about my experiences working in early childhood. I have called it Nurturing Forests because I believe that raising children is not a isolated activity but takes a whole community.



As early childhood professionals, we are actively involved in this process but we also need to work closely with the children, parents, community as a whole and other allied professionals.



I hope you enjoy my site. I also have a facebook site of the same name where I provide links to useful sites for teachers, parents and others interested in the early childhood: www.facebook.com/nurturingforests



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Maths links- the joy of an abacus



This is part of Joyful Learner's Maths Links come over and have a look www.joyfulllearner.blogspot.com

I have recently had the good fortune to acquire a beautiful Melissa and Doug wooden abacus.

When I studied maths at university there was a lot of talk about buying hundreds boards for the children - which seem to be ridiculously expensive for what they are - and subsequently it was on my wish list of things for my new centre.


But having watched the children play with this abacus, I think a quality beautiful abacus achieves the same ten by ten purpose but in a much more open ended beautiful way.

I have observed all of the ages in my centre from two year olds to just under six relish the counting and maths play that this abacus provides - ranging from simple moving of the pieces to counting all the way to 100 while moving the pieces (one to one correspondence at it's best)

If you don't have a abacus... I personally recommend one very highly and if you don't want to buy one you can simply make one via threading ten sets of ten... Even more maths plus fine motor!
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3 comments:

  1. Mullin Avenue WorkshopMarch 16, 2011 at 12:01 PM

    Wendy,
    Hi! I have this same abacus in my room with 2 1/2 years old, and they do love it. Some use it for counting, and one child plays a game with blocks, and colour matching, which she has constructed on her own.

    I've always like abacuses. too.
    Brenda

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  2. Joyful LearnerMarch 20, 2011 at 4:45 AM

    I agree with you. We love our abacus and K likes making up stories while playing with it!

    Thanks for linking. I'll include your post in our math activities by categories on my sidebar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 27, 2011 at 5:59 AM

    nice

    ReplyDelete

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