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Home : 2004 : November : 16

idea
By t ia

what about focusing on number systems? in our number system, we have base 10, the largest we can have in one column is 9--add one more and then we have 1 of the next column. measurement uses different bases for the conversion
(unless you are using metrics!!!)
teach them how to count in base 8 (or 5 or 6..) doesn't matter--i teach 6th too, and they love this! it is fun and challenging--we just did mayan math today (base 20) and they enjoyed that.
here is what you do--get lots of beans, popsicle sticks, and little tiny solo cups. (it works well if the base is how many beans equals the length of a popsicle

stick.) i seem to recall that it's 8 kidney beans....

so you go over how our number system works. then explain that they'll be using a new number system. count out some beans 1, 2, 3, 4, (like on an overhead) ask them what comes next--5, 6, 7, what next? 8? NO--it's stick (stick represents 1 group of 8) count out more beans, more sticks--they start getting it--6 sticks, 7 sticks, now how many 8? NO! it's a cup! (a cup is 8 x 8--8 groups of 8--like the hundreds place is ten groups of 10.) you can get them to add--

give them the materials, too!

7 beans, 4 sticks + 4 beans, 4 sticks--you have to convert--becomes 11 beans, 8 sticks which is 3 beans, 9 sticks which is 3 beans, 1 stick, 1 cup! play with that for a while--ask them what would happen as soon as they have 8 cups--(they'll need another place value item--stapler, sack....whatever)

now converting 3 feet to 1 yard, 16 ounces to 1 pound is not so strange--makes for good support for the metric system since we find powers of 10 so easy to work with!

good luck! let me know if this doesn't make sense or you need more info.