COUNTING AND NUMBERS
In numbers, as in other primary subjects, a child should be taught and permitted to do things himself. Rousseau said, “What the child does, it easily remembers”; and we shall soon find that time spent in this way is far from being wasted.
Children who have been taught numbers gradually, in this easy, interesting fashion, develop an astonishing aptitude for dealing with figures as they grow older.
Counting
Learning to count 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., parrotlike, does very little good. Rather let the child count objects and point out 5 marbles, 6 blocks, etc., in order that you may determine if he knows exactly what 5 or 6 of anything means.
Take a number of blocks or marbles and ask the child to take 3, 5, 7, or any number of them.
Hold up 3, 5, or 6 of them and ask him to tell how many you have. When you are told the number you have, write the figure which tells the number on paper, or the blackboard. Have the child copy the figure, making a large character.
Then reverse the work by writing a figure on paper and asking the child to take the number of blocks the writing asks for.
Spend a few minutes every day in asking him to show you 2 pins, 3 houses, 5 stripes, etc.
Teach the child to count 50 as soon as he has started in his number work at school and later on to 100. Objects should be counted at first and then counters substituted, such as pennies, marbles, blocks, beads, etc.
Recognition of Numbers.—The purpose of counting objects is to give the children a clear idea of number. They should be able to recognize 2, 3, 4 and 5, i.e., be able to tell four objects when they see four, without counting them, also 3, 5, etc. Stories and games with objects should be repeated again and again, until the children can do this easily.
Analysis of Numbers.—When the numbers can be recognized without difficulty, the children should be encouraged to analyze them, i.e., tell what they are made up of, but objects should be put in front of the class to represent the numbers until they can do this readily.
Suppose the number five to be the lesson, each child would take five shells out of its box, and lay them on the desk, thus:—
or
or
etc. The child should always be able to describe what it has done: thus, the first child would say—four shells and one shell are five; the second, three shells and two shells are five, and so on.
Higher Numbers.—The analysis of six, seven, eight and nine may be taught in the same way, each number being taken separately and thoroughly mastered, before proceeding to the next. The children should learn all the different combinations of numbers that make six—three and three, five and one, four and two, three twos, etc.—but always with the objects, and when they have seen the number analyzed by the Teacher, they should do it for themselves with shells, bricks or other objects.
Number Ten.—This is the most important number of all, and it should be thoroughly well taught. The Teacher should show on the table the different analyses that can be made of ten, and the children should lay these with shells or other objects again and again. It is necessary to learn these perfectly, for however well any or all of the numbers may be learned, they are comparatively useless without ten.
Figures.—When the figures are introduced they should invariably be shown with the concrete numbers which each figure represents. They say, “Here are four balls”
“I will show you a figure that means those four balls, 4, and I will put the four balls beside it, thus:”—4
.
Number on Paper or Slates.—If the children have learned how to use a pencil, they may transfer the number-pictures made with shells to their slates, using dots for “shells,” thus:—
.
Then another “picture” may be made with the shells
and this be copied on the paper at some distance from the other. Then another is made and copied, and so on until the child sees on his paper all the combinations of numbers that go to make six. He should be able to read them all out, and because a child remembers what he has done himself, it will be found that numbers taught in this way are seldom forgotten.
As the children become more proficient, the two signs + and = may be taught, + means and, = means are. Then they may put on their slates
+
=
and use these signs in the analysis of other numbers.
Money Taught as Numbers
When the children know numbers up to ten, they might play little “shopping” games with coins. Show them actual coins in teaching money. Lessons on money should be given frequently after the first year of school life.
Begin by teaching the value of the cent and the nickel, then the dime, then the quarter, then the half-dollar, and then the dollar.
Make little problems involving change. Develop the ability to make change rapidly. The child may have some money of his own and he should be taught the comparative values of the coins.
Simple Table of Money
10 cents make 1 dime.
2 five-cent pieces make 1 dime.
100 cents make 1 dollar.
A quarter of a dollar = 25 cents.
A half-dollar = 50 cents.
$ means dollars and c means cents.
A 5-cent piece is called a nickel, because it is made of nickel.
A cent piece is made of copper.
The other coins named are made of silver.
(See [United States Money] for more advanced instruction.)