Give a dog a bone for a challenging way to make your maths area more inviting
Planned learning intentions
In practical activities begin to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten Begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects and subtraction to 'taking away'
Resources
*Four toy dogs *Four foil dishes (the sort that hold individual cakes are ideal) *Wicker basket *Two dice *Box of small dog chews or bone-shaped dog biscuits *Laminated label *Length of interesting display fabric Step by step
* Develop a mathematics workshop area in which to store all the resources to support children's early mathematical development, including a surface at child height which is used for stimulating interactive displays.
* Create a laminated label clearly stating the challenge 'throw the 1st dice to see how many bones you can win for your dog. Throw the 2nd dice to see how many you have to take away'.
* Arrange biscuits in the wicker basket.
* Set up the display so that each dog has a foil 'bowl'.
Activities
* Introduce the challenge to a group, working with four children, so that everyone has a dog and a bowl. Take turns to throw the dice to see how many bones the dog should have in the bowl. Offer the children as much individual support as needed, encouraging them to predict the dice score, but counting the dots on the dice if necessary, and counting out the bones, one by one, into the bowl.
* When all the children have had a turn to fill their dog's bowl, take turns to find out how many bones have to be taken away. Encourage the children to predict whether they will have enough bones.
Extension activities
* Ask the children to think of new ways of using the resources. Should they throw two dice to fill the bowl with bones before taking some away so that the dogs have less chance of going hungry?
* Plan similar challenges for the following weeks which involve practical opportunities to add and subtract.
