April/May
when you make numbers six through ten.
A ten bead abacus is just right
for preschool age children. Unlike a
hundred-bead abacus, it doesn’t have a lot
of beads that they will never need (because
their math problems don’t normally go above
ten), and that may be distracting to them. And
the beads used are so large that it is easy for
young fingers to move them.
Our kids liked using the ten bead abacus
along with math problem pages that I had
made on cardstock, using number tiles to
show the answers.
Using the abacus made it easy for them
to do their work independently, because they
would slide the beads on the abacus to figure
out each problem; then they KNEW they were
right!
Picture Matching Games
A picture matching game is a double set
of matching picture cards. You can buy these
ready-made, or make your own by buying two
sets of picture flashcards.
There are two ways to play:
For younger children, take some cards (not
the whole deck!) and set them face up in a
row. Put their matches face down. Then have
your child pick up one of the face down cards,
say what it is, and put it next to its match.
Continue with each face down card, one at a
time.
For older children, you can play a
“concentration” matching game (also known
as “memory match”) with a small group of
cards, or a larger group. Place all the cards
face down. In this game, the players take
turns. On each player’s turn, he/she turns up
two cards, and says what they are. If there is
a match, he/she keeps the pair of cards. Then
the next player has a