minnie minus

So for each creature grand and poor

I leave a gift at every door

Four, three, two, one...

Till everything I have is gone.

--from "The Four Friends Play", an Enki Education 1st Grade Math Story

Yesterday we began our work with subtraction, reciting the Minnie Minus verses from the "Four Friends" math story. Then we did a led-drawing of Minnie leaving her little gifts for all of her forest friends. This first drawing is J's. I would like to note that I did NOT draw a "minus" sign on my title, but both of the boys chose to do so, without me making any mention to minus signs. However, you will note that Minnie's arm purposely reaches straight out, it's own minus sign.

Zoo Boy's Minnie Minus drawing. He says there's a squirrel in the hole in the tree.











I then had the kids get their counting bags, which they were gifted with yesterday -- each bag has 12 glass gemstones in it. I also worked with a bag of 12 gemstones. I then gave them an oral word problem to work with, while I demonstrated how to work it out with my own stones. "Minnie had 12 gifts to deliver," I started, counting out my 12 gemstones. (Here Zoo Boy does the same thing with his gemstones, following my example.)

"She gave 3 packages to Paddy," I continued, pushing 3 of my stones to one side. "Then she gave 4 packages to Max," pushing 4 stones in another direction. (Here's J doing the same with his stones.) "How many gifts did Minnie have left?" I asked the boys. J immediately jumped in with an answer "5! 12 minus 7 is 5!" Zoo Boy counted his remaining gemstones to make sure he arrived at the same answer, and smiled. "It IS 5!" he confirmed.

(My Minnie Minus drawing. I really should have made her entire arm straight, without the bend at the elbow. Oh well. The kids' drawings are better, as usual.)

We worked through several more word problems in that way, then I left them to play with their stones as they desired for a bit before shooing them outdoors to get some fresh air.