We have been solving a lot of puzzles like this, which we
found in pinterest and face book pages and my little one likes to solve it. It
really helped her in learning algebra.
I was thinking about introducing algebraic
equations to my daughter and started a conversation like this,
“When I have 2 stamps you have 4,
when I have 3 stamps you have 6,
when I have 4 stamps you have 8,
and when I have 5 stamps you have 10 ….”
She interrupted, “So, I have twice the stamps as that of you”
“Great, if I have x
number of stamps, how many will you have? Let us use ‘x’ instead of any
particular number. Ok”
“2x” she said.
“If I have x stamps and you have 3 more than that…”
“x+3”
“ if you have 2 fewer than mine”
“mm X-2”
That’s it. Now she knows how to write pre algebraic equation. I gave these cards which I downloaded from here to arrange the word phrases and the corresponding equations. She enjoyed it.
Once she was good at forming equations, we started a lesson
on how to solve it. I used very simple single
order expressions taken from Singapore primary questions.
Algebra tiles are really helpful in the introductory stage and here are two sample problems.
Algebra tiles are really helpful in the introductory stage and here are two sample problems.
