Lego Math Two Ways

The first lego math activity is all over the blogging world so it is nothing new. You just find lego pieces and create simple addition/subtraction problems. If you put two pieces together (addition) have your child find the piece it would make. If you have one piece and take away a portion of it (subtraction) what piece would remain. I went back and forth on if the lego's  I chose should be the same color (and easy to find the matching block). I was afraid it would be too easy but I did it that way anyway. I did put the answer blocks mixed in with a handful of other blocks so he was actually looking at the pieces and not just matching colors. It was the right choice because it was just the right level of difficulty. Perhaps in the future I will have the colors all mixed up so he will have to choose more critical thinking.

The second math activity was introducing the idea of inequality: greater than, less than, and equals. My friend at Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational created a fabulous game to teach these concepts using  two things boys love: Construction Vehicles and legos. She made a game board of two dirt piles at a construction site. Then taking two handfuls and placing legos at each dirt pile a student can count the legos to see if they are greater than, less than, or equal. For the cases where the piles greater than/less than she made cards with front loaders with the scoop making the inequality signs. For when the piles were equal she made a pick-up (or dumptruck) grill be the equal sign. The way she explains it is "that the front loader always wants to pick up the heaviest load so the scoop needs to face the largest load". What a brilliant way to build a connection for boys (and girls) in regard to a difficult and easily forgettable concept. "A" loved this and in between each problem he helped on the construction of the building. We will definetly do this activity again! To get the printable for the boards and cards go to her sight above. Trust me you won't regret it-she has tons of fabulous ideas!

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