Learning with Young Minds

This famous tale from India is about a little mouse that was very smart and a king that acted like a beggar. It may be watched here ( Marathi / English ) even if you know the story 😉. The concept of money and addition/subtraction can be   easily  introduced in this story. In this story, the mouse finds a dirty cloth and visits different people (laundryman, tailor and granny) to finally make the cap. In the entire process of making this cap, the mouse is adding value to the dirty piece of cloth. In the modified version, the mouse may think about price that the piece of cloth/cap will fetch at each stage and thus children get to solve addition/subtraction problems that are embedded in the storyline. And finally, the mouse sells the cap to the King who initially acts like a beggar and steals mouse's cap! Main Activity: One of the child acts as the mouse (preferably!) and then the mouse visits the laundryman, tailor and granny, in that order. (The original story is given at t...

  Many years ago in India, there was an emperor named Akbar. In his court, there was a very clever person, called Birbal. Akbar used to taste Birbal’s intelligence many times. On one such occasion, Akbar drew a line in the sand while he was walking on the banks of a river with Birbal. Akbar asked Birbal, “Can you make this line shorter without touching it?”. Birbal immediately drew another longer line beside the original and told Akbar, “Now your line has become shorter”. This story is perfect to tell children about how concepts like, short and tall/long, small and big, light and heavy, are all relative. These concepts are not used in absolute sense. For early learners, the comparison activities usually focus on two animals or objects, where the child has to label them as short and tall (or heavy and light, etc.). However, with the Birbal’s story in the background, we can make this little more challenging and children will learn that the labels ‘short’ and ‘long’ may change as th...

  In the multilingual countries like India, speaking multiple languages is very common. School system also encourages learning of at least two languages from the very beginning. Many times, children find it difficult to learn many languages simultaneously. Child becomes proficient in one of the languages, while other languages take a back seat. Is this really necessary? Can children achieve proficiency in two or more languages? Well, if the introduction of various languages is spaced correctly, then it is possible to achieve proficiency in multiple languages. What do I mean by ‘spaced correctly’? Let’s consider an example to understand the problem. Suppose, a child is introduced two languages, say English and Marathi, at the same time. When one is just beginning to learn the first sounds in both the languages and relate those sounds to letter symbols, the confusion is inevitable. For the same /u/ sound, there are now two symbols in child’s mind: English letter U and Marathi lette...

There is an age-old tale from India about a monkey and two cats. The two cats fight over butter and while pretending to make the equal division the monkey eats up all the butter. (If you are not familiar with this tale, see here for  Hindi / English .) This tale is perfect starting point to learn about even-odd numbers and equal divisions. So, the sequel to the original story goes like this… Main Plot: The monkey is now transformed and likes to genuinely help others. One day, the monkey sees two children fighting over the toffees. When he offers to help them, the children say “We know all about how you cheated the cats. So, we don’t want your help”. The monkey finally convinces them to let him help. And the children deposit all their toffees with the monkey. The monkey is able to divide them equally if it’s an even number. When an odd number is encountered, the monkey takes away one candy and then divides equally. And so, the concept of remainder is introduced. 😀 Tips for Enacting...

Learning double digit addition, particularly with regrouping, can be tricky. This activity introduces double digit addition while kids participate in role play. Main Plot: The story is about two monsters, named, Sunny and Pinky. They are best friends and go to the Monsters’ University every day. On their way to the University, there is a candy shop and both of them love to eat candies. Every day, Sunny and Pinky buy some candies from the shop. They get a packet (bowl), for each set of 10 candies. And after making the set of 10s, the remaining candies are given without any packet. The shopkeeper calculates the total number by adding the candies demanded by Sunny and Pinky. They pay the price equal to the total number of candiesand go the university. This sequence can be repeated for many days (rounds). Introducing Double Digit Addition: While enacting the above story, the director of the play (that is you 😀 ) can tell the kids (at least one of them) to demand candies in double ...

What does storytelling have to do with mathematics? If I say they are related, many of you will stop reading further. But, believe me, storytelling and teaching mathematics are very much related. General perception is that mathematics and statistics are dry and abstract topics. And stories?…….well, stories are full of drama, mystery and fun. Who doesn’t like hearing stories? Or even better…. Who doesn’t like to enact them like a play? We all do, particularly young people. So, why not teach mathematical concepts while enacting some favourite stories? Pick any one topic, monsters, aliens, fairies, Peter Pan and pirates, or Gruffalo. Build a simple story that includes simple arithmetic concepts like addition and subtraction. For instance, two/three/four monsters stop at a candy shop while going to the Monsters’ University. And they buy some candies. Here, it is possible to include as many addition/subtraction/division problems as you want. (e.g. see here ) And the kids will love enactin...

Why is space black? Why do we have elections? Why do we have to follow the rules?........ So many questions! When you are in the company of young people, be ready for one of these rapid-fire rounds every now and then. And guess what? Young minds do not stop at questioning everything, they also find answers on their own! And the answers can be very imaginative. For instance, space can be black because a spaceship flew too close to the sun, got burnt, and the resulting smoke made the space black 😀😀😀 . Ask any complex question related to science, philosophy, politics, or economics to young people and you will get a wide set of wonderful imaginative answers. And if the same complex question is asked to adults……………well, many of us would say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘its complicated’ or ‘I don’t care’. Young minds dare to think OUTSIDE THE BOX! Or should I say the BOX is not yet well-defined for them? What does the education do? As we move up from the preschoolers to school children and finally ...