Monday, April 18, 2016

Connect 4 With My Kid

Inspired by Joe Schwartz's Connect 4 using a multiplication grid, I tried it out on my unsuspecting 6-year-old.

A little background.  K's understanding of multiplication is in the frame of repeated addition.  She can count by 2, 5 and 10.

The beginning of the game was quick.  K was able to calculate multiples of ten quickly, even commenting "Oh, this is easy".  When she got to her first entry in the 9 row, she interpreted the multiplication as 9 groups of whatever number is at the top of the slot.  So she saw 9x4 as 4+4+... 9 times.  She used this strategy for most of row of 9s, but when she did 9x7, she suddenly switched strategies and added 9 to 54.  I asked her about the strategy and she said each spot is 9 more than the one before it.  As the game progressed, she used a similar strategy vertically, recognizing that each column had its own progression.

Obviously, I was very pleased, as she was both enjoying the game and working on some important foundation arithmetic.  Her strategies revealed a lot about how she interpreted the game.  She noticed patterns and created her own meanings.  I was also really intrigued by her choosing to consider the multiplication m*n as m groups of size n, but then proceed in rows by adding a group of m.

Overall, the game is a win for math, but I learned that my kid needs to work on her Connect 4 strategy...




















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