Hopping Number Line
Add or subtract by making the frog hop forward and backward on the number line.
- DESCRIPTION
- SKILLS
- REVIEWS
Children love making the frog jump positions using their hands to reach the desired leaf. Each point on the graduated number line corresponds to a real number and the hopping frog helps them understand that addition is to move forward as opposed to subtraction, which is jumping backward.The toy simplifies abstract arithmetic operations and the quantity-position-distance correlation through creative representation making math extremely fun!
Set includes 2 wooden bases representing the number line, 10 pairs of wooden arches representing numbers from 1 to 10 and a wooden frog to hop on the base and arch, all packed in a Skola Doodle box.
Size of assembled tray: 92 cm x 14 cm x 4.6 cm height.
Size of Arches: 6.5 cm by 10 cm for the first arch to 46 cm by 28 cm. All arches are 1.1 cm thick.
Once children are familiar with addition, subtraction and multiplication they are ready to learn division by splitting a set of physical objects into equal groups (See How).
ACTIVITIES
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Counting
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Ask the child to take the frog 2 leaves forward, the child has to identify the arrow that corresponds to 2, and move the frog along the arrow. The child here starts correlating the quantity with the distance to be covered and picks the arrow accordingly.
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Addition
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As the child correlates quantity and position, they are ready for addition. Ask the child to pick any arrow and place it starting from 0, say 4. Now the frog has jumped 4 places forward. We now want the frog to jump 3 spaces forward from there. Ask the child to pick the 3rd arrow, show the child how to test it by placing it at 0 and seeing if it does move 3 places forward. Then show the child how to fix the arrow starting at 4. Which leaf do we reach? From 4 we now reach leaf number 7. So 4+ 3 = 7. We can add up to 4 numbers with this toy, making addition with more than 2 numbers possible.
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Subtraction
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After the child is familiar with addition on the number line, we can introduce the concept of subtraction or moving backward. Ask the child to pick any arrow and place it starting from 0, say 8. Now the frog has jumped 8 places forward. We now want the frog to jump 3 spaces backward from there. Ask the child to pick the 3rd arrow, show the child how to test it by placing it at 0 and seeing if it does move 3 places forward. Then show the child how to fix the arrow backward starting at 8. Which leaf do we reach? From 8 we now reach leaf number 5. So 8-3=5.
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Combined Operations
- After the child is familiar with addition and subtraction on the number line, we can introduce combined operations of up to 4 numbers. Eg. 7 + 3 – 5 + 1 Ask the child to pick the arrow of 7 and place it starting from 0. Now the frog has jumped 7 places forward, and is resting on the 7th leaf. We then ask the child to look for the arrow of 3, and place it in the second row moving from 7. The frog is now placed on this arrow and moves 3 places forward coming to rest on the tenth leaf. This goes on till finally the frog is resting on the 6th leaf.
