Toothpicks are sticklers! Need extra practice ideas (Beast Academy 3A)

[Raining Pineapples]

Hi! We are using Beast Academy 3A and are having problems with the first chapter- Shapes. He did fine with the rest of the chapter, but we have 2 main sticking points and I need some ideas for extra practice.

 

First problem is with toothpick addition/removal/ rearrangement. You are given toothpicks in a shape and asked how you can use x number of toothpicks to make more or less of the same/different shape.I sat down with him and we played with them for a bit and discovered how to solve the first two problems together. He sat there on his own for awhile and couldn't figure ANY out. I've had him try on more than one occasion. 

 

He also struggled with figuring out how many of a given shape could be made when given a group of dots. He could see the small shapes, but he could not see the larger ones or the ones that used diagonal lines.

 

Any fun supplements out there for this kind of thing? I'd like to find a little more practice so he doesn't leave the chapter frustrated.

 

 

Any one else have a child that struggled a bit in the shapes chapter? 

 

Thanks for any help!

[PeterPan]

Oh dude, that sounds fun!  I think my dyslexic 6 yo could do that!  (He struggles with basic math but is superb spatially.)  

 

If you use more toothpicks to build each figure separately and CONNECT them with mini marshmallows so he can pick it up and manipulate it, what happens?  

 

I'm not sure on the dot activities, but maybe again something he can move and fix, like rubberbands on a geoboard or sticking mini marshmallows on the geoboard (impaling them)?

 

Yes, 11 years of homeschooling has left me plump.   :lol: 

[maize]

These problems are meant to be challenging, to introduce children to tackling hard problems and the need for persistence and creativity to come up with solutions.

 

This is your seven year old? I would personally be inclined to move on to the rest of the book, maybe throw in a toothpick challenge once a week or so instead of regular math; keep working together to solve them if you need to. Alternatively (and this is the approach I would likely take with my own children) just wait until he is a little older to introduce this kind of problem solving puzzle again. My own children were easily frustrated at age 7 but by age 9 or 10 have the persistence to keep trying when a problem isn't solved within the first few attempts. Kids' brains develop differently, and persistence has a lot to do with executive function skills which are typically still fairly rudimentary at age 7.

[Raining Pineapples]

Yes, I could connect them with marshmallows and he might have more fun with them that way. And anything that involves impaling- now we are talking his language! Thanks

[Raining Pineapples]

These problems are meant to be challenging, to introduce children to tackling hard problems and the need for persistence and creativity to come up with solutions.

 

 

Creativity is not his strong suit, he likes clear direction. So that and a lack of persistence make the problems a mismatch.  I do plan to revisit when he is older. Because he has gotten so frustrated, I would like to find a fun way to transition out of it and move on. 

 

I hope the rest of BA is a fit. He loves the format and flew through Chapter 2.

 

Thanks!

[kirstenhill]

I am not very visually oriented and I found some of those toothpick problems a bit challenging...LOL! I have a 7 year old doing BA as well, and I find we need to "work together" on the harder problems (with me asking leading questions to help him think it through) because he would just get too frustrated on his own. BA problems vary a lot in difficulty. We sometimes find ourselves skipping around a bit in the chapter to not do all of a harder type of problem all at once (If something is more of a struggle for DS7, we do one or two per day while also tackling something easier from later in the chapter or the next chapter. )

[PeterPan]

That's actually a fundamental tenet of their teaching style.  Something like the BJU math would be more direct but still integrate geometry, more complex word problems, etc.  It's just going to be something you'll have to watch out for, finding ways to tone down their discovery method so he doesn't get frustrated.  Some kinds enjoy that and some don't.  At the very least, you can problem solve and work through it together.

[Reefgazer]

My DS struggled with the shapes and toothpick exercises.  There are hints in the back for selected problems, and the hints usually got DS to the solution on his own.  But he often struggled without the hints.  We muddled through and moved on, though, because we can't piss away an entire year on shapes.

[Arcadia]

For dots, try a big geoboard. We bought ours from a school supply store. My kids use the rubber bands for catapults though.

 

For toothpick math practice we did the pdf linked below.

http://math.sfsu.edu/cm2/papers/Toothpickgeometry.pdf

 

Another thing my kids like for shapes was their tangrams and we made pentominoes out of cardboard. We used the cardboard from letter sized writing pads that were used up.

 

Link for tangrams and pentomino to teach math. Templates are on page 31 and 33.

http://www.openschool.bc.ca/k12/pdfs/awm10_intro_assn.pdf