Help please with SM CWP1

[Roadrunner]

There are number of problems with page counts in the book. For example, "Peter read from page 34 to page 44 of a book" etc. How many pages did he read. Well, to solve this problem you have to take a difference plus one (44-34+1). My kid looked at the problem and just wrote out page numbers on the paper and counted them. I took one look at it and let it go because I don't know how to explain to a 6 year old why you need to add 1 and how to make sure he doesn't get confused because of it on other problems. Please help!

[boscopup]

Demonstrate the concept with smaller numbers of pages that are easy to count. For example, if I read pages 1-5, how many pages did I read? I read 5 pages. So 5-1+1 = 5. Now let's say I read pages 3-7. How many pages did I read? We can count 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and see clearly that it's 5 pages. 7-3 is 4, so we have to add 1.

 

Just do multiple demonstrations of the concept with smaller numbers for which he CAN count them and clearly see why you have to add 1 to the page count.

 

You'll hit this again in CWP2, but with 3-digit page numbers.

[Roadrunner]

Thanks! Any idea how to explain to him why page numbers are so different? meaning with other substraction problems we don't need to add one, but only with page numbers. I was mumbling something about distances between two points versus distances when you want to include your location. He just had a blank face :)

[boscopup]

I think it's because you're reading the first page too, and it doesn't get counted when subtracting?

 

Really though, I just demonstrated with small numbers. You can even do page 1 to 1. If you subtract, you get 0, but you know you read a page. ;)

[Roadrunner]

"You can even do page 1 to 1. If you subtract, you get 0, but you know you read a page."

 

That's it!

[SnegurochkaL]

My son who is 4.5 years old had problems similar to this one, but only with the numbers under 10. I told him that when somebody is reading from page 1 through page 5, page 1 was included also, because nobody skipped it. It seems to me helped him to understand the concept. Also, he wanted to double check his calculation by counting pages and was very satisfied with the result.:)

Edited July 28, 2011 by SneguochkaL

[Roadrunner]

Do you think it matters greatly on this particular problem that he didn't solve it the way SM wanted him to solve the problem? He got the answer correctly, but did it by writing out page numbers and counting. We are about a week from starting 2A, so I am wondering if this little glitch is worth worrying about. Basically by not getting this a "right way" now is he going to struggle in grade 2 materials? So far he hasn't really had any problems with other questions (did need some help with certain challenges in the IP book, but so did I :0 ) I guess my first mini crisis in math.

[boscopup]

The problem will be in CWP 2 with bigger numbers. He won't be able to use the counting methods then. I wouldn't worry about it now. My son did those problems in CWP 2 without a problem, and he had never done CWP 1. They have a worked example for that section to explain it again.