Schools Report

P.T.A. Funding

Excellent

For Home Working

and Sum Thing

The ‘Sum-Thing’ is a string of 10 beads that are threaded in a unique way so that they can be moved one at a time and will stay in position.

 

The rainbow ‘Sum-Thing’ has almost all the major colours for ease of colour identification, learning the meaning of numbers and doing simple calculations.

 

It also suggests a science project on how the rainbow is formed: Allowing that indigo and violet are

both shades of purple, arrange the 6 colours

of the rainbow into a pyramid, with red, blue

and yellow at the corners. The colour in

between each corner is made by mixing the

outer ones, and can be proved by mixing

different coloured paints.

 

Make the point that red, blue and yellow are primary colours, which no amount of mixing any other colours can create. (Please see example 3 above).

 

The multi-coloured beads may prove a distraction when trying to concentrate on grasping the principals of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and that is why the ‘Sum-Thing’ is also available in packs of ten different self colours. (Please see example 1 above).

 

The alternate 2 colour ‘Sum-Thing’ strings make it much easier much easier to convey the concept of odd and even numbers. By counting 1, 3, 5 and 2, 4, 6 etc, it is possible to alter some children’s perception of (counting as if they were reciting a nursery rhyme) into a genuine realisation of what the numbers really mean. (Please see example 2 above).

 

The possibilities for addition and subtraction are fairly obvious but, in school trials, it was found that the ‘Sum-Thing’ is just as easy to demonstrate multiplication, division and even simple fractions:

Divide the beads into groups of 2. How many 2’s in 10? Therefore 2 x 5 = 10, 10 ÷ 5 = 2, and 2 = 1/5 of 10.

 

 

 

Divide the beads into groups of 4. Reassure the child that it is OK to have some beads left over. Thus 10 ÷ 4 = 2 remainder 2, and 10 ÷ 4 = 2 1/2

 

 

 

Divide the beads into groups of 3. Once again, reassure the child that it is OK to have some beads left over. Thus 10 ÷ 3 = 3 remainder 1, and 10 ÷ 3 = 3 1/3, but 3 x 3 = 9.

 

Putting the fun back into learning just one of the things that a ‘Sum-Thing’ can do.

 

‘Sum-Thing’ is manufactured from food grade polypropylene and is tested to British Safety Standards (BS 5665 and EN 71).

KEY TO ILLUSTRATION

Code

KEY TO ILLUSTRATION

Code