Hundred Frame – Maple Coin Pockets with Wool Balls

Ideas for Learning through Play:

• Fill each dimple with a ball while counting from 1 to 100.
• The engraved lines help the child “subitize” numbers, which means they can perceive the number of items in a group quickly without counting each item individually. It is based on groups of five and whether it is more or less than five. They’ll learn the number seven is five and two more. Or forty-three is the fourth row down and three dimples over–all without counting all forty-three dimples. There is a lot of good info available regarding subitizing. We were introduced to it through Rightstart Math.
• Practice skip counting by placing balls only in the number you’re working on such as 3, 6, 9, etc. Notice the patterns that emerge.
• Designate a quadrant of the board for you and one for your child. Place the balls in your quadrant a certain way and ask your child to copy it in their area (either exactly or as a mirror image).
• Think of the board as a compass and ask your child to mark the dimple that is 4 degrees west and 7 degrees south from the middle point.
• Learn positive and negative numbers by designating the middle point as 0. Then play with the X and Y axises (X being horizontal movement and the Y axis being vertical movement). Thus, finding -3 on the X axis is three dimples to the left of the middle.
• Play games such as rolling a dice and adding that many balls to the board (starting at the top left corner). Then roll again and add that many. Continue until the board is full.