“If you also take a look closer at the patterns of our world you will always reveal the beautiful mathematics.”
Ali Kayaspor
I love finding books that I can read during our math investigations.
Jody’s Beans (by Malachy Dolye) is a very loved book in our house. It is a beautifully illustrated story about a little girl and her discovery of seasons, life and cycles.
Understanding patterns plays such an important role in mathematical thinking. Allowing your children to delight in the patterns of nature helps them see patterns everywhere.
Maybe you would like to grow beans like Jody does.
We used our beans from last year, saved and dried, to grow a baby plant. By starting the plant in a plastic cup we could watch the stages of development and talk about what a miracle a seed is.
We planted our bean plant and are now enjoying eating fresh beans, straight from our garden.
Some math conversations that could arise from growing a bean:
- How long before the bean will sprout?
- Which direction will the roots grow? How do they know to go down? (You might like to introduce negative numbers with the concept of the ground level being 0 and anything under ground as negative).
- How tall will my plant grow?
- How long before a flower appears?
- Does temperature affect germination?
- How long before I can pick a bean to eat? How big was the bean?
- Can you draw the life cycle in your journal? Is it like any other life cycle you know? What pattern can you notice?
Time… measurement… temperature… positive and negative numbers… patterns… All from growing a bean! Have fun while you investigate math!
