Cuisenaire rods

[Maureen K Clifford]

Yes Heather and it seems Maths is still not your strong suite - you may not need them for writing but if you are getting paid commission or royalties perhaps on your published works what are you going to do then - especially if the batteries are
flat in the calculator.

Kym I can see how yellow + plus pink = light green - and can see (NOT) how that would be such a great help if for example you worked in a bank...I mean you could give the customer a $2 yellow coin and a pinky mauve bit of paper in exchange for a green bit of paper. Very useful. Perhaps that IS the formula they use today Might explain why their profits are so huge, and if a huge number of their customers worked on the premise of these bloody rods well they wouldn't argue would they? Does that also mean that you could exchange 10 white Bacardis on the rocks for 1 black dark and stormy??? Do 10 Polar bears equal 1 black bear???

Neville the two front legs don't have much meat on them anyway so if you were getting 3 hind legs in a box you were doing pretty well.

[Kym]

I know, I know, I was just being silly with the bit about the colours - I have always liked colours. But everyone has different styles of learning, and while I had no trouble with maths, some kids needed to "see" the numbers to understand how they worked - how 3+5 and 4+4 are the same as 2+6 or four groups of 2.

The other day, I bought two things for $9.98 each and the poor girl at the counter had to add them up. She struggled with all those 9's and 8's, whereas I just think 'that's two groups of ten dollars, less two groups of two cents' (then rounding of course). I can visualise how the numbers work together, maybe because of moving those little rods, who knows what you'd know if you didn't know what you already know and none of us know how much we don't know, do we now? No!

Maybe they didn't suit everyone's learning methods, but I'm sure they would have helped the visual and tactile kids.

[Heather]

Royalties, Maureen, you are funny! The only published works I've ever written/edited have been for love. No money ever came my way.

Funnily enough Maureen I did work in a bank as a teller for three years before I had my kids. Back then my adding up wasn't too bad but it is useless information now.. and I once nearly gave a customer way way too much money - but not because I couldn't add up - because I was too busy talking to him! Oops! Honest customer, disaster averted! Phew!

I think the coloured rods were about measurement. Maybe. It is a long time ago.

All that talk of lamb has made me hungry....

[Bob Pacey]

Does not sound like a modern day invention to me more like something from the dark ages.


Would have been good play things and not much good for anything else.


Times table were the way to go.

Now I went to a school reunion and we had to put up what our current job was. When I put up retail Divisional manager for a chain of supermarkets my old maths teached was astounded and actually ASKED HOW I GOT THE JOB. my reply someone invented the calculator. !!!!


Bob

[Dave Smith]

Hey Bob is a Divisional manager the same as a Plus manager or Mutiplying manager and would you go to jail if ya was a Take away manager.

TTFN Mr

[Bob Pacey]

Struck a few of those over the years as well Dave.

Employed one bloke who had very good references but had a two year gap. Against my better judgement i put him on as I was due to travel to America for a conference. The general manager rang me in the states to say he had been caught by the local copper flogging off frozen chickens at the local pub a week later.

Yep you guessed it the gap was spent in the clink.

Bob

[Maureen K Clifford]

So his assets were effectively frozen I take it when he was put back into his cage?

[Bob Pacey]

He was gone when I got back Maureen but I think the boss cut the losses and sent him on his way.


Bob

[Irene]

Those rods were around years ago - I remember them from school, and yes, they were to do with mathematics!!
In their very simplest form, they were used for adding up. Ie green might be 3 and yellow might be 4. if you put both together, you would get 7, which might be a pink one. Can't remember what colours were what, but certainly remember the rods!! I think they were used for much more than that, but it was all too long ago now for me to remember!!!
I'm either older than some of you who don't remember them, and/or younger than others of you that don't remember!!!

[Dave Smith]

Irene, Elaine tells me I don't remember them because I never had them way back when but our kids had them, huh I don't remember that either.

TTFN