I'm an idiot -- stupid math question.

That really is weird without any explanation of the boxes. The long tall ones are ten smaller ones high, so my guess is what you have, which works either as a concatenation of them, or as an addition of them.

The boys have been doing this too...I know that the stacked cubes or bars are 10 a piece...the others should be one. Why one set is in an organized set and the other is scattered I would not know.

I say your answer is right...I would put that down, then e-mail the teacher asking for an explanation for yourself. I have never seen them scattered like that.

I think it's 39 and 45. Those look like illustrations of base 10 block manipulatives. Does Mo have those in his class?

I'm an idiot, doesn't work as concatenation, which would be 309 and 405.

Addition is much more likely in my opinion, so I still think you are right.

Ohhhhh! Thank you all so much. I don't feel nearly as pathetic now. Seriously, I was thinking that if I couldn't help him with his math homework while he's in the 3rd grade that we'd be in real trouble!

We'll go with base 10 and addition for him to come up with the right number.

Yesterday was the first day of school. I was surprised to see homework at all. This isn't due until Friday. I'm thinking something will come up this week that will make the diagrams comprehensible.

Is he using colored blocks to learn about 10's and units of ones in math class? Ask him what those pictures mean.

From the rest of the questions, I would think that the long blocks represent 10 and the small blocks represent units of one.

Homework should be able to be completed by the child independently at home. At his age, the completing of the paper and getting it back to school is the real "homework" assignment. Homework that can't be completed by the child alone is a pet peeve of mine.

that was how we learned basic arithmetic in grade 1 and 2 here - wooden blocks of different lengths and colours

of course that was 150 years ago

Durn if I know. Why am I getting the feeling that the teaching is interfering with the learning?

Maybe it's some newfangled psychic math or something.

I think Mo could have figured it out by himself if there had been some kind of key to explain what the bars and squares represent. I KNOW that I could have figured it out.

As the question is, the bar and square could be anything.

Let's get the math whizes in here to come up with some insanely complicated formula for "the number pictured here". I'll have Mo color in the corresponding square (the answer must fall between 1-100).

His page will be all goofy but he'll still be right!

Then maybe next time his homework will come with instructions.

Same here.
Wait till the my-Mommy-is artsier-than-your-Mommy projects.
Yeah, sure, I believe an eight-year-old built a replica of the Taj Mahal out of
styrofoam packing. Happens all the time.

heh heh...we saw a movie about that not long ago...but it was about the little wooden cars you make to race. The dads were at fault there.

My boys brought home the math work book and it explained the small ind. cubes are 1, the bars are 10 and the cubes of ind. cubes are 100.

Like I said, I believe you are right Boomer...it's the odd arrangement on the second one that had me wondering.

nah, old-fangled. It looks like something out of a 1963 arithmetic work book.

It might just be that the teacher was trying to see what level the kids were at, to better target lesson plans.

We had these years ago...

1s are called cubes, 10s are called sticks, 100s are called sheets, and 1000s were called blocks (says M from memory -- she says she could be wrong).

Not new-fangled and not psychic. This is a pretty standard way to teach math. Educators are mostly on board with the idea that different people learn in different ways. This would be designed for the spatial/manual type learners. Instead of having different classrooms for different learners, they teach several methods to get to the same end. It's not such a waste of time - learning the same concept in different ways reinforces the knew knowledge.

That's right...it was the sheets that were the 100's and the blocks that were the thousands...then that led into place value. I remember now.

Thanks!

If I don't help Mo with his homework I always at least look at it so I don't think these diagrams have come up before.

Confusing!

I agree littlek!

Once you understand what it is the thing is pretty simple.

Looking at it from no point of reference was strange.

I bet it was strange!