Skola’s Peg and Add – “Play”

From counting, children progress to addition. Why? – Because addition is naturally linked to counting.  Once children start counting fluently they usually start performing addition. Here, they must be provided the right experiences so that they acquire the required skills to count and add fluently.

We at Skola have identified the importance of these skills and created a unique toy, to enable experiential learning of the concepts of counting and addition – and all through play! The toy is “Peg and Add”. This experiential toy has a remarkable way of transforming seemingly complex concepts of counting and addition into stimulating games for children.

Peg and Add toy caters to children of 3 and a half years of age. At this age the brains are most curious and receptive to grasp math concepts. This self-correcting toy provides the right learning for concepts of counting and addition. By using coloured pegs on wooden decagons, learning of addition and counting is made easy. Children can put together numbered parts and pegs that add up to a maximum sum of 20.  The toy comprises of 4 activities that can help develop a host of skill sets.

The toy comes packed in a beautiful Skola doodle box. The set includes:

1. A brown wooden base with 3 sections with holes
2. 10 red pegs
3. 10 blue pegs
4. 10 red and 10 blue fractional decagonal bases each representing a numeral from 0-9
5. A wooden box with partitions to hold the pegs

Children can take up a host of fun activities that will help them comprehend the concepts of counting and addition. Here are the activities:

Peg and Count:

Procedure:

Cover one of the smaller sections of the wooden base with one decagonal base (either red or blue). Place the pegs (same colour as the base) in the holes. Count the number of pegs to indicate the quantity written on the base.

Pegging while counting ensures reinforcement of quantity count in a multi sensorial way. It also enhances fine motor skills (specifically pincer/pencil grip)

Addition:

Procedure:

Cover the smaller sections of the wooden base with one red and one blue decagonal base (The numerals depict the quantity being added). Peg the open holes with pegs (same colour as the bases). Transfer all the pegs to the large section of the wooden base, starting from 1. This gives the sum of the 2 numbers. Children clearly see 2 quantities adding up to a bigger whole.

Add Tables of 10:

Procedure:

Take one red decagonal base. Find the complementary blue decagonal base and complete the decagon. Place the bases on the wooden base and peg the open holes in both the sections. Transfer all the pegs to the large section, starting from 1. This gives the sum of the 2 numbers. The answer will always be 10. This helps to introduce the concept of borrowing/carryover in Arithmetic.

Memory Games:

Procedure:

Place one set of decagonal bases on a surface. Keep the pegs (same colour as the bases) in a bowl in another room. Place an indicator on a base. Ask the child to see the numeral written on the base, remember it and bring the corresponding number of pegs from the bowl. This activity strengths memory for numbers.

Over a period of time, children who take up this activity will tell how many chairs are there in the living room, the number of steps in the stairs and much more.

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