Active Arithmetic!: Movement and Mathematics Teaching in the Lower Grades of a Waldorf School

by Henning Andersen, Archie Duncanson (Translator), Verner Pedersen (Translator)

Making math a meaningful and memorable event in a young child's life is all important. This book will help you to do it! All recent brain development illustrates that movement is the key to a rich and fully developed skill set in children. Music and rhythm have been shown to light up the whole brain and to help children understand and apply complex math concepts. The many ideas, imaginative games and activities described by this experienced Waldorf teacher hold the key to "Aha!" moments for comprehending important math ideas.

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend of mine had told me about the Waldorf system, and I was intrigued, so I decided to read about it, and this was the first book I found on it. It was a good introduction from the perspective of one teaching arithmetic and it gives a good indication of what the system's about as a whole. It was a good read, simple, interesting, and informative. What the book had to say about essence numbers (basically what makes each number special in a qualitative essence, prime numbers for instance) and child development at the elementary level (going into kinesthetic memory and the importance of rhythmic processes) was very interesting too. Also could probably be helpful to anyone trying to teach music to young children, in particular children who struggle with rhythm.