How Do I Love Thee: Embodied Thinking

Embodiment:

Thinking with the body involves a combination of muscle movement and thought.  Sometimes our bodies move in such a natural way that it seems like there is hardly any thought at all.  

The task of finding a way that the body moves to accomplish simple addition problems brought me to the use of fingers.  As a young child, I remember using my fingers to add...but there was always a problem.  I only had ten.  My first graders have this same problem, and while some try to count their toes, there is a better way.  However, if I am being honest, I had no idea that this existed until today.  

Below is a video of a 3 year old girl using "Finger Math." Watch carefully to see if you can identify the pattern in her counting...

If that didn't impress you then here is another video of a young boy using the same strategy...

Embodied Thinking:

Engaging your body in the act of problem solving.  Embodied thought can happen whether you are solving the problem of art, music, or math.  

I'd like to say that I have been using Finger Math in my classroom for years, but I just stumbled upon the idea during my course investigations.  I first noticed the young boy on YouTube, and I thought it was a spoof.  I could barely keep track of the instructor's commands let alone the finger manipulations.  After some more video explanations, and a lot of practicing, I watched his video again and kept track up until he moved into two hands.  The three year old girl is more my speed!

Both videos have commonalities that I have noticed after several viewings.  The finger movements seem to happen naturally while the children are focusing on one command at a time.  When both children are adding or subtracting multiple numbers, they are starting from the number in their hands at all times.  (The three year old girl is given the problem, 3 - 2 + 5.  She makes the number 3 with her pointer, middle and ring fingers, puts down her middle and ring, and then puts up her thumb for a final total of 6.)  She never starts over, repeats a command or even counts her fingers until asked to do so.  Both children in the videos problem solve in this same way with finger math.  They don't seem to be keeping track until they count up the answer once the commands stop. It's as if their finges are moving at their own accord, and their brains catch up to read the answer at the end.

This seriously impacts my topic of addition.  Finger Math is a way to use the body without the limitation of ten finges.  The problem solving method also frees up space by allowing students to keep track of one number at a time and build or take apart that number.  This same strategy works for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.   Once the strategy is understood, the possibilities are endless and the boundaries of age or grade disappear.  I can't wait to try it out in my classroom!

If you haven't figured out the pattern, here is a video with the concept mapped out.  

If you're STILL not impressed...you may want to keep a calculator on hand!