The mathematical caterpillar

The book proposes an original and alternative way to bring primary school children closer to mathematics, with particular attention to the breaking down of numbers, through the use of two special items, which allow you to play with breaking down and building up numbers to support the construction of fundamental mathematical concepts while working with natural numbers.

Fafù the caterpillar
The mathematical caterpillar Fafù is a cardboard cutout that was created with the aim of talking to children about mathematical concepts with a language suitable for their age and with activities designed specifically for the first years of school. There is a caterpillar for the first grade to build up and break down numbers up to 20, and a caterpillar for second and third grades for numbers up to 100.  The caterpillars are two accordion-folded strips, onto which children can attach the units, the tens and hundreds with velcro, always creating new numbers. After attaching the number cards, the caterpillar can be closed to view the number as it is written in decimal positional notation.

The proposed worksheets include:

• Activities for managing a collective class discussion
• Activities for exploring to be carried out individually (or in pairs)
• Games for student pairs (or small groups)
• Consolidation activities, which offer students an opportunity to become familiar with certain reasonings in a flexible way