Calculating wheel
The calculating wheel is an analog arithmetic aid for the mechanical-optical implementation of the two basic arithmetic operations, addition and subtraction, in the beginning mathematics lessons .
Children can by itself amounts conceive, for example, they can much and little distinguish and more of less different. You have to learn to describe a represented set (of points, for example) with the help of an Arabic numeral ; likewise the number concept itself and the operational options "+" and "-", initially from 0 to 10. The difficulty is to make the respective, abstract mathematical concepts clear to children.
This should be made easily possible by turning the two disks of the calculating wheel in opposite directions, because abstract processes can occur with it on the level of sensual perception. With the turning movement, mathematical forms of meaning disappear and appear. This is to address a dimension of children's world knowledge. The signs (numbers) and the designated reality (set of points) are closely related to each other and should be related to each other and understood in this way when calculating in active interaction. Children can explore unfamiliar structures with the Rechenrad them without their own living environment to leave by immediate early childhood experience shapes of there! and away! taken up and continued sensibly. In addition, children can color in the quantity symbols on the calculating wheel themselves so that they can become more familiar with the quantities and the numbers they belong to.