Tips on how to use this exercise at home and at school.
Early math concepts
The child already understands the task when the instruction corresponds to the solution ("there should be more pictures in the blue box than in the red box", so they add more pictures to meet the condition). Now, they are required to understand the same situation, but the assignment conditions change. One group is "locked". If they can't add to the blue box, they need to take away some pictures from the red box. In this exercise, they work with several objects up to 5.
Why is this exercise important?
This exercise promotes a deep understanding of the principle of reversibility or its validation in diagnostics. The child is confronted with the need to understand a linguistic instruction that does not correspond to the solution offered first. They must understand the problem. The child will encounter this later with word problems. E.g. Adam has a few candies, and that's more than Dan. How do you make it so Adam has fewer candies, but you can't move them? The child has to resist the initial reasoning (give Adam less), think the task through more and discover a possible solution by reversing the operation.
Who is the exercise suitable for?
This exercise generally belongs in preschool or primary school as an early activity. In addition to number concepts and reasoning assumptions, it develops language skills at the same time. They learn to understand the instructions and the mathematical problem that needs solving, which are two different things.
Methodological recommendations
We can only proceed to the exercise when we are sure the child understands the concepts more/less and can use them.
At first, the child may not understand that the assignment has changed from the previous exercises and will perform the task regardless of the locked group. In that case, allow them to listen to the instruction again.
Invite the child to think aloud. This will make it easier for him to discover the apparent 'contradiction' between the instruction and the solution to the problem.
If the contradiction is not discovered on its own, we ask: How else could you have completed the task? How is it different?
Tips for similar activities outside the application
We can practice the higher and lower relationship on the stairs: You are standing higher than me. I would like you to stand lower than me. But you're not allowed to move. How do we solve the problem?
I have a taller block structure than you. I want you to be taller than me. But you can't move your building. So what do we do to make your building taller than mine?
