I have been a parent volunteer in my child's K class last year - they did all these "moving manipulatives around" to recheck if the numbers remained the same. My son's class was a "gifted" class - but they have to cover all the state mandated curriculum before moving onto challenging stuff. So, most kids would giggle and say words like "baby stuff" and "silly" while doing these activities. But they all did it because it was a fun diversion from coloring, cutting and pasting!
During Halloween last year, the teacher sent home a similar "themed" homework asking parents to do such an exercise with 6 different kinds of candy. I sent in a note that we do not eat candy in our house and hence were going to do a different hands on math activity involving lego blocks at home!

Last edited by ashley; 09/04/13 10:46 AM.