Boys, Girls, and Binkys

Every experienced teacher knows that when you give someone something new to manipulate, time to play and explore is a must. We all know that before it can be productive, our inquisitive nature must be satisfied. That is why we interview for jobs, read the back of books, or look for newer gadgets. For older "kids", it may be a new phone. For the little ones, say six years old and in first grade, it can be something much simpler.

Today in math, we were assessing students' ability to perform basic addition and subtraction. In order to help, each student was given manipulatives. In our class, we used "Binkys". Basically, they are little deformed animals. Last year, the teacher before me called them Alien Hippos. We call them Binkys because they look like that character from the Arthur books. Anyway, the students completed the addition and then were given two minutes to play with their Binkys to clear their minds before hitting the subtraction. After subtraction, the students were given the choice to draw or continue playing with their Binkys. All but one chose to play.

What was most interesting to me was watching how the boys and girls played with the Binkys. The boys' Binkys were very interactive. They jumped, attacked, flew, and body slammed. They had silent sound affects (their mouths shaped sounds but none were heard). On the other hand, the girls were much more subdude. Instead of active Binkys, theirs were orderly and silent. Instead of "playing", the girls spent their time arranging them. Parallel lines, one long line, circles, matching Binkys on the letters of their name plates, etc etc etc... If there is a way to arrange Binkys, I saw it today.

Just another example of how boys and girls are so different.