fun with card tricks

I enjoyed the lesson with our guest lecturer Ms Peggy. The first game that she played with us already got me interested and that is the card game.

We had to eliminate the card accordingly from 1 to 10. First, I thought maybe by putting the card in to odd and even numbers then I can eliminate. However, that did not work, my partner and I decided to try to count the number of word is "one" and slot the ace card in between, with that idea, we went on but that still did not work after we eliminated "two". 

As a conclusion, one of our classmate managed to solve the question and I finally got the idea of where my partner and I went wrong. 

I was thinking, if I were to play this game with my children, they would love it. 

finding angles in shapes

The last time that I did questions like finding the angle of the shape was during my secondary school days. As I was weak in maths, it was hard for me to solve a question like this. What I could think of was the basic ways to find the hidden angle of the shape.

when the question was given to the class on Friday night, all I could think of was 180 subtract 162 to the remainder number and that could be the answer. The other method that I could thought of was that 360 is the degree of a whole circle what I have to do is subtract off 162x2 and that would be the answer. 

But after discussion, I find that there are many ways that I can solve the equation. Through this activity, I  was able to revise on what I had lost touch with for 6 years. 

Exploring with Geo Board

Children explore well with open-ended games and activities. Geo Board is one of the activity that is good for them to explore with their creativity.


what makes it challenge during last night's activity was to create a shape with the geo board that I think there won't a replica in the class and with only one dot in the middle. I pondered over it for a long time and I couldn't think of any. I then thought of if I were to give this to the children, basic shapes are the first thing that they have to learn with it.



I went home and continued thinking of what kind of shaped can I form with only one dot inside the shape and the bottom row 2nd picture was what I had thought to be. I would try and let children play with geo board so that they will be more familiarised with shapes and enhances their creativity.

Guessing games with dice

We use dice for many games for example snakes and ladders or even our all time favourite Monopoly.



Last night's game made me amazed with how Dr Yeap actually able to tell the hidden number behind after looking at the 2 numbers at both ends. After discussion with my friend, we decided to memorise the numbers opposite each other and coincidentally we found out that numbers opposite each other add up to 7. By multiplying 2 because of 2 dice, we have to subtract the 2 numbers on both ends to get the answer that was hidden.



I thought it was a very fun game and I had no idea before that that numbers opposite each other add up to 7. For us adults, we can do mental calculation however, if we were to let children play with this game, I would prepare a piece of paper for them to scribble their equations on to solve it.

playing with ten frames

I had not heard of ten frames before and it was my first time seeing ten frames in class last night when we were to told to make our own ten frames to play with in class.


Through the activity, we have to add all the beans that was on the 3 different sheets of ten frames and there were so many ways that we can calculate the total  number of beans being used.


with using ten frames, there are many teachable lessons for the children for example: one to one correspondence, addition and subtraction.

 

  

With simple addition and subtraction skills being taught to the children, they will be able to explore with many different ways to solve the equations while having fun with ten frames.

Learning about tangrams

Shapes is one of the basic thing we learn in preschool. With shapes we can do many things and one of it is tangrams. Through tangrams, children can form many things like animals and patterns with it. Besides that, children can also learn the name of the shapes being used for eg: square and triangle.

With using shapes to form patterns, the children also learnt to rotate the shapes to fit together to form a pattern. 

In class, the question that was brought forward to us was using different number of shapes to make a rectangle. Through this experience, I learnt that we can use different amount and types of shapes to make a rectangle, be it using 5 shapes or 7 shapes but the conclusion we came upon was still a rectangle. 

I had introduced this type of tangram activity to my class of children. 

But I would think of printing templates like these for them to explore. I believe they will be much more creative through this activity. 

Teaching Mathematics Chapter 2

Note to parents

Chapter 2: Exploring what it means to know and do mathematics 

Doing maths is like coming up with ways to solve a problem to see if it the answers makes sense or bring us to a solution. In maths, there are many terms that can be used to describe a formula. In order to do that, a good classroom environment that encourages learning mathematics is important. 

There are two theories that are being used by researchers to show how the students learn maths. constructivism originated from Jean Piaget where he said that children are not plan slate and they crate their own learning. This is can work in two ways which is assimilation and accommodation where new concepts works with prior knowledge and the brain will place the existing schema. 

The other theory that was being used is the social cultural theory where mental processes exist between among people in the social learning settings. In another words, the information that was being taught in class would internalised depending of the learner's zone of proximal development (ZPD). with ZPD, the learner is able to learn on his or her own having receiving help from external factors like peers and teachers. with leaners being able to utilise their own ZPD, they will be able to learn better. 

Teaching Mathematics Chapter 1

Note to parents

Chapter 1: Teaching mathematical in the 21st century 

There are many ways and methods to teach different subjects and that includes Mathematics. In order to deliver high quality mathematics education, there are six principles to obey and they are:

Equity Principle: all children must have the opportunity and adequate support to learn mathematics. 

The curriculum Principle: mathematics is a integrated whole and not collection of bits and pieces. 

The teaching principle: teachers have to understand the content that they are teaching, understand how the students learn maths and select meaningful instructional tasks.  

The learning principle: bind by 2 fundamentals- learning mathematics with understanding is essential with the ability to think and reason mathematically and students can learn mathematics with understanding. 

The assessment principle: ongoing observation and student interactions encourages them to articulate and clarify their ideas. 

the technology principle: increase exploration, enhance representation and communication of ideas. permits students to focus on mathematical ideas to reason and solve problems. 

Five content standards which comprises number and operation, algebra, geometry, measurement and data analysis and probability are what we learn from kindergarten to secondary school. 

Besides five content standards, five process standards are important as they work hand in hand with it. that comprises problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections and representation. 

Being a teacher of mathematics, we must have the flexible and profound knowledge of mathematics. The sense of persistence that is very much needed during mathematical investigations. Having positive attitude would result in better teaching attitude. Teachers must also have the readiness for change. Last but not least, being a teacher, we have to always be self- conscious and reflective.