Today we spent the day exploring number - Place Value, Fractions, Decimals, Percentages and Integers. Below are some of my takeaways.
Materials/Manipulatives
I was reminded again how important it is to use materials to introduce new maths concepts, to further student's understanding and to correct misconceptions. In the coming weeks I'm looking forward to using deci-pipes and deci-mats to teach decimals.
Vocabulary
Choral Counting
Choral counting is an activity in which the teacher leads children in counting aloud together by a given number. Today was the first time I was introduced to it. I can see how beneficial it could be for developing student's number sense and computational skills. I'm interested in using it particularly with decimals numbers for my year 7/8 students.
Kia ora Rob,
ReplyDeleteMaterials or manipulatives I think are a key component to teaching maths and creating student understanding. We are lucky with technology there are many online materials students can use.
I am a decimat fan. It is and has been a great tool to develop conceptual understanding of decimals. I was shocked at the amount of teachers that have never heard of choral counting. It has been around for many years and is a great activity to develop language skills and notice patterns. At your level you can even get the students to run them. Transfer what you have done in your literacy for new vocabulary into your maths lessons.
Have fun with your new maths activities you are going to introduce.
Donna