Monday 19 August 2013

Math can be fun!

From my opinion through last week's Math lesson that I went through, I feel that it is important for young children to be able to learn Math in an interesting and fun way. It may be tricky or at times confusing but it is vital for children to have a good foundation in Math to be able to succeed in it.

As an Early childhood educator, our role is important as they learn Math at a very young age. I remember Dr Yeap's advice. Always use the CPA approach with young children. The ability of doing Math will developed over time.

Some people will still say " Math is boring". I second that because Math can be taught in a fun way which can captures children attention.

Most importantly, Educators need to think out of the box and start to be creative!

Angles..Geometry equals to confusion!

This is the topic that  I usually dislike during my school days.

GEOMETRY!

When I think of angles, it freaks me out but I learnt something new that does not involves with formula.

How can we prove that the sum of a triangle is equal to 180 degrees?



One of the method that we can use is to fold all angles and make it touch the straight line. Straight line = 180 degrees.

Interesting!




Museum

It has been a long time since I went to a museum and today I did to search for an art piece that we can use to teach children on the different Math concept.





It amazed me as I never thought that Math lessons can be derived from art pieces and from the pictures shown, I can already think of a few Math lessons that can be linked to these art pieces. :)

Coloured tiles!


The coloured tiles to make figures!

Fun Math Lesson!

Lesson started with the reviews from previous topic which is Fractions.

Well, fractions are tricky. It involves with division, multiplication, addition as well as subtraction.
I was still confused after yesterday's quiz whereby we are required to do an equation 3/4 divide by 1/8.
As usual, I used the methods taught by my teacher but I was amazed on how Dr Yeap can derived to the solution by just using diagrams and pictorials.
I feel that this is technique for young children to understand fractions.

I totally love the coloured tiles and the challenged to create figures using about 3-5 tiles. With the constraint given whereby the tiles must fully touched one another, it is actually quite challenging. I would love to do this with the children in class as it will help them with their visualization skills.

After today's lesson, as I reflected, another good way to teach young children the concept of fraction is through cookery lesson like baking a pizza.

Afterall, children learn best through play  and children needs lots of fun.
And Math can be fun too!




Wednesday 14 August 2013

Dice Problem!

Reflection Day 3 (14/8/2013)

This activity really brightens my mood to learn Math today. It is amazing on how I can actually get the total of the hidden numbers of the inner part of the dice that is hidden.

This has to be the most interesting part of the lesson that I will surely share it with my other buddy educators.

Not only that. I learnt a new Math vocabulary today. The word is subitize which means to be able to tell a number without counting. And it surprises me even more that mere mortals like us can only subitize at the average of 10 or even lesser.

Again, he mentioned on the word scaffolding. Educators scaffold children's learning and especially in this case, give opportunities to get children to be able to learn to subitize.

Conclusion to this, children needs to go through the CPA approach and a lot of concrete materials and opportunities to be given to them to explore and gain new knowledge on Math.

I wonder what will I be learning tomorrow...
Simply could not wait!

10 Frames...

Reflection Day 2

We are given 3 papers and was told to fold it in 10's. Well, that was easy. Then came the interesting part. Dr Yeap told us that we are creating 10 frames.


Wait! I never heard of that.
Yes, I agree with Dr. Yeap that it is a must to have this material in our classroom but I did not know that it is called 10 frames until today. New knowledge gained indeed again.

We are all given beans and told to place 5,6,7 on each respective 10 frames. This is actually a lesson on addition but Dr. Yeap has make it so interesting that it actually clashes with the old ways on how I learn to add.

This activity amazed me as it is more hands-on and concrete for children to explore and understand the concept. Children are also able to visualize and conserve numbers. This also helps them in their ability to place numbers.

One of my classmates actually shared a challenge that she faces with her student. Child is able to add but when it comes to breaking down the problem, she is not able to.

I agree that a child has to be given opportunities to explore and given the opportunity to use concrete materials to help them with counting and understand number bond concept.

Through this activity, I feel that it is good as it helps children with the ability to understand one to one correspondence and to be able to cultivate face values.

I will definitely share this new knowledge with colleagues and it is true that all children has to go through the CPA approach in order to be able to understand Math problems.

Way to go Dr.Yeap. Thanks for sharing!
 

Reflection Day 1 (12/8/2013)

Math! A topic that I always hated.

I was not looking forward to the first day of the Math module though. I expected to see a lecturer coming in and throwing us lots of Math problems to solve and go " all smart" thinking that he knows it all.

But....
My impression started to change as soon as I entered class today. There he is, my lecturer Dr Yeap Ban Har standing in front of the class, opening his lecturer for that evening. Dr Yeap starts to give out tangrams and I started to create a rectangle with different quantity from the tangrams.

I started to participate and start thinking that it is not bad after all. I love the way Dr. Yeap drives the interest in all of us and how he drives us through the Math lessons for the day. I gained better understanding that Math has no short cuts. It requires understanding and even the simplest Math problem can be solve in various of ways and methods.

I always love how Dr. Yeap gave concrete examples by drawing it out with diagrams to help us who are visual learners. The way he prompted us with lots of questions really made us think.

Yes I agree when Dr. Yeap mentioned that in order to get children to be able to understand Math concepts, we as educators have to teach by role modeling. We have to scaffold and give children enough opportunities to explore.

Today's lesson has indeed impacted me in ways on how I can teach children simple Math problems. We do not need formulas nor do we need brains to do Math as quoted by Dr. Yeap, "Even computers have no brains". I am able to look at Math problems for young children from a different angle and indeed today's lesson has given me an opportunity to look at the problems from the children's perspective and able to gain new knowledge on how to be able to scaffold and guide  children in loving Math!

Friday 9 August 2013

Elementary Mathematics


Chapter 1

After reading the book “Elementary and Middle School Mathematics", it made me look at learning Mathematics from the positive point of view. Honestly throughout my life, I have never liked learning Math and I know lots of other people who do not like it either but after I became an educator in Early Childhood, I just couldn't run away from it.

 

Personally I love on how the NTCM has given guidance and direction for teachers to teach Math to children. The six principles are helpful. I feel that teachers have to understand Math before they are able to deliver it effectively and assessment is essential so as to be able to see the developments of different children according and able to alter their teaching methods to suit the different learning needs of the children.

Chapter 2

The book has also given me a wonderful insight which helps me recall on my experience during my teaching days. Being a good teacher who is able to deliver Math effectively, not only one needs to have the knowledge, teacher has to be able to create a classroom experience for children to be able to do Math effectively.

 

From my experience, classroom environment plays an important role because children learn to interact, discuss and share knowledge with peers. Not only that, they will learn to be problem solver and risk takers which will help them in building up their self-esteem as well as their confidence to succeed in Mathematics