Monday, 30 November 2015
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Tuesday, 10 November 2015
How To Teach Fractions to Preschool and Kindergarten Students
Like all areas of math, fraction concepts need to be communicated to young children with developmentally appropriate hands on experiences and plenty of play activities. Concrete objects like pattern blocks and 3D fraction shapes enable kids to make sense of new math concepts or abstract ideas. Children need to have fraction experiences that:
- incorporate their senses
- invite them to experiment and make observations
- let them learn at their own rate, and
- allow them time to investigate a topic further
It is important that preschool and kindergarten math lessons offer opportunities for young children to develop fraction number sense. Before children are able to perform operations (adding, subtracting...) with fractions, they require lots of time for fraction games and play. This will help them visualize fractions and understand that fraction segments are equal parts of a larger object, skills necessary for more advanced fraction concepts. It is not necessary to teach symbols for fractions (1/2, 1/3...) in preschool or kindergarten.
Young children are working towards the following, skills that are necessary for more advanced fraction concepts in future grades:
- being able to visualize fractions and
- understanding that fraction segments are equal parts of a larger object,
Introduce fractions with cooking, stories, and games
Cooking activities introduce children to the language of fractions and help them link fractions to their everyday experiences. As they take part in these activities, children become familiar with fraction terms such as whole, part, half, third, quarters. For example - Cut the muffin in half, fill the cup half full, let's use part of the whole orange, put peanut butter on one half of the bread and jam on the other half of the bread, cut the sandwich in quarters...
Use fraction math manipulatives and toys with puppets to make up simple stories
Here is a sample circle time story using an apple fraction toy, 2 puppets and a basket:
Marty the Moose heard a knock on his door (knock on the chalkboard). He opened the door (squeak) and there was his friend, Sam the squirrel..
Improvise and have the puppets take turns cutting the apples and sharing them out, keeping in mind that the goal is to introduce and help the children be familiar with the idea of equal sized pieces that are a part of a whole object and fraction terms such as halves, quarters, thirds.
Play simple small group fraction games
Depending on your class size you may need to split the class into small groups, having one half working at independent math centers with modeling clay, drawing, blocks or puzzles and the other half playing the fraction game. As children play games and play with fraction toys they will gain fraction number sense.
The more time children have to play with fraction toys and manipulatives, the more their ability to visualize fractions as equal parts of a whole will increase. For easy fraction game ideas go http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/fraction_games.html
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Friday, 6 November 2015
Lesson Plan Ideas For Math With Videos and Drama
Math can often be seen as being a little... staid. Very necessary, of course, but firmly grounded in the world of fact. It seems as if creativity and eccentricity has no place in a lesson plan for math. You can't get creative with facts like 2 + 2 = 4 or with feet and inches. Or can you?
One teacher, Ms Kay Toliver, who originally worked in Primary School 72 in East Harlem, New York, has managed to change all that, and her ideas are beginning to spread to other educators, and she has won a Presidential Award for her creative ideas. A math lesson plan, for Ms Toliver, is likely to include songs, costume and drama - and her pupils absolutely love it. "I just try to figure out how I can make this information interesting enough," she says, explaining why she has a tendency to sing some of her lessons or her use of eccentric costumes and props.
Drama is a great way to engage your students' imaginations and interest, and if you are able to put on a costume and put a bit of fun into your lesson, your students certainly won't be bored. When you lesson plan for math, put on your out-of-the-box creative hat and see what you can do.
Here are a few quick suggestions to help you create a dramatic lesson plan for math:
Costumes and alter egos. Teaching geometry? Turn yourself into Pythagoras (with the help of a large bedsheet) and enlist your class to help you discover your theory. Or borrow directly from Ms Toliver and have an Egyptian theme when learning about pyramids and other 3-D solids.
Use songs and rhymes. If you look online, you can easily find tapes and CDs to help children learn times tables and simple algebra principles. Your lesson plan for math can include a sing-along session or you can just have the CDs and tapes handy for playing in the background or at a listening post. Your kinaesthetic learners may be able to move to the beat while listening to these songs, which will help them learn.
Props: A lot of codes and ciphers have a basis in mathematics, so why not have a spy theme where your Secret Agents have to find and decode the messages? A lesson plan for this will need a bit of preparation on your part creating the codes (hint: you can make an easy invisible ink by dipping a quill pen in potato juice. Iodine solution is used to develop the message).
Not all of us have the dramatic flair of Ms Toliver, and some of us might not have the confidence to dress up as an Egyptian queen or a Greek philosopher. Ms Toliver can claim that "It doesn't bother me to break out into song," but some of us can't carry much of a tune. Does this mean that any lesson plan for math that we can create has to be staid and boring?
It doesn't have to be, if you use a video. By using a video, you can be a bit more confident - and you can edit out your mistakes and re-take sequences if you find yourself getting the giggles. Or you can enlist your more dramatic friends (or colleagues) to help you make your own educational videos.
All videos have to be used properly and can't really stand on their own. It's very easy to make a mistake when using a video in class, whether the video has been slotted into a lesson plan for math or a lesson plan for another subject area. Mistakes you don't even know you're making can be impacting your lesson. Watch this free video for some important information on why you should be using school videos and download the expert guide for easy solutions.
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Monday, 2 November 2015
The Relevance in Learning Math
The importance of teaching our children math simply can't be underestimated. Basic math skills such as understanding addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and percentages are all basic life skills. We use these skills every day, often without even thinking about it.
The question, then, isn't why our children should learn math, but what we can do to help them learn. Children need our encouragement. They need the help and guidance of family members. They also need numerous opportunities to practice.
Encouraging children to learn math starts with helping children understand how relevant math is to our lives. Educators recognize this which makes it one of the reasons math books often use examples involving money, sharing toys, or even food. These skills are the foundations of understanding how our children will learn to manage money, how to cook, how to learn, how to explore, and how to build.Take this idea one step further. Encourage your child to learn math by showing them the numerous ways you use math in your daily life. Show them how you use it in your daily work. Showing your child how important math is can be as simple as showing them how to figure out which item provides the best deal at the grocery store.
It goes without saying that parents need to be involved in their children's education. The learning that takes place at home is every bit as important as the learning that takes place at school. With math, this can be as easy as going over homework with your child, encouraging them when they get right answers, and helping them understand where they made a mistake when they get an answer wrong. Through seeing the importance you place on their math education, your child will understand that their learning is important to you.
There are people who don't realize the clear parallels between learning math and learning many other skills. It goes without saying, that to be good at math takes practice. We learn to multiply, add, subtract, and divide by practicing these skills hundreds or thousands of times. We weren't born knowing how to multiply single and double digits numbers in our heads. We learned this through many hours of practice. Math worksheets are a simple, effective, and proven way to teach kids math. They are used by millions of children and in hundreds of thousands of classrooms every day. With the advent of the internet, one more opportunity to practice is only a click away.
Never pass on a good opportunity to improve your child's education. As part of a broader plan to help your child learn math, use math worksheets found online to provide your child with the practice they need.
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