Numbers to 20 Tips

In addition to our tips given earlier, parents you may want to read this article.

How can I help my child with maths at home?

Some articles on how to teach Maths.

1) An article for parents on why helping child at home is important and some ideas and tips

2) How to teach Math at Home

3) Teaching Maths Fact vs Myth

More on Shapes

More videos on shapes
Kermit talks about rectangle

Sesame Street video on circles

Shapes around my room Interesting video to teach pupils to see shapes around the room.
Tip for parents: After watching the video, ask your child to name the different shapes around the room.
Give your child shape labels(square, rectangle, triangle, circle) and ask your child to match the label to the shape. Do watch out for the photos as this activity was conducted in class)

A common Misconception

One of way to find out if pupils have understood the concept is to 'test' them. Pupils have been used to completing the following types of question. Look at the question below.

To test them, I added in an extra line to the question.

Pupils who have not understood the concept of place value or have a misconception, wrote 2 on the line(300 + 2 + 4). According to the pupil, there are 2 groups of ten so he wrote 2 down. However, another pupil pointed out the mistake and explained that it is 20 because there is no ‘tens’ after the blank (P2 pupils cannot really explain properly but the point is the child has understood).
Therefore with the aid of Multi-e toolbox, I tried to explain and demo to the rest what the child had explained about the missing ‘tens’ concept. After lots of practise, they finally understood.
Mission Accomplished.
Lessons that I have Learnt
1) At times, let them try out questions before you teach them a new concept oe expand on an existing concept.
If they get it wrong, they will wonder why and will start questioning and it is an excellent opportunity to develop ‘metacognition’. It also makes them pay attention....
2) Peer-evaluation and peer marking with explanation on why it is right or wrong, is good. It forces them to think about the answer and to justify their marking.

Tips for Parents.
1) Whenever possible ask your child to explain the answer that he/she has written regardless of whether it is right or wrong. When your articulates, your child is running through the process of arriving at the answer and you can check you child’s understanding of the concept.

Mathematics Everywhere

Students often ask me why must they learn Maths and how does it help them in the real world. To this question, the answer is the poster itself. Numbers are EVERYWHERE. From the time we wake up till we sleep, we are surrounded by Maths and Numbers.
For instance, when we wake up, we look at the clock and there are number digits on the clock face. At times, a time line can help us plan for the day. If we wake up at 8am and have to be in school by 11pm, we can use a timeline to plan the activities for the morning.

Tip for Parents:

Teaching of time can be fun and practical. You may ask your child to use a timeline to plan a simple activity like – It’s 8am now. You take 10 mins to eat. What time would you finish eating? What can you do for the next 20 mins? What time would it be then?
Do you realise that through the process, Mathematics becomes practical and your child is practising Mathematics without assessment books or piles of worksheets.

Activity For Child :
Look all around you. Can you find three things that are related to Mathematics? Discuss with your parents.