Innovative math

Teaching Innovative math

1. INNOVATIVE TEACHING MATHEMATICS IN KINDERGARTEN IRMA M. ALANO KINDER TEACHER

2. Manipulative Math Manipulatives provide a physical context for math lessons, which helps young students to actually see how the math works. This is especially important for visual and physical learners, who might struggle with abstract concepts. Manipulatives can be any set of objects that students can hold and organize in a way that represents a math problem.

3. Teaching math in the primary grades requires you to think creatively and find ways to engage your students in ways that deepen their understandings of the lessons. The best way to do this is to utilize activities that put the math concepts you're teaching into a practical context, so that the kids can see and understand how they can use these processes in everyday life.

4. Dice Games Dice games are another way to transform standard lessons into activities that educate, engage and entertain your students. For example, you can have students pair up and then have each student in the pair roll the dice.

5. After each player rolls, the other player must add the two numbers on the dice. Depending on their ability levels, you can even have them record the sums of all their rolls, and then add the sums together.

6. You can even use dice for simple recognition games. You can have each child roll the dice until he or she rolls a double, and then have the other student start rolling. This type of game can help young students learn how to recognize what groups of certain number values look like.

7. DICE GAMES

8. Card Activities Playing cards are also useful tools for teaching math to primary grade students. For example, you can use cards to help students develop their understandings of basic math facts. Split the class into groups, and deal seven cards to each student in each group. Write a number on the board and ask the students to show any way in which they can make that number with addition.

9. If you wrote "8" on the board, for instance, students could display two "4" cards, or a "5" and a "3" or even just an "8." The first student in each group to use all of his or her cards wins.

10. CARD ACTIVITIES

11. Full Class Activities Instead of manipulatives, dice or cards, you can even use your students themselves to demonstrate math concepts. Have 10 students stand up and then ask those students a question, such as "Who among you has any brothers?" Any students who answer "yes" must sit down.

12. Call on someone who was not one of the 10 standing students, and ask him or her how many students just sat down. Then, ask another child how many students are still standing. You can then write the math problem you've illustrated on the board: 10 - 4 (assuming four students sat down) = 6.

13. T he following 10 math manipulatives are not only great for teaching math concepts and vocabulary, they also encourage imaginative play and exploration Young children need hands-on interaction with 3-dimensional manipulatives when learning math. Using manipulatives makes it easier for kids to discuss their math thinking with you and their peers, encourages them to ask questions, enables them to understand concepts, find multiple ways to solve problems, and helps them to demonstrate their new knowledge and skills.

14. Before spending money on math manipulatives, test them against the following criteria: The math manipulative is terrific for teaching multiple math concepts It is tough enough to withstand constant use by children and regular washing It can be used for math games and imaginative play It passes testing standards and is certified to be non-toxic and child safe The math manipulative can be used for learning more advanced math concepts as children grow So here’s my list of favorites!

15. 1. Pattern blocks Pattern blocks are my number one winner as far as using a math manipulative for more than one purpose. They are definitely versatile. They come in six colors and shapes – yellow hexagon, green triangle, blue diamond-shaped rhombus, red trapezoid, orange square and a smaller beige rhombus. Pattern blocks can be used to teach everything from number sense, graphing, tessellation, fractions and more. They come in wood or plastic.

16. 2. Colored wooden blocks manipulatives_woodenblocks Colored wooden blocks come in many shapes and are invaluable for teaching geometry, symmetry, number sense, counting, patterns, and more. When children build with them they have practice problem solving and planning and activities such as stacking blocks teach children about balance and gravity. Building with blocks encourages the development of social skills as kids play together.

17. 3. Unifix® cubes As students work on patterning, counting, and operation skills, pushing the square cubes together builds small motor and eye-hand coordination too. Unifix™ cubes are great for math games too.

18. 4. Base ten blocks manipulatives_base As preschool and kindergarten students play with base 10 blocks, they learn the vocabulary of ones blocks, tens blocks, hundreds blocks and thousands block

19. 5. Fraction circles Fraction circles are made of foam or wood and some are magnetic. They are terrific for teaching students about fractions and their r e lationships. When young children begin using them they see, feel, and compare equivalent fractions and as they get older the fraction terms become meaningful from their previous play experiences. Teach fraction vocabulary such as whole, halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eighths, and tenths as the students

20. 6. Two-sided counters Two-sided counters are about one-inch in diameter and have one red side and one yellow side. These math manipulatives are great for teaching number sense and number operations. Put 5 in a container, have the children shake them, place them on the carpet or table, then count – 3 yellow and 2 red equals 5 all together. Children continue shaking, placing and counting their results. When ready they begin to record their results.

21. 7. Geoboards Geoboards are used in the exploration and recognition of shapes, designs, spatial relationships, angles, fractions, area, perimeter, symmetry, and coordinates. I prefer using the larger geoboards. The knobbed pins hold the rubber bands in place. Be sure to buy plenty of extra geoboard elastic bands in various colors and sizes.

22. 8. Large geometric solids 3D geometric solids come in sets that usually have a common 3″ dimension to illustrate relationships between area, volume, shape, form, and size . Try and get a set that comes with a cone, a sphere, a hemisphere, a cube, a cylinder, a rectangular prism, a hexagonal prism, a triangular prism, a square pyramid and a triangular pyramid. Preschool and kindergarten children learn new vocabulary as they play with the blocks. They are also available in see through plastic.

23. 9. One inch blocks/cubes One-inch cubes are durable 1″ hardwood cubes that come in six colors and are perfect for beginning counting, patterning, color recognition, teaching basic geometric concepts and building. They are also great for beginning measurement activities such as – Show me how many one inch blocks are as long as the side of the book.

24. 10. A pocket chart with number cards 0 – 100 I included a one hundred pocket chart in my list of ten best math manipulatives because kids love touching and moving the number cards, counting along or pointing to them with a long ruler. They constantly ask questions or make observations such as, “Why do all the numbers in this row start with 6? All the numbers in this row end with a zero.” As children play with the number cards they begin to see number patterns, learn about skip counting, become aware of odd and even numbers and increase their understanding of numbers.