Maths Inquiry

 On Wednesday 19 July, I had my first session with Elena T who is the Manaiakalani Across School Maths person. Elena came in and we discussed my goal to improve basic facts in the class. 

 Step 1 ( Visual )developing fluency with 5, 10,20  manipulatives,  10 frames, double sided counters on ten frames modelling (add sub), number bonds with in 10, linking 10 frame to 10 fingers, and abacus. I have done this in the past with year 1's3s, and low progress learners at higher levels. it is always good to have refreshment as one forgets different activities over the years.

Elena gave guidance on the format of the lesson.

Warm up - number strategies 10min

Guided  with materials 

Independent time - e-ako, maths games, maths games.com - can watch video when errors made.

NZ Maths Games.com is a new website for me.

We then arranged for Elena to come in the following Wednesday morning to model number strategies. I am looking forward to this as I have not had a refresher in this in a long, long time.

Wednesday 26th July. Observation

I really liked the way that Elena started the lesson with questions to get the students thinking.

Do you love maths?

How can we be creative with maths? 

What do you think of?

It was really interesting hearing my students thinking. Most put up their hands to say they loved maths. I had been shocked when I first came to the class how low they were for Year 4 and it is wonderful to hear that they love maths. It will help them progress as they gain confidence.

Then Elena said: Elena - I can prove you can be creative all the time, maths everywhere, Good maths eyes and look around, mistakes are great.

Using maths eyes and creativity - 

I will show the number of dots - I’m showing quickly,  4 and 3

How can you see it?

Elena drew out the possible ways to see the dots and explained how they were all correct.

After that Elena rotated the cards more quickly. The students really enjoyed this and were really good at it.

The next day I used a slide deck that Elena had shared with me. Number! This is great as I can make a copy and change for a few weeks to build my confidence.

After the modelling we had a chat and discussed Bridging - linking repeated addition, skip c, then extension, Elena's number of the week slide deck, and she shared Splat which is has dots covered and need to be worked out. Splat and the Number! work on subitizing.

Elena has given me so much to use and I really appreciate this. Next week she will be modelling Multiplication warm ups and I am looking forward to this.

It is fantastic to have knew ideas as I have been using my tried and true for years. Students have changed with the behaviour and learning, plus lost time with covid and is time.