Day 1

My Thoughts.....

I enjoyed the session on Mathematics yesterday. I realised that there are more than 1 method of solving. First of which I whould like to highlight would be the Name Problem. There were 3 unique solutions to the problem. Firstly Dr Yeap asked us to find the patterns in the numbers. I came up with 2 different ways of solving the problem. First of which was I divided the number 99 by the number of letters in my name ( there are seven letters in my name). I worked the division and the answer was 14 remainder 1. When I counted the letters, it stopped at the letter "H" in the middle (Rahimah). I also found a patter in the letter h in the middle. The numbers in the middle increased by 8 and then by 4 and then by 8 and 4. When i added the numbers, 99 was at the letter "h" which i worked out earlier.

I also learnt that there were diiferent types of numbers. Previously, I thought that all numbers same and they represent a particcular unit. Numbers are different in terms of ordinal, cardinal, nominal and measurment numbers. This lesson was an eye opener. It is also important for teachers to be aware of these terms. One example Dr Yeap provided was the race example, Children might be confused if teachers ask who will finish at the the third position. It is neccesary for teachers to be precise like which child is in the third place from the finishing line.

Another matter I would like to highlight would be of counting things/materials in the same set. Counting similar materials will ensure consistancy. Different materials do not match together. As a teacher, I have made this mistake before.

As a teacher, I felt that teaching number facts through ten frames was rather difficult for children as it involves both counters and ten frames. By using the ten frames, children is able to count through 1 to 1 correspondence. It was rather interesting to find out the different ways of additions like counting on and counting all and commutative property.One strategy which attracted me was the make 10 strategy.

The poker card spelling was also unique. I thought, it was a kind of magic. The first thing which crossed my mind was to arrange the cards in one line and find a possible solution. After a few tries, we were able to solve it as a group.

I noticed some patterns when i did the arrangement, the numbers form patterns when we placed them horizontally. Thus it becomes easy to answer when the number gets too big. I also realised that every pattern has a rule and a term. A mistake teachers make is not to stae the rule and term.

Can't wait for session 2....