Day 2 – 23rd August 2011

 Day 2 - 23rd August 2011

Subitize- look and know

Lesson 6 - Stick game

“Pick up Sticks” is a game for 2 players and they have to take turns to take away 1 or 2 sticks from the partner. The winner is the one with 1 or 2 sticks. In the process of playing, children learn: To count – how many sticks, to look for patterns – number sequence, to problem solve, to subitize –visualize the things and know how many.

Take I, take 2. This game is to decide the bad numbers.  The multiple of three
became the bad numbers but when asked to take 1, 2 or 3 sticks then the bad
number changed to multiple of 4.

Lesson 7- Spin a number

Spin the number, was an interesting game where we had to get the biggest even number.
The minute an even number was spun I would write it down at the end of the whole number this is to avoid the odd number appearing in the end.  Well I never got the highest number because I never took risk. But when asked, if we used game cards instead, would that have changed our way of thinking.  One question came up ,"Are you going to put the card back or is it kept away?”  Once Mr Yeap said it would be kept away.  We said our chances of getting the highest number increases as we know which numbers are taken away. 

Game Dice

Skills needed for this game is whether they can add, whether they can see a pattern and whether they can communicate, whether they have number sense.
1 6 7 =14

3 5 6 = 14

2 5 7 =14

4 2 8 =14

5 4 5 = 14 
In the class lesson, the children were able to add.  The two ends and the middle add up to 14. Amazing.  I would have never come up with such logic.

Lesson 8 - Division

Yes, you were right I was taught exactly the way you did the sum on the board. 
The teacher would say, “You better listen to me and don’t question
because that’s the way it is, there is no two ways about it.”

         217     (Explanations)

   3)651

     6        (2 ×  3 = 6)

     05       (6 -  6 = 0)(five is brought down)

      3       (1 ×  3 = 3)

      21      (5 -  3 = 2)(one is brought down)

      21      (7 ×  3 = 21)

       0      (21 - 21 = 0)

We can also divide like this.

  6             5 1                          divided by 3                                          217     

                                                      3)651

                                                        600        

                                                         51       

                                                         30       

                                                         21      

                                                         21      

200          10                7 = 217                                                                                                               

We learned about the CPA Approach that is the lesson should be taught in with concrete first, than pictorial and then abstract. Jerome Bruner Theory.

Multiply using the columns and rows. Students can more readily develop an
understanding of multiplication concepts if they see visual representations of
the computation process.

 
If the child knows 10X3, to find 9x3 is not very difficult, The child takes 10 rows of three and
then subtract 1 row to get 9x3.

Today we also talk about Teach less learn more.
Thinking school and learning nation and about Malcolm Blackwell who said if you spent 10,000 hrs at anything you will be good at it.

Subtraction – 
Take two numbers and subtract a single digit number and the answer is 3

10-7 = 3

11-8= 3

12-9=3
This is called a growing pattern.  After brainstorming we came up with a pattern: - The answer 3, has three solutions, the answer 5, has five solutions, the answer 2, has two solutions and 
the answer 1, has one solution.

Lesson 9– Fraction

John spent ¼ of his money on a gift. He spends 1/3 of the remainder on a book. If he had $72 How much did he spent on a gift?  How much did he spend on a book? How much did he spend altogether?
I have learned today when teaching young children we must get them to look at the sum one step at a time.
4 units = 72
1unit = 72 divided by 4=18
Therefore John spent $18/- on gift and another $18/- on book. He spend $36 altogether and he had $36/- left. (Model below)

For high achiever we can challenge them by changing the fraction.  Enrichment programme is better than acceleration. Children learn procedure understanding.  Learn conceptual understanding that is relation.  
Learn convention in which some are universal and some are contradictory.
I learn a new word today – Metacognition which is a part of the brain.

To sum up: Broad goals are thinking and problem solving, Making, Reasoning , Communication – justify, make connections.
The 5 Big ideas
Patterning, Representation, Number sense\visualization, Metacognition,                                      Generalization, Communication