We sourced for solutions to the problem of "A man and his seven wives...", "Counting down by 1 or 2 until zero, with the use of kidney beans", "Using a 10-frame to count the number of beans Jack has", and "Sharing of 51 eggs amongst 3 persons". This is where we attempted the concept of conventions in finding out different ways of exploring ‘10’ when counting.
In fact, before Dr Yeap got us to solve the second Mathematical problem for the night (counting down with kidney beans), he shared a video in line with possible themes related to the topic i.e. Jack and the Beanstalk. If I was a child, I would enjoy the video as the music was catchy and the lyrics were quite repeated base on the storyline. After watching the video, I was raring with excitement to do the Kidney Beans activity with my partners at our table. It was easier for me to relate, as I felt as if I was Jack, literally counting down the kidney beans. Hahahaha.....I'm sure the children in class would enjoy their Numeracy activities more if teachers make the efforts to embed the element of fun in not only learning, but teaching too!
Oh yes! I was extremely fascinated looking at how Dr Yeap showed us an alternative way to solve calculation, besides the norm of using a calculator or manual working on paper.
This was a new finding for me, as I have never broke a number down into something that’s possibly divisible by the mentioned digit. This method looks logical to me and it’s worth my future attempts when working with big numbers via mental calculations. Forget calculators! Hehehe…
What I discovered from Dr Yeap in today’s session:
There are two different models that teachers can adopt and refer to guide learners:
1.
Acceleration Model – teacher will just teach the
students and moving ahead without delving deeper into the topic or concept
2.
Enrichment Model – teacher stays on a particular topic
and dwell on it; students will explore more on this area where teacher will
work on enriching the topic or concept taught to the child in more than just
one session
In a childcare setting, we would love to adopt the Enrichment Model when embarking on Numeracy concepts. However, many a time we will just attempt it via the Acceleration Model, as long as the topics or syllabus are covered based on the planned curriculum. It’s time for us to really look into the time-tabling and dedicate ample time for us to enforce a more solid foundation when it comes to Numeracy.
And I think today my brilliance in Numeracy thinking increased about 15% after attempting the problems laid out by Dr Yeap and gaining new information about the two different models of teaching Numeracy. Not a bad acquisition for a 4 hour learning and re-learning of Numeracy skills. Don't you think so?
Signing off till another note,
Miss Khadijah Senan
No comments:
Post a Comment