Monday 22 August 2011

Awesome Monday Math!

WoW! I never thought maths will be this fun...! To be frank, I was super sleepy today and could not concentrate during my whole day course in the morning. I was thinking to myself, "I am so tired and sleepy... How can I survive my first math class today?"
Indeed, I survived! I was wide awake!

I feel we can do wonders with math!!! It can be magical and interesting. It is how the teacher introduce the different math concepts and provide us with the opportunity to really think of the solutions!

Today's math class was awesomely interesting! Initially, I was sharing with Liana, saying, "Is he (Mr Yeap) speaking math to us? It seems that everything he writes, he links it to math (e.g date, lesson number, his name)" I came to conclude that INDEED he is... He also provides us with the foundation and the correct terms to use to teach math.

One interestingly funny example Mr Yeap shared was about the difference between ordinal number with respect to time and ordinal number with respect to space.
A teacher has to be carefully with the way he/she asks a math question. Let's look at the two questions and see which makes sense....
Question 1: Who is third in the race? (ordinal number with respect to time)
Question 2:  Who is third from the finishing line? (ordinal number with respect to space)

Let's ponder for a moment....

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Alright... Let me share with you... How can a child answer question 1 when the teacher only shows the picture??? A child may be able to tell who is third in the race if he/she is given a video and to see the ordinal number with respect to TIME.....
BUT the child can definitely find out the answer to question 2, which is "Who is third from the finishing line?" from the picture... GET IT?? hahhahah


I didn't know that POKER CARDS can be a good resource for math... Believe it or not, just now Mr Yeap shared a MAGIC!!! And Liana and I could actually figure out how he did that! AMAZING!!!!


TRY THIS! 
The objective of the game is to call out the number and make sure the card you show is the number you call out. You have cards Ace to 9.  Arrange the cards in a way that you spell the numbers out, one to nine. Place the cards facing down .After spelling each number, say out the number and put the card away .... For example, o,n,e,1. put away the card "1" that you call out. Then continue with the rest of the numbers.
Try it... It's Fun!


"Mathematics is an excellent vehicle for the development and improvement of a
person’s intellectual competence in logical reasoning, spatial visualisation, analysis
and abstract thought. Students develop numeracy, reasoning, thinking skills, and
problem solving skills through the learning and application of mathematics."
                                                                                    -MOE Mathematics Syllabus

Just something to share before come to an end:

Prerequisite of counting (The fundamentals of counting)
1st: Is to classify.
2nd: Is to rote count.
3rd: Is to count with one to one correspondence
4th: is to appreciate the last number you utter in the group.

Happy thinking about math!!!
Looking forward to my next and many many math lessons!!

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