Mathematics

Structure of a Numeracy Block

 Over the last few years the teachers at St Paul the Apostle have been developing their understanding of how children best learn Mathematics. Everyday the children in Year Three participate in at least an hour of Mathematics. Recent research suggests that children need 200 hits of a mathematical idea or concept before they will consolidate their understanding. To help the children with achieving the 200 hits we participate in warm up games every day. They help the children use and develop their mental strategies.

There are three parts to our numeracy lessons.
Warm Up
Rich task 
Reflection Time.

In today's blog the children have written about one warm up activity that they enjoy playing. It is a great game for everyone in the family to play. You can always use pasta if you don't have counters. To simplify the game for younger children just make a target with tens and one or just ones. Of course you can also make a target the covers, tens of thousands or higher if you want to extend your learning. The same modifications can be done for the round the garden board. 

We would love to see photos or read comments about your families fun with our warm up game.

On Thursday we played the 'target game' followed by 'round and round the garden'. Follow these easy directions and you will be able to play it at home. 
Draw your own target (the photos will give you a clue) Drop five counters and then work out the number you will start on by counting how many tens and ones you have.
Now draw a round the garden. It doesn't have to be a garden it could be a racing track. Put a counter on one of the spaces. Roll the dice and move the counter the amount on the dice. Add or take away the amount from your number. Pass the dice to the left. Play for as long as you like.
At the end of our time we finished on 930. (Written by Thomas V, Joanna S, Tom K, Isabella M)

Things you will need:Target board, 'Round the Garden' board and dice.

 

Drop five counters and work out your starting number. We started with 320.

 

Place your counter on any square.

Roll the dice and move the amount on the dice.

Add or take away the amount in the square you land in.