Memorizing has been used as a practice in many schools and it involves rote learning. While this method can be used in certain cases like teaching phonics in the beginning years; it still acts as an ineffective method in many other cases. When it comes to teaching Math facts, rather than forcing children to memorize hundreds of facts, they can be taught to learn the facts by understanding and applying simple patterns. Since this is more visual, it attracts the young learner to grasp complex concepts in an efficent and easy manner. Hence, memorization need not be the primary method to learn Math facts.
Here is an attempt to teach addition facts using patterns. The child was asked to make 6 using a pattern. By just coloring the grids using two colors in a particular fixed pattern, the learner was automatically able to write the corresponding addition facts. Moreover, the objective here is to make sure that the learner understands that there is a fixed pattern in the diagram as well as in the addition statements. The following pictures shows how a diagram with a pattern is drawn for making 6 and 5. The two broken pieces that looks like puzzle pieces gives a clue for the learner to recognize the fixed pattern. Here, the young learner can easily notice that one set of numbers/grids are increasing from the top and the other set of numbers/grids are decreasing from the top.
Let us take a look at another pattern that can be used to write addition facts with great ease. The only skill the learner needs to master is to be able to create a mental picture of the fixed pattern in order to come up with the addition facts.
Either of the above fixed pattern will help the learner to write addition facts with great ease. With more practise, it would become easier to write addition facts for any given number.
After practising for couple times, when the first grader was asked to write addition facts for number 15 , it took few minutes for him to write these facts.
This week, we started to make an addition book and this is what goes in the first page.
More fun pages to be created in our addition book. I appreciate your inputs if you have any more ideas for our addition book which is in the making. I enjoy learning and sharing with you.
Here is an attempt to teach addition facts using patterns. The child was asked to make 6 using a pattern. By just coloring the grids using two colors in a particular fixed pattern, the learner was automatically able to write the corresponding addition facts. Moreover, the objective here is to make sure that the learner understands that there is a fixed pattern in the diagram as well as in the addition statements. The following pictures shows how a diagram with a pattern is drawn for making 6 and 5. The two broken pieces that looks like puzzle pieces gives a clue for the learner to recognize the fixed pattern. Here, the young learner can easily notice that one set of numbers/grids are increasing from the top and the other set of numbers/grids are decreasing from the top.
Let us take a look at another pattern that can be used to write addition facts with great ease. The only skill the learner needs to master is to be able to create a mental picture of the fixed pattern in order to come up with the addition facts.
Either of the above fixed pattern will help the learner to write addition facts with great ease. With more practise, it would become easier to write addition facts for any given number.
After practising for couple times, when the first grader was asked to write addition facts for number 15 , it took few minutes for him to write these facts.
This week, we started to make an addition book and this is what goes in the first page.
More fun pages to be created in our addition book. I appreciate your inputs if you have any more ideas for our addition book which is in the making. I enjoy learning and sharing with you.
This is really interesting! they did multiplication using squares, but not addition... they used the number line... this will be really useful for remembering stuff like what adds up to 6, 10 etc.... will get samhith to do this.... btw, have u seen these math kits by navnirmiti?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.navnirmiti.org/store/products/math/mathkits.htm
lovely stuff. got the place value kit for samhith... he used it a bit but then got bored but maybe your DS will like it more since he is more visually inclined... if u want, i can send mine to u too..
Dear Anu,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing. I guess this method not only is appealing to visual learners but attracts just any children who are beginners in grasping Math concepts. Remembering a pattern is a pre-cursor to mastering mental Mathematics. Let me know how Samhith likes it. And, thanks for the navnirmiti link. They have some cool stuffs there. Mathemat and plugs, place value kit and geo tiles seems very attractive and I am sure DS would love those.