last session

Time flies, and here we are, at the end of our session!

Since today is the last session, it is mostly about revision.
Mr Yeap talked about multiplication and conventions, and how some children may struggle with conventions as it involve mental cognition.
We also revisit yesterday's topic on triangles.

We had a short quiz!


Amazing how it takes strategies to set question too!
For instant, for question 4, we will not be able to say "There are 3 pizzas, share it among 2/3 people"
We calculate people by 1s, not in fraction. Hence, it do takes some tricks to set a valid word problem too!

Dr Yeap then get us to paste a sticker (which represent us) on our birthday month range on the board. He then talked about computing data and putting it in a graph format. we can also do line graph or pie chart if we wish.

 

This are a total of 3 people playing this game. Two of them will pick up a card and place it on their forehead so that they will not know the number on their card. The person, whom is standing in the middle, will look at both cards and multiply both number together and say it out loud to the other two. the objective for the other two is to find out the number which they are holding and placing on their forehead.

 

Through this activity, we did differentiated learning.

Instead of multiplying, we tried addition too.

And we add more people in to hold the number cards, which makes it more challenging.

 

We ended the day by having group discussion for final assignment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really appreciate Dr Yeap for making these lessons so enjoyable.

Now that we had experience it, it is indeed true that children learn first through concrete material, then move on to pictorial, and lastly abstract items. It is also useful to have peer interaction, we get better as we talk to others about our thoughts.

We also should have differentiated learning for different children; struggling, average, advance.

 

This course had sure helped many "un-do" wrong practises which they were taught previously, and add on to their knowledge.



Singing off-
Teacher Huimin

session 5

Today, we were given time for our group work, to find an art work for our final assignment.

 

 We were tasked to form as many squares as possible and trace our findings on the mahjong paper.


After which, we need to find out how many times is it from this standard piece.

Some of which are hard to define the area, hence not sure how many times it is from standard square. such as this:





















We then by overlapping the shapes, find out which is the same area of the square and hence, measure it!

 

 



Tada!

We then moved on to having to manipulate with paper (which is of triangle shape).
We need to explore the material and explain why the sum of the angles in a triangle will be 180 degrees.

After which, we talked about folding a triangle into a rectangle.
we will find the area of the rectangle, and eventually find the area of the triangle.

 That's all for today.

Sings "it begins will a line, line, circle, circle, square square square square, triangle triangle."
All about shapes!

Signing off-
Teacher Huimin

session 4

We started today off with a WOW!!!
It's like Dr Yeap can read our minds!

Problem presented:

There I was thinking of number 4 and 1.
and Dr Yeap was able to say the answer is 36.

Someone from the class thought two numbers,
and Dr Yeap was able to find out the answer too.

Ít's kind of scary, how can that be?
and so, the class went into an investigation!

we realised that the answer is always 9 times the 1st-digit number.
WHY?
Let me find out and write in my journal!(:

And so, we moved on to talk about fractions.
What are the various methods for 3 pigs to share 4 pizzas.



The class had talked about 2 methods.

One of which is to give each pig one pizza first, and split the last pizza into 3 thirds and each take 1 thirds.

Another method is to split all pizzas into 3 thirds each.

Then split the 12 thirds according, so each will have 4 thirds.

I really like the way Dr Yeap used stories to relate to us.

Yesterday, he used "Jack and the beanstalk" to talk about beans (as a concrete materials) to talk about subtraction (taking away)

Today, he used "3 little pigs" to talk about splitting pizza (as a pictorial) to talk about division (splitting it equally)

We ended the class with geometry.

We are supposed to come out with any figures, so long that a dot (not more, not less) is contained in the figure.

Ta-da!!

We are supposed to count the number of times our figure is bigger than original figure.

Different methods.

As a class, we derive that 1 and 1/2 times of the sample square is the smallest that we can make, whereas 12 times of the sample square is the largest that we can make.

There are some problem encountered, we cannot calculate all the exact area.

So Rowena suggested to count the number of dots and divide is by two, that is how many times your figure is larger than the sample.

 However, this is not applicable for all cases.

 

 

In this case, number of dots is 4, 4 divide by 2 is 0.

However, the answer should be 1.

It is 1 time as big as the sample figure.

 

Hence, Dr Yeap explained that Georg A. Pick had came out with a solution.

Ta-da!

 

Just a question to think about!

hehehehhee!

 

(it is actually somewhat like the first problem that Dr Yeap presented to us today)

Really mind reading?

Noooo, it's just some mathematics trick!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Signing off-

Teacher Huimin

session 3

"Without reusing the digit cards, how many ways can you add two digit numbers to two digit numbers and the answer must be two-digit number too?"

 

It was an interesting question that Dr Yeap had given us.

I worked out a few.

 

Then Dr Yeap continue to facilitate and make us think even deeper.

What is the greatest two-digit number you can form?

99? Nooooo, because remember the rule is digit card can only be used once.

Can number 0 be used? In which part?

It cannot be use as the additional area (because whatever plus zero is that number and the rule is digit card can only be used once).

However, it can be used in the one-digit place in the sum part.

 

Example of me and Shirley's ways of deriving at 90 (0 at the ones-digit place) and 98 (largest 2-digit number that can be formed)

 

and after which, we had a QUIZ!
It is for us to apply our knowledge based on what we learn over the past 2 days.

Anyway, we moved on the next problem, to divide a rectangle into 4 equal parts.
we can perceive the rectangle to be chocolate, cloth, whatever.










I was craving for pizza, so yes, my rectangle is the pizza.
and I am suppose to divide it equally into 4 parts and share it with my friends.

Then I heard comments from my classmate, "why do we need to share? I am sure they can afford it themselves".
True also, hahahaha!

So anyway, I attempted on the question!
















Everyone was then challenged again, to divide the rectangle equally, but of different shapes.















Awwww, it is something for me to think about..

Clare came out with a few brilliant solutions
(and I forget to take a photo of it, hopefully she will post it on her blog.)

We ended the day with a last problem,
which is to divide 3 fourths equally between 2 people.

Each should get 3 eighths of it.
But the problem is... How to derive to that answer? How many methods are there?













With that, we sum up about fractions.
Part-whole.
Part-part-whole.
Part-part-part-whole.
Part-part-part-part-whole.

 

 

That's all for now.

Signing off-
Teacher Huimin



session 2

Numbers?

What are numbers for?

Is it a Cardinal number or Ordinal? Or is it Nominal number or Measurement number?

 

WOW!

I had not come to this terms before.

 

I always thought that numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all the way till infinity.

Today, I get to know the different uses of number; Cardinal, Ordinal, Nominal, Measurement.

 

1) Cardinal-calculating quantity (example: 10 packets of rice)

2) Ordinal-indicating position (example: 4th place in race)

3) Nominal-a name for it (example: Bus 8, F1)

4) Measurement-time and space

 

 

Unknowingly, through the in-class activities, we are dealing with numbers.

Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division.

 

It is interesting how Dr Yeap introduce us the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ol1h9VB4Lyk) and gives us opportunities to count how many were going to St. Ives? 

It goes like this:

There is a man who has 7 wives,

each wife has 7 sacks,

each sack consists of 7 cats,

and each cat has 7 kittens.

 

 

In the video, the answer was adding the total number of kittens with cats with sacks with wives and man.

However, we should not include sack as sack is of different noun.

 

I like the way Dr Yeap relate to this problem and explain to us that we cannot count if it is of different noun.

(it is like adding apples to oranges)

 

Dr Yeap also mentioned reasons why children cannot count.

The reasons are that children are not able to do the following:

1) classify

2) do rote counting

3) one-to-one correspond

4) appreciate that the last number represent the size of the set

 

The part that I love about the class is about the kidney beans.

In pair, we were supposed to take a handful of beans and take turns to count down by 1 or 2.

The objective was to countdown to 0.

I kept losing the game to my partner consecutively, until I figured out a pattern.

The person with 3 beans will lose,

because if the person count down by one, partner will count down by 2 and win the game.

and if the person count down by two, partner will count down by 1 and still win the game.

 

It is really a game about strategy; to try to count down to a number which is advantage to you instead of your partner.

 

 

Moving on, we talked about the usage of ten frames to solve problem!

(which in this case, to calculate the number of beans that giant had given Jack. Giant initially gave Jack 5 beans, then 7 beans and lastly 6 beans)

There are various methods to derive to 18 as the total number of beans that giant had given Jack.

One method is through counting.

Another method is to shift the kidney beans in the ten frames and realise one ten frame is filled, and another is filled with only 8 kidney beans, which makes it 18 too.

Of course, we can use 30 minus the number of empty space in the ten frame.

 

It is easy to make a ten frame.
This is an idea, using egg cartons!

I believe children will love playing and exploring with the ten frames,
preferably concrete materials.

I shall do it soon for the children in my class!
Signing off-
Teacher Huimin

session 1

"These cards are obedient cards, when you say O-N-E, ta-da, 1 will appear in the next card.
After you throw the card with number 1 on it, you continue T-W-O, ta-da, 2 will appear in the next card,
and this continues until you get 10."
Dr Yeap mentioned in class.

WOW!!! AMAZING!
It was somewhat like watching a magic performance.

My group members and I were exploring and figuring out how to arrange the cards in such a way that we can perform such a "magic" trick too.
Indeed, there is a pattern to it.
and this is what we had found out:


I am sooooo going to amaze my children back at school!

Anyway , this was what happen in school today, a lot of "WOW" moments!

Today was an introduction to the course.
There wasn't a specific topic that Dr Yeap talked about.

It was more of creating a mathematical climate in the classroom.

We were presented with 4 problems today,
one of which was the card trick that was presented earlier.

Another was a problem that can be found in the textbook.
It was about two shredding paper machine, one can shred a truckload of paper within 4 hours, while another can shred the same amount within 2 hours. If both machines were run at the same time, how long do it needs to shred a truckload of paper. With logical deducing and trial and error, we manage to solve the problem as a class.

Another problem was count the letters in your name in a certain manner (to and fro) and conclude which letter is counted 99th?

 

 
Dr Yeap get us to explore and share with the class how we derive the answer.
Amazing how we use different angles to look at things.

We were then tasked to find out which letter is counted 99th in our names.
As my name is 6 letters (HUI MIN), my answer will be same as lecture's (Ban Har).

Hence, I helped my partner with finding which letter is counted 99th in her name.
In the midst, we do observe several patterns such as multiple of 12 will stay at the same column. Besides, the numbers in the ones digit in the letter H column consist of even number and will only repeat twice. (2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 0, 0)

To end it off, we were given tangram, and we are tasked to make a rectangle.
 

This is me making rectangles using different number of tangrams.

3 tangrams:




5 tangrams:

 

 

6 tangrams:



 7 tangrams:


It was such a great experience to manipulate and explore the materials and find solutions by ourselves instead of being spoon-feed with answers.

Like what Dr Yeap mentioned at the end of the session, quoting Dienes, Vygoksky and Bruner,
-children learnt through 3 phrases.
1) "Play" which means exploring
2) Structured learning
3) Practise

-Adults scaffold children's learning

-Children learn through CPA
C for concrete materials
P for pictorial
A for abstract

I find it very much true, as I experience this lesson myself.

I think it will be a helpful lesson for parents to go through this process themselves to better know how children think and react as they "put themselves into the children's shoe".

Besides, with an open mind and positive attitude, it is easier to impart knowledge and skills to the young ones.

Signing off-
Teacher Hui Min