November 20th Class: Manipulatives

Today in class we were introduced to the wide variety of math manipulatives. As I think back to my school years I can’t help but wonder why we didn’t have access to these great resources. The only manipulative that I even recognized were the pattern blocks, but I can’t remember using them in the classroom. To my amazement there are lots of manipulatives we can use in the classroom, as well as lots of fun and interesting games to go along with them. The game that I found the most interesting was the one with the straws. In pairs we had to remove up to three straws each time and whoever got the last straw lost. This was a great game for students to express the different strategies they would use as they played. The other game which was lots of fun, but at times difficult, was the one where we had to make a square out of the different shapes given to us. I have to mention that our group was the first to finish!! We where also given a sheet of different animals that could be created from the shapes, I thought it was a great game.

Observation Days Completed

Yesterday was our last observation for this semester. I am sure that everyone had positive and knowledgeable experiences. For the five days that I completed I had a wide variety of activities, which were all lots of fun. I got to do many things such as read aloud to the class, be on recess duty, go on a field trip to the fluvarium, participate in reader aerobics, as well as observe great teachers at work. For the most part the math that I did get to observe was pretty much based out of the text book, but it did include activities where the students got hands-on practice with math. One thing that I did see, which was not a part of my math class when I was in elementary school, and that was math journals. The teacher explained to me that it was a result of wanting the students to be able to talk more about math and relate it to real life experiences…I thought that was pretty cool. I’m sure everyone can’t wait to get back to the classroom after Christmas and gain even more valuable information.

November 22, 2007

Today was the start of our team teaching presentations. I think this assignment is a great way for us to get hands-on practice with teaching math. I think that by having the opportunity to teach a math lesson to a group of peers is helpful because we do not necessarily have the same pressure we would have if teaching children in the classroom. By doing this assignment we are all getting great lesson plans that we could use when we get out into the classroom and we are actually getting to see the lesson in practice. The presentations that have taken place already were great and even though they were intended for primary or elementary I think we all had fun doing the activities. Great Work Everyone!

Fraction Kits

Today in class we were given a handout that helped us create fraction kits. By cutting different coloured paper into different sizes we created concrete manipulatives to learn about fractions. I have to admit it took me quite some time to figure out what we were actually doing and what size I needed to hold up when Ms. Cameron called out a fraction. I don’t exactly know why I kept doing it wrong, maybe because when I was in school the only way we seen fractions was in a written problem from the text. Anyhow I will definitely practice using the fraction kit to learn more about fractions and I intend to use this resource when I enter the classroom.