August is here and teachers all across the country are beginning to plan their classrooms. While most of the energy will be spent in the early months helping the younger, newer members get settled, its also important to plan curriculum that will keep the oldest children in your classroom busy as well.
Math Lessons for Older Students
When planning out the math shelf for the start of the year, offering a variety of options to practice with will help keep children focused for longer periods of time.
Adding extensions like the 1-12 number 3-part wood tile cards to the mathematics area of the classroom gives older students an easy way to practice their symbol and quantity recognition.
Once children have begun to master their teen numbers, they are ready to explore the ten board. The ten board when used in parallel to the golden beads is a wonderful way for children to deeply grasp the concepts of tens.
Through this work, we are expanding the child's mind by inviting them to practice using both the ones place and the tens place to create all of the numbers from 10 through 99. This work can also be used to test knowledge by scrambling the cards to create 9 unique numbers that the child then has to create with beads. This work can also be a wonderful way to allow students to work with a friend while continuing to practice their numbers.
Operations
The mathematical area of the classroom has a variety of concepts that need to be taught to each child. While they are practicing their numeration, symbol recognition, and quantity counting skills, students must also practice their operations of addition and subtraction.
The snake game is a work that is loved by all children in the classroom who are practicing their addition and subtraction skills. While they are practicing this game, they are also learning the groups of numbers that make ten when added together. This understanding of the factors of ten will help them in their kindergarten years. We have the bead stairs and boxes you need to make your snake game complete.
Once the child feels comfortable with the addition snake game, they can move on to the Subtraction Snake Game. For classrooms that have more advanced or older children, the Elementary Negative Snake Game is also a wonderful addition to the class shelves.
Place Value and the Decimal System
The last section of the mathematical curriculum of the classroom is the concept of place value and the decimal system. Once children begin to understand the concept of zero and tens, they begin to grasp the concept that numbers change based on where the digit is placed within a number. Working with the decimal system and the golden beads helps children grasp the idea that "17" is different in value from "71", even if they share the same numbers.
It is important to have multiple sets of wooden decimal system cards in small and large that can be used by the children in the classroom. Whether children are simply practicing laying out all cards from 1 through 9000, or they are doing more advanced work like adding and subtracting with beads, it will make the process easier if a classroom has multiple complete sets of the wooden cards.
While they are working with these cards, they can also use the Place Value Stamps to create their very own books. These stamps are sturdy and will survive after years of use and practice with place value.
Once children have practiced extensively with the concrete materials in the classroom, they will be ready to use the Large Bead Frame. This frame is an abstract way of depicting the beads used throughout the math lessons in the classroom. This is the perfect work for a child that is practicing writing and solving equations.
This week's worksheet is a sunshine themed ten frame activity.
