In my EDUC 376 Numeracy class, I learned that building blocks are very fun for children but also extremely important to develop their numeracy skills and problem-solving abilities. I learned that LEGO bricks are excellent to increase spatial thinking and of course, they’re very fun. These bricks are even more effective if a specific building goal is given to children. Other games that are very good for children are Tangram puzzles and Tetris.
For counting, we shouldn’t worry if the students counting is slow but accuracy is very important.
Some fun math activities that I learned about are:
- Number Jump – the teacher holds up a number of fingers and the students jump on the spot and count up on each jump as well. When the teacher holds up a new number, the students begin at the number they stopped at when they count up.
- Snakes and Ladders is also a fun way to practice counting up from a number. We should always encourage students to count up from a number instead of starting from one all the time.
- Asking questions like “which has more” and “which has less” should be part of the vocabulary we routinely use with children.
- Ordinal numbers should be implemented into every day vocabulary as well. Who is second in line? Second means two in line.
I also learned that being able to copy simple patterns is important for children to learn and then being able to extend those same patterns is also important. Describing patterns with numbers is very beneficial and can be started with, “when you add zero to a number, the sum is always the number.” From there, we can move on to adding one to a number (always the next number in the counting sequence), and when you add two or three numbers, it doesn’t matter which one is put first in the equation. Patterns are important to understand algebra.
