Friday 5 June 2015

Classroom Math Games

Math is one of the most important subjects in our life. No matter what path one takes in his or her life, math will always come in use for us. We cannot function without knowing math. This is the reason that in most schools, math is given utmost importance as a subject. But this importance sometimes proves to be counterproductive as the stress and pressure of performing well in the subject kills the urge to study the subject in kids.

A child's psychology is very delicate. They need encouragement and motivation to do well in school and that's what every teacher should aim at while teaching a class. Math is the kind of subject that doesn't give any consolation to the students. Either they are right or completely wrong. This comes as a huge discouragement for the students who are trying their best but still aren't getting the right grades. As a result, they start to run away from the subject of math altogether. Children love to get involved in an activity which tests their abilities without giving them the fear of failure.

How can you do this? Well, it's simple! By organizing classroom math games! You can bri
ng in various classroom math games in your class and make your whole class participate in it. Even though there are many classroom math games which you can create by yourself, but if you want a more advanced game or a more scientifically designed game model, then you can buy a math game from the market also.

Going by the grade you are teaching, you can choose from the different difficulty level. If you are planning to include the entire class in the math game, then make sure that you by a level that is followed by each student. This would encourage even the weaker students of the class to participate in the game. But still, don't buy a game that's so easy that it doesn't pose any challenge to the students.

You can get many different types of classroom math games from the market. These games range from simple flash cards to hi-tech interactive computer puzzles. You can choose to buy a math puzzle according to your budget. There are classroom math games for almost every topic of math. Therefore, you can teach everything related to math like geometry, algebra, trigonometry etc.

Apart from engaging the students in the subject, these puzzles are also a great way to make the weaker students practice the subject. For example, if a particular student is weak in multiplication, then you can provide him with a multiplication game that he can play with his friends or by himself. This way, even the weak student in the class will be able to catch up with the rest of the students.

Classroom math games are a fun and entertaining way to enjoy the exciting subject called MATH. It is highly recommended that as a teacher you introduce your students to such games. So, go ahead and buy your favorite classroom math games and make your classroom a fun place!

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Creative Club Ideas For a Kid After School Activity

School is back in session and you're looking for a creative after school activity for kids. Whether you're a parent or after school care provider, keeping kids busy, happy and safe can be a challenge. Between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. is when kids need fun activities to keep them from being bored. I have listed ideas for after school clubs that are easy to plan and fun for kids to do.

Organize a cooking club to make a nutritious snack for everyone. Make a healthy trail mix with granola or cereal, peanuts, pretzels, seeds and dry fruit. Mix up fruit smoothies in a blender with low-fat yogurt, fresh fruit, honey and ice. Put together mini-pizzas with small bagels, pizza sauce, and cheese. Review math concepts such as fractions, addition and subtraction with the cooking lesson.

Physical fitness is an activity to plan each day. Kids need about an hour of physical exercise each day. Have a fitness club to organize a team sport such as dodge ball, softball, and volleyball to play with everyone. The club can also plan relay races and fitness and movement games. If weather is rainy or snowy, play indoor volleyball, basketball or set up an obstacle fitness course.

Putting on a play or puppet show is an activity that can be ongoing for several weeks or more. Have a drama or puppet club, which meets twice per week. The kids will pick a story or play that they like, design costumes or puppets, create props, and practice their parts. Pick a date for the performance and invite other students, friends and family to come see their production.
Eight more great after school club activity ideas:
  • Science Club: do experiments and record results
  • Chess Club: have tournaments
  • Book Club: read a book, discussion, and write book reviews
  • Dance Club: learn dance steps from all over the world
  • Language Club: learn sign or a foreign language
  • Photography Club: take photos of other clubs
  • Journalism Club: put together a monthly newsletter
  • Art Club: drawing, painting, sculpture, and cartooning
Plan on each club being between one half to one hour in length. Offer sessions so everyone can have an opportunity to participate in many of the activities. A different club or activity can be offered each day. Have kids sign up for a club that they are interested in. Involve the kids in the planning, preparation, and even leading the club. The more the kids are involved in the activity, the more successful the activity will be.

Seeking for a trustworthy maths tuition center in Singapore, visit www.eimaths.com now.

How to Find a Good Math Tutor

In most cases it is found that the key to improving math is that the child needs to have a bent of mind wanting to be a good student. If this minimum ingredient is not achieved then all tutoring efforts may end up as being futile.

The most practical way to decide on a math tutor and finding the best among many is to let him judge by comparison. Let the child go to as many tutors as possible and let him decide which suits him the best. Tutoring centers and private tutors do understand this and offer free initial classes for new students.

The key to a good teacher is not only his capability of teaching well but also his interest in teaching students. It needs to be a mutual and team effort between student and tutor which will ultimately lead to fruitful education. With good chemistry between the two, children understand math much better and are also open to giving feedback for better training practices. A good teacher would go out of his way to do more research to find some innovative ways of teaching that would be more beneficial to his students. The tutor should be able to know methods and algorithms that can really help children get more marks in mathematics.

One mistake that parents make very often is to treat mathematics at grade 1, 2 or 3 as not very important and think that it involves only basic computation. However the very foundation for math is laid in these grades and therefore it is very important for such young children to get a good and strong foundation and build problem solving skills at an initial stage in education.

Lots of students feel afraid of mathematics because of a weak foundation. Such students need tutors who are really patient with them. It is not always fruitful to have long sessions of tutoring rather emphasis should be given on short sessions and then time should be given to watch their reaction. Tutors should emphasize on finding the reason why students struggle to solve certain problems and trace their root causes. Another way could be to go through the students notes to find out the line of thinking used by student.

A good math tutor should be interested in finding out which procedure is good for the student and which is not. As an example, there might be many ways of finding factors for a trinomial but student needs to master only one, with which he/she is comfortable. The tutor should be flexible enough to allow and assist the student in getting good with the means and method the student chooses even if it is a bit slower.

Patience is the foremost quality to look into a math tutor. Tutor should be willing to assume it's his own child and him being the math tutor, what treatment would he then impart. There are a lot of cases wherein tutor do not open heartedly embrace other students as their own children and give them preferred and more in depth tutoring as compared to others. A tutor without open and good heart would not be a very good teacher.

So before you make a final call ensure the math tutor is qualified, has good rapport with children, is equally sensitive to each and every student and creates the process of learning math a whole lot of fun.

Looking for a trustworthy maths enrichment centre in Singapore, visit www.eimaths.com now.

Thursday 14 May 2015

Teaching Kindergarten and Preschool Math

The way math is presented to children makes a tremendous difference in their success as learners, as well as your success as an educator. Children need to take part in activities that encourage them to experiment, to investigate, and to record their observations.

Preschool and kindergarten students always need to have things to move around or manipulate in order to make sense of math concepts. In the education world these are called "manipulatives" and there are a great assortment of these available, such as blocks, counters and pattern blocks. Give children ample time to play with the manipulatives in order to satisfy their curiosity about the materials before attempting to use them to teach a math concept. Introduce new math vocabulary as the children play, as this will help them when they participate in teacher led experiences.
Keep structured lessons short to begin with and do not assume the children understand your expectations. Spend a week teaching proper use of materials and proper cleanup. Teach the children to use mats to identify and define their work area.

The following steps work well when teaching young children. First, demonstrate the math activity two or three times before you give the children materials. You will quickly lose the children's attention if you pass the materials out first. Second, give materials to the children and ask them to try the activity. Check to see all have understood the concept and are experiencing success. Assist children that are having difficulty.

After a few days of the same or similar lessons, record your math experience as the children observe. Keep it simple. For example, after a lesson making repeating patterns print the words, I made a pattern. Say, "I used a red block, a blue block, a red block, a blue block." Draw the pattern and color the blocks. Pass out paper and have the children draw what they did and record words using their knowledge of letters and letter sounds. Recording the activity gives children an opportunity to share and solidify their knowledge.

A Singapore maths educational article by Scotts Digital, a digital branding agency in Singapore

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Effective Way to Teach Mathematics - A Guide For Tutors

Mathematics can be considered as the most problematic subject area among average students. Not all students are able to grasp the concept of their math subjects as easily as how brilliant student are able to do so. This is the reason why home tuition will mostly cover math subjects. Thus, private tutors must develop a skill on how they will be able to deliver the concept of the subject matter in a manner that can be understood by their student easily.

In order to make teaching mathematics effective, teachers must follow the most important principle of teaching math to keep them on the right track. Teachers need to make everything about the concept make sense. Let's face it math can really be very complex. Your teacher can teach you the steps and procedures on how to solve a certain math equation but fails to make you understand why these steps actually work.

More often than not, math teachers will only focus on the how of the concept rather than the why. Meaning, the students may grasp the procedure and solve certain problems but loose on the concept or their ability to understand why the procedure is working. For instance, a child may be able to learn the procedure or the how to multiply but is not able to understand the concept or why the formula works. This kind of learning is very superficial and can be forgotten over time. But, if the teacher is able to let the student understand the concept behind the formula, then it can be considered as learning the subject matter as whole. The understanding of the procedures and the concept may vary from one student to another. Thus, the teacher must be flexible with how he relays the subject matter.

Teaching tools is another factor that needs to be considered to. Making use of different tools to make teaching more effective must also be given priority. With the innovations in technology, so many teaching tools have been developed. From abacus to calculators, textbooks to e-books, even games are utilized to make understanding easier. However, teachers must effectively use the resources efficiently and effectively. Teachers can start from the basics. As time goes by, they can now add more tools to aid them in their teaching strategies. You need not grasp every tool all at once. You can utilize each tool one at a time, taking in to consideration how your students are benefiting from each tool.

You see, every child has a unique learning potential. Thus, it is very important for educators to identify how their students are responding to their way of teaching. Thus to make teaching effective, it is the responsibility of the teacher to use variations on their styles and they must be flexible enough to adapt on the learning capacity of their student. This goes especially true among those who are providing home tuition. They must be very keen in observing whether their manner of delivering the subject matter is effective or not.

A Singapore maths educational article by Scotts Digital, a top branding agency Singapore

Friday 8 May 2015

Singapore Math Methods and Beliefs

At least for me, Math is one of the most difficult subjects to teach a child. This is especially true if you are homeschooling and you need to be the math teacher. When I started teaching my children, I was worried I would never be able to teach them how to be really good at math considering it isn't exactly my strong point.

I was very blessed to come across a program called Singapore Math. I was amazed at how differently they taught math compared to all of the other math programs I have come across. In fact, Singapore Math has been teaching me right along with my children. The concepts are presented in such a way that everyone can learn.

Singapore is known for having the highest math scoring students in the world. Singapore Mathematics teaches your child the exact same way and gives them the head start they need to become math geniuses. I became a believer of the Singapore Math curriculum when I saw the results in my own children.

They caught on very quickly with Singapore Math compared to the other math we had tried. They understood the material better, and still know how to effortlessly apply what they learned last year. That is proof of a great math curriculum.

I have found that there is a huge difference in the way Singapore Math teaches my children how to think about math. Sure, they learn to memorize things like any other math curriculum, but with Singapore Math, children learn to think about problems in several different ways.

For example, with the very small children, this curriculum will show them a sequence of numbers like 3, 4, 5, and 6. With these numbers, they will have to memorize them and decide if the sequence goes forward or backward. Other sequences will have numbers missing, and the child will decide which numbers are missing, where they go, and if the sequence goes forward or backward.
This requires the student to focus on thinking about the numbers rather than taking the easy way out by just memorizing them. While other programs teach you how to do math, this program teaches you how to understand math. The colorful pictures and entertaining characters really add a nice element to the material as well.

One of the Singapore Math methods I truly enjoy is the way they present math problems to my children. Most math curriculums give children a problem to learn how to solve. In order to help them solve it, they will show children how to place the problem within a formula.

With Singapore Mathematics the children learn each and every step of a problem, which gives them a greater understanding of how math works. They will then be provided with the problem as a whole, and this ensures that they are already familiar with the individual parts of the problem, so the entire problem is not overwhelming to them.

Singapore Math is just great for parents who want to raise intellectual thinkers. Children who understand the concepts of mathematics from the inside out can more easily solve problems and figure out answers to other types of problems. This is the reason that the Singapore curriculum is my first choice, and will continue to be as my children grow.

A Singapore maths educational article by Scotts Digital, a top marketing firms in Singapore.

Which Homeschool Math Curriculum Is Best?

Many parents usually ask the question of which math homeschool curriculum would be best for their children. Which curriculum has the most resources? Which has the best textbooks? This one comes with a lot of math worksheets and quizzes, why don't the others? There are a lot of questions and a lot of great curricula to choose from, but it's often hardest to determine which would fit their child's specific needs the best. This is why it's important to establish a foundation to build on when it comes to picking the right math curriculum for your children.

There are a lot of popular curricula offered on the market today and they all target different learning styles. One of the most popular curricula out there for both classroom and homeschool teaching is Saxon. This type of curriculum provides an approach that is very similar to the approach of an ordinary Math textbook used in classrooms. Each new lesson typically contains exercises which would help the student understand a specific topic better. On the completely opposite end of the learning spectrum would be Math-U-See. This curriculum is heavily video oriented, and is targeted towards visual learners allowing the child to visualize the topics of the subject first. This is a much more creative way of helping a child who doesn't particularly like math learn Mathematics.

If you've done any research into math curriculum then you've come across Singapore Math, which is a mastery-based type of curriculum. The focus of this type of curriculum is the memorization of certain topics and methods which are important to mastering the subject. Of course, there are still other curricula that are also preferred by parents such as Abeka Math and Miquon Math. All of these are tried, true and proven effective, which still leaves the question which one is the best?

Here are the two main determining factors in choosing; first is the teacher and the second is the student. The teacher should be an important factor in choosing the best math homeschool curriculum for the child. Yes, the teacher. Curriculum is a tool and an effective teacher is the key to learning. A teacher does more than provide a book, a teacher must be able to relay the information from the book in such a way that the child will understand it.

Great! More work to do, right? Math doesn't teach itself, teaching is always part of the equation for homeschooling, that part is no different than in a classroom. The trick is being enthusiastic about teaching the subject matter. If you hate the curriculum how is your child going to enjoy it? If you can't make a more rigid curriculum fun then choose a curricula that is designed to be more interactive and engaging to benefit the both of you.

In choosing which curriculum would be best for your child, identify your child's learning method. Does your child tend to me more visual, auditory or a memory based learner? For instance, many parents end up buying Saxon, Horizons and Singapore Math programs because their children are so different in how they learn. They all work well, but typically, children who are more language oriented and don't really care much for math tend to prefer Horizons. Children who are typically stronger in math prefer Singapore. Saxon and Horizons are fairly similar in approach, so many parents end up combining Singapore with either of those programs as Singapore is more of a critical thinking method.

It's true, choosing a good math homeschool curriculum can be quite a tedious task, but to answer to the ultimate question of which curriculum is best... it would have to be a combination of curriculum. No, that's not a cop-out, combining multiple methods ensures a better understanding and more well-rounded education and that's what your really researching isn't it?

A Singapore math PR article by Scotts Digital, a top marketing companies