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

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

What Are Some Examples of the Singapore Math Method?

What are Some Examples of the Singapore Math Method?

Mathematics can be one of the greatest academic challenges a child can face. By introducing Singapore Maths, Our School has integrated into their curriculum a way to reach all students at all learning levels. Singapore Math is a visual method, using pictorials to describe concepts.

1st Grade Addition

Instead of using numbers to describe a problem, Singapore Math uses pictures. These pictures are presented in stories that can aid in the learning process. A child may see a picture of four birds on a branch and two birds flying towards it, then they will be presented with the problem 4 + 2 =? Another addition problem may illustrate two children with two toys in front of each of them. They will be asked how many toys the children have together and be presented with the problem 2 + 2 =?

2nd Grade Multiplication

A child may see a picture of four birds nests, and each nest may contain four birds. They will be asked to solve the problem: there are (blank) birds in four nests. Being able to see the amount of parts in each whole as an illustration, the child can easily count and solve the problem.

2nd Grade Mental Math

Having experienced this visual style of math, students are then introduced to mental math. The pictures are less descriptive and the problems are more complex, encouraging a student to use their imaginative power to solve the problems. The student may receive three possible answers; three groups of circles with a numerical value in each of them. The student will then be asked to solve what 40 less than 578 is and asked to pick from the three answers available. In order to solve this problem, a mental strategy must be used. Students are encouraged to develop their own mental strategies and share it with others.

3rd Grade Word Problems

As the education process moves on, they will be required to rely on their own mental abilities more and more. The pictures will be replaced with word problems, and ask to solve. A student may see the following problem in words:
125 children participated in a math competition. 54 of them were girls. 

How many more boys than girls were there? 

Instead of being shown the two steps used to complete the problem, the student must determine what they are. Students are encouraged to refrain from drawing pictorial models and use equations to solve the problem. 

The country of Singapore has placed in the top three of when tested in mathematics for years for various. This method has been proven by the test of time to provide a strategy for math that works for all students.