CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

For some great ideas for linking the two main learning contexts of children, for increasing mathematical confidence and for suggestions for some engaging parent involvement at school, check out Improving Primary Mathematics.  Don’t be put off by its unappealing black and white, dense text appearance: there are some really good ideas to be found even with a quick skim.  For example:

- Have children create a record book of Mathematical type activities in which they engage at home. Each record would consist of a photo and a detailed caption describing the maths involved.

- Invite parents into the classroom to share a Maths lesson with the children.  This will demonstrate to parents teaching strategies used today.

A book that is sure to have you itching to get into the classroom to try it out and to innovate on it, is How big is big? This is a gem of a book that will have the classroom abuzz with thinking, making, measuring, discussing – with all the children enthusiastically focussed on mathematical concepts and vocabulary.  The crux of this enthusiasm is that the children will be involved in doing Maths in the real world, encompassing all learning areas.

Judging from the students’ artwork and text in the book, the Year 1/2W classroom of Curl Curl North Public School must have been vibrant with colour, creativity and activity as their teacher inspired them to investigate “How big is big?” by planning and experiencing an imaginary excursion to see the Big Banana.  Hats off to Gretel Watson for her teaching, to her students for their work, and to the parent (Robyn Latimer) who saw its potential for sharing with the wider world.

A record of the work of these Year 1/2 students, this book’s use extends beyond the Junior Primary classroom and can be replicated or adapted in all Primary classes.  So get hold of it, use it, experiment in all the directions it’s bound to send your students.  Share the fun learning this book triggers in your classroom. Let us know what you think of the book by placing a comment on this blog.

Good Mathematics resources are few and far between but one that has recently come to our attention is the Heinemann series, Real World Data.  It takes popular Science, Health and Society & Environment topics and demonstrates how central data collection and presentation are in providing information on these topics.  It shows how textual information can be conveniently shown in graph, chart and table form and thus provide information “at a glance”.

The twelve books in the series provide all sorts of possibilities for use in the classroom, for integrating Maths in other learning areas and for acting as a springboard for local investigations and collection of data for later presentation in graphs, charts and tables.

Recently available in Australia is the new edition of Quentin Blake’s delightful book, Ten Frogs: Dix Grenouilles, whose simple text is written in both English and French.  This will see another generation of Junior Primary children delighting in Blake’s distinctive illustrations and experimenting with the French language in simple counting and naming animals. To do the text justice, it is recommended that non-French speaking teachers go the extra yard and find out how to pronounce the French words correctly.  Attempting the French “r” is fun and will have the little ones sparkling and feeling so “clever”!