Dear parents,
Last week we have started our Numberwork Main Lesson. The focus at this very beginning point is a slow and unhurried approach that does not push the child to count and calculate too early – an approach that strives to build confidence and ignite a passion for learning and numbers. So, we are working on movement, concrete, experiential and embodied learning. Allowing time for ‘feeling’ the quantity and numbers through playing with beans/pebbles/seeds helps the children get a real sense and understanding of number. It is then not an abstract concept. When counting, sorting, grouping, sharing, playing in this way, the children are learning to add and subtract without even knowing that they are doing so. Through math stories they are required to solve the same problems the main characters have to solve. They use manipulatives (pebbles,/seeds/beans) to work through these tales and classroom conundrums. This experiential learning allows a real ‘living’ understanding of math to develop within them. We have started the first Numberwork block with the Quality of Numbers. WHAT DOES QUALITY OF NUMBERS MEAN?We usually think of numbers only as quantities, adding or subtracting numbers, getting to bigger or smaller numbers, counting and working out numbers. But there are numbers all around us. They are expressed in certain patterns in nature, in music, and in our own bodies, so numbers also have qualities. For example: · Oneness - There is only one sun, one Earth, one me. The Circle. Uniqueness. · Twoness, duality - Day and night, my friend and I, Sun and Moon. The Lemniscate. Togetherness. · Threeness, threefold - Head, Heart and Hands, clovers have three leaves. A Triangle. Strength. · Four-ness, fourfold – Four seasons, Directions. Most mammals walk on four legs (humans are unique - we walk on two!). A Square. Safety, boundaries. · Five-ness. roses and apple flowers have five petals, and there’s a five-pointed star hidden inside the apple. A Star. Balance. And so, we will go on with the rest of the numbers, to twelve. As parents, you can also help your children when you can go for nature walks and treasure hunts to find the numbers all around you and also see what they come up with themselves. Exploring numbers in this way gives all of us a chance to look at the world in a new way and make many exciting discoveries. HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE DO/AND WILL DO WHEN WORKING WITH NUMBERS IN THIS BLOCK:· Concepts of whole numbers, 1-12 · Counting forwards and backwards – (using a variety of methods) · Roman and Arabic numerals (writing and recognition) · Count in different rhythms (stamping on every second or third number) · Take a handful of pebbles,/seeds/beans and count to see how many we have - then discover all the different ways we can arrange that handful into groupings or patterns · Use string to make forms/draw a circle and arrange five stones evenly spaced around the circle - then draw lines to connect the stones to make a pentagon and the five-pointed star, etc. · Listen to fairy tales with strong number qualities and learn number verses. · Look at all the different ways we can make ten using our fingers, etc. Numberwork is fun! All the best. Teacher Beulah 15th March 2021 |
AuthorTeacher Beulah's 'Letter to the Parents' Archives
February 2023
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