Blog Post #4

It's week 7 and 8 already!! Wow has time flown by. Here is a little recap of meaningful learning moments I had from the past 2 weeks.

Clipart

Week 7 had us investigate fractions and decimals. I really liked that both the textbook and our in-class instruction started with the idea of seeing fractions and decimals around us. When we take the time to think about it, they are everywhere from measuring out amounts to bake or understanding how to shop and purchase fuel. There is an interesting relationship between all these numbers and it is important to understand how ½, 0.5, 25/50, 50% are all the same thing. When we did the activity in class “I have… who has?”, I was amazed at how many applications can be made from such a fun and interactive game. I also liked that we touched upon ways to make the game more approachable to all students. For example, someone who might have math anxiety would not enjoy such activity if they were on their own to solve the problem because it requires you to think quickly. However, as a whole group and with assistance everyone could participate accordingly. I think this would be a fun activity in many other domains such as solving other math problems or relating them to literacy potentially. 

Whereas in week 8, we looked at spatial sense. “Children are naturally curious about measurement. They are inter¬ested in how tall, how big, how heavy, how long, how hot, or how cold things are” (Small, 2020). I find this so interesting that humans are preoccupied with such numbers, for example asking someone’s height, guessing how the weight of the fair pumpkin, or traveling distances. Once again measurements are all around us and it is important to understand these differences considering we often interchange units and scales for different means. I remember from my own schooling and from my placements, students are often asked to measure ‘things’ using non-standard units. For example, you could see a student using pencils to measure out the length of someone’s body, or another student walking heel to toe across the class measuring its width with their feet. It is interesting to see how creative they get, and what they remember from this activity. A lot of students can then make inferences and estimations of measurements from an activity such as this one and have a better grasp of spatial sense. 

Clipart. (digital image). [https://images.app.goo.gl/o9u2wXEWrjyXmWyH6].

Small, M. (2020). 4th Edition. Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8. 3rd Edition, Toronto, Nelson.