Primary 1 Math - Advice by Ex-teacher

Hi all,

Many kids have difficulty in Math more than the other subjects as they move up in primary school. Hence, it is important to start them on the right concepts and methods from P1 or earlier. The concepts and approaches can be taught to younger kids using smaller numbers.

One method which will be a useful tool for them throughout their primary school is model-drawing. The faster they pick that up, and the more practice they have using that, the better they'll be at solving difficult problems. Also, Math now involves the use of other heuristics so that the child is able to understand the problem better and simplify it such that possible solutions can be found.

I'll be giving free on-line lessons every now and then to help parents guide their children. Let me begin with Lesson 1.




Lesson 1


There are 6 chickens and cows in a farm. There are 16 legs altogether. How many cows are there?



How to teach

I always encourage my students to draw. Drawing will help them understand better.
In this case, we'll draw 6 bodies – just draw 6 circles.
Fix 2 legs onto each body.
There'll be 2+2+2+2+2+2 = 12 legs.
How many extra legs have we not fixed on?
16 – 12 = 4 legs.
Each animal can have a maximum of 4 legs.
So, we'll fix on 2 extra legs to one body and the other extra 2 legs to the other body, so as to use up the 4 extra legs.

Hence we have 2 cows as there are 2 bodies with 4 legs.



Hope you find this method useful. Do look out for more postings. Cheers!
 


hi christy clarie

Thank you for teaching. Very good.
i teach my child she understand it straight away.

Hope you can post question and answer again.
 
Hi Star,

Thank you for your kind feedback. Actually Math is not difficult if the right methods are taught. I taught a very weak P5 Math student and turned his many years of failing in Math into a decent 70+ marks.

I know the frustration parents and students faced when it comes to Math. My heart goes out to those who have been failing Math so often that the mention of Math give them the shivers. I hope parents start their children on the right note when it comes to Math.

I will post as and when I have the time. In the meantime, do keep Math fun!

ChristyClaire
 
My dd's school taught them this method too. You get the answer quicker. Before that, I taught her guess and check method, takes a longer time to get the answer.
 
ChristyClaire,

Truly appreciate you take effort and time to start this thread to help us parents whose kids struggle with Math.

Like you, I used this same method by drawing and writing down accdg to what is given in the instruction, at the same time showing and give explanations here and there to my 7yo boy.
My boy gets it at times, and at other times, he does not due to careless mistakes, maybe?

He has a short span of memory, and most recently, the school discovered he has reading difficulties. So the LS teacher reminds me to let the boy take his time..don't push nor pressure.

miracle_bebe
 
Hi miracle bebe,

I believe kids need practice to retain what has been taught, otherwise we'll mistake it for "short-term" memory.

Ability to read and understand is very important not just for doing well in English but also in Math. Perhaps you could read to him more regularly and repeat the story by reading aloud together. This is how we teach in school to those whose reading skills are not so good.

Hope the suggestion helps.
 
Thank you.
happy.gif
 
That is a great way of teaching! Will use that method to teach my son. Thank yu so much for the tip!
 
Hi Clare,

Which school is your child in? Kudos to the school and its teachers for using simple but effective methods to teach the kids. Wonder if it's the same school as the one I was teaching at...haha.

Thank you mommies for all your kind words....I also would like to show examples for higher pri math but I think most mommies here are more keen on lower pri questions.

My thread title is wrong....it should be Primary math and not Pri 1 math as the method can be used for higher levels too.
 
Hi Christyclaire,

Although drawing a diagram is an easily comprehensible method, it may not work for big number. Other methods such as listing (Guess and Check) and making supposition should also be taught to solve the 'chickens-and-cows' problems.

I will usually teach my pupils the different methods and let the pupils decide in the end which method they are comfortable with as what is an easy method to some may not be easy to others.

It is important to let pupils know there are many methods/ tools available for them and they must be able to diagnose the problems and decide which to use.

However, since you are sharing for P1/2, your sharing will be very relevant to the parents here.
 
Hi,Augustmum, I agree with you. there are several methods for sloving this kind of question. Just choose one that the kids are comfortable with.
 
Thank you augustmom.

for "chicken and cows" problems, guess and check method usually takes a much longer time and I don't encourage my students to use that, assuming all the information are given as per the previous example other than the question involves bigger numbers. For bigger numbers, we need not draw diagrams but we can apply the same thing.....let me show an example to the non-teachers among us....

There are 1000 chickens and cows on the farm.
There are 2400 legs. How many chickens and cows are there?

1000 x 2 = 2000
2400-2000 = 400
400 divide by 2 = 200 (cows)
1000 - 200 = 800 (chickens)

Therefore, there are 200 cows and 800 chickens.
 
Hi Star,

Although I have received many "thank you" pm from kind mommies, I have also received pm from not so happy readers, criticizing this thread. I think perhaps I should stop posting questions and methods for a while.

I wish all mommies a wonderful year-end holidays and a happy 2011!
 
Hi Christyclaire,

I am looking forward to your lesson 2 too. What a shame for not going to post question and method.
 
Another question......

24 is ___________ more than 20.

Students tend to add when they see the word "more". In other owrds, they'll do it as 24 + 20 = 44.

I always tell them to put the = sign in place of is.

So it's 24 = _____ + 20. In this way, they'll be able to see that the blank should be 4. Hope it helps the P1 and P2 mommies.
 
hi christyclaire

My son is intellectually bright, loves Math yet makes many careless mistakes along the way. He is a special needs child so understanding the questions may be an issue at times.

He always forgets to show the model-drawing esp when the question requires him to, and I've repeatedly told him it is important he understands the question, otherwise some marks may be deducted if the working of the sum is incomplete.

He has no problem with drawing models, but it's me, his mum who does not understand it.

Would it be possible to put the model-drawing down on paper instead and attached it to a file for our reference?

Thank you ver much
happy.gif
 
Christyclaire
My son made the exact mistake you mentioned
24 + 20 = 44.
Thanks for sharing

There is a maths question in the worksheet he brought home. Use addition and subtraction to solve the problem

Ali has 12 marbles
Brian has 6 marbles
How many marble does Ali need to give Brian so that they have the same number of marble.

How to solve this problem using addition and subtraction?
 
How i'd approach this problem is to draw a model. Ali will have 6 more than Brian. The 6 more that Ali has have to be given to Brian such that it's the same number.

The number sentence will be

12 - 6 = 6
6 - 3 = 3

So, Ali has to give Brian 3 marbles.

This approach will be for P1 as division has not been intro at P1 yet.

For P2,

It'll be 6 divide by 2 = 3

Hope that helps.
 
Hi B2B3M4,

As division has not been taught to P1, the P1 child will have to make a guess on which 2 same numbers will make 6. Is it 1? Is it 2? Is it 3?.....
 
Hi all,

I've one mommy who has requested for me to start a foundation math class for those going to P1 next year. Simple model drawing and other heuristic methods will be taught. I will only start the class if I have 4 students in a class. Do pm me if you should be keen.
 
Hi all,

Another mom has asked if i could start a P1 class. I'll only consider if I have 4 interested mommies. Maybe you can drop me a pm to register your interest.

Cheers
 
Hi all~~
It seems math is hard for many kids, so does it for my DD. DD is using a math pro from beestar recently, full of all real life world problems, challenging stuff to help kids thinking. It helps DD a lot. She has made remarkable progress. At least, she's now interested in math. You guys can have a try, too.
Lisa
 
Hi B2B3M4, actually what you can do is to draw number bonds for the last step. and just your kid that both number has to be the same number.

hope this helps.
 
Hi
can you advise on how to teach 'more than' or 'less than'
Eg: Picture showing 3 cars and 7 vans, with a sentence stating:
There are ____ more vans than cars.

I tried to teach via phasing the question with the answer sentence in mind. But think its too difficult for my P1 girl to grasp. :p

TIA
 
hello to all!!!
am very interested in your topics in here. very happy to have come across this link...Go ahead in sharing and posting simple strategies in teaching kids...
happy.gif
 
Hi Christyclaire,

Chance upon this thread. This is a good thread n hope to see u continuing with it. Meanwhile, if can provides tuition or parents-guiding courses, pls let me know too. Thanks.
 

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