Global Village International Preschool　のブログ

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy in Kinder A - How much do you think it weighs?


"All children can be successful with mathematics, provided that they have opportunities to explore mathematical ideas in ways that make personal sense to them and opportunities to develop mathematical concepts and understanding. "


We have been learning a lot about numbers, quantity and gravity. We thought that a hands-on experiment to explore weight and balance would interest the children and help them to enjoy estimation and counting while learning about the forces that play on the world around them.


First we built a giant set of scales, which we attached to the ceiling. The children tried to find the centre of the pole by balancing it on their hand.


We attached a basket to each end and then thought about what to weigh. Thankfully, Kinder A has lots of toy animals, cars and other interesting things to experiment with.


Placing beads in a basket to find out how many are needed to balance the scale helps the children understand about size and quantity. We like to use "I think..." at the beginning of a sentence to encourage guesswork. This helps the children who worry about making mistakes relax and enjoy the process.


The children then created their own way of representing the results. This mark-making is sometimes image based, while others chose to use numerals. The main aim is to have the children make maths more personal and strengthen their understanding of numbers and mathematical symbols. At the same time, the children are talking about their drawings and thinking about how to depict the animals.











先生の話を聞きながら、こどもたちのなぜ？どうして？という声がたくさん聞こえています。こどもたちの不思議がたくさん詰まった
この時間は、ただ見て学ぶというのではなく、自分たちで考え、間違えたりしながら答えをさがしていくということに意味を持たせたレッスンになりました。


posted by Owen and Mitsuyo