More a question than a comment: how do you use the calculators in the classroom? Chris loves them - just want to be able to carry on with your ideas at home. Su
My sincere apologies for taking such a dreadfully long time to reply to this question. The calculators are available to the kids during project time and maths time. We run a variety of activities in each maths session, and one of them usually involves using calculators, however, depending on the activity the children also have the option to use them for other activities. Calculators are a materials that the kids can always access at project time, and they have been used in the shop, for making board games, for assisting in measurement and also for the kids to freely explore - lots of our students really enjoy typing the numbers in, making the longest or most impressive number, and seeing how they change as the press the buttons. We have also used the calculator on the interactive whiteboard occasionally with the whole group if we are working out a problem such as how many children are at school, or how many seconds slower/faster we were at taking the roll today. In these cases we always ask the children to show us how they worked out their answer (e.g. number line, counting on fingers etc.) and the whiteboard calculator is one of the options to show everyone how they worked it out.
More a question than a comment: how do you use the calculators in the classroom? Chris loves them - just want to be able to carry on with your ideas at home. Su
ReplyDeleteHi Su,
ReplyDeleteMy sincere apologies for taking such a dreadfully long time to reply to this question. The calculators are available to the kids during project time and maths time. We run a variety of activities in each maths session, and one of them usually involves using calculators, however, depending on the activity the children also have the option to use them for other activities. Calculators are a materials that the kids can always access at project time, and they have been used in the shop, for making board games, for assisting in measurement and also for the kids to freely explore - lots of our students really enjoy typing the numbers in, making the longest or most impressive number, and seeing how they change as the press the buttons. We have also used the calculator on the interactive whiteboard occasionally with the whole group if we are working out a problem such as how many children are at school, or how many seconds slower/faster we were at taking the roll today. In these cases we always ask the children to show us how they worked out their answer (e.g. number line, counting on fingers etc.) and the whiteboard calculator is one of the options to show everyone how they worked it out.