Working with Tangrams

There are many benefits to playing with Tangrams. They can be used to develop problem-solving and logical thinking skills, perceptual reasoning (nonverbal thinking skills), visual-spatial awareness, creativity and many mathematical concepts such as congruency, symmetry, area, perimeter, and geometry. Most crucially, perhaps, is the change of perspective of maths being something boring to becoming a creative and fun activity, leading to a desire to tackle more advanced maths.  In fact, using Tangrams is one of the primary recommendations I make to improve the mathematical and thinking skills of the children who come to see me for assessment.

For those who have never used them before, a Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle comprising seven pieces (tans) of three geometric shapes – two large, one medium and two small triangles, one square and one parallelogram. Tangrams can be used as a puzzle, where the seven pieces are arranged to make an almost-endless variety of objects, such as people, animals, letters, etc. The rules of play are that you must use all seven tans, they must lay flat, they must touch and none may overlap. At the easiest level, you can simply place the pieces onto the patterns; at the most difficult, only a silhouette of the object is shown and you have to recreate it using the Tangrams. They can also be used in a more creative way to make your own designs.

Here are some online tangrams that you can try : 

Addicting Games
Math Playground
Silver Games

For those who have never used them before, a Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle comprising seven pieces (tans) of three geometric shapes – two large, one medium and two small triangles, one square and one parallelogram. Tangrams can be used as a puzzle, where the seven pieces are arranged to make an almost-endless variety of objects, such as people, animals, letters, etc. The rules of play are that you must use all seven tans, they must lay flat, they must touch and none may overlap. At the easiest level, you can simply place the pieces onto the patterns; at the most difficult, only a silhouette of the object is shown and you have to recreate it using the Tangrams. They can also be used in a more creative way to make your own designs.

Math Topical Test 4 ( Week 7)

Please note that the next Math Topical Test  is on 14 Aug ( Friday) in Week 7.

There will only be 1 Topical Test this term .

The topics that were be tested are :

- Bar Graphs
- Money
- Length, Mass & Volume
- Heuristics

Hidato Puzzle

I shared with the class a new Mathematics Puzzle, Hidato last week.
Many were eager to solve it. We tried the first puzzle together as a class and it was fun.
The key to solving it is to look/count forward at the position of the next number and not to give up.
Pupils need to have the perseverance when faced with difficult and challenging Math problems.  

You can read more about Hidato by clicking on this link.

Can you Solve it?

Watch a video here on how Hidato is born.

Hope you are enjoying the puzzles we are solving in class. Once we are done with the "Beginner " level, we will try our hands on the "Intermediate", "Expert" and even the "Master" level.

A B C's

Dear 3A pupils,

I shared this with you in the class during the last week of school.

If you scored an

A : It means you must Always Work Hard
B: It means you can be Better
C: It means you must Catch Up  

Each of you has set personal goals for your SA1 results, if you did not achieve your goals, do not be disappointed. Use your time wisely to revise your work and catch up.

Do remember to  factor in some rest time to bond with your family and enjoy your hobbies. Enjoy your well deserved break.

Happy holidays :)

From,
Mrs Ow Yong

June Holidays Math Homework

Dear pupils,

Thank you for bringing to my attention that  Q14 & Q18 question stems did not come out clearly in the June Holidays Math worksheets.

Following are the complete questions:

Q14 :

A fruit basket contains a total of 3805 apples and oranges. 2147 of the fruits are apples. Find the number of oranges. 

1) 1388 
2) 1658
3) 1758
4) 5952

Q18 :

Mr Tan had 42 sweets . He gave the sweets equally to 4 pupils and had 2 sweets left. How many sweets did each pupil receive? 

1)  7
2)  9
3) 10 
4) 21  

Have a good holidays .

Pointers for Mathematics

Dear parents ,

We have just completed the SA1 exams, the class has generally performed well and I am pleased with the results. I would like to share the following that were reinforced in my classroom teaching.

Please refer to the uploaded slides.

http://www.slideshare.net/adrielliuu/pointers-for-parents

Slide 1 : Use of Markers 
As the pupils proceed to higher levels and the problems gets more challenging, often with multiple steps, I am teaching the pupils to use pointers to guide them in their solutions.

I am weaning the class from presenting their answers like when they were in Primary 2. At Primary 2, they were required to just write the equations (mathematical statements).

Markers will give the child clarity of thoughts on what they were trying to find as they worked through the multiple steps.

Slide 2 : Labelling & Use of Hashtags 
Pupils should have the good habit of  labelling their solutions clearly .

I also taught the pupils to hashtag their final answer. Many times ( Section B or Section C), pupils lost focus. They worked out the correct final solution in the equations but wrote down a different answer on final answer blank.

The hashtag will tell the teachers that that is the intended final answer and marks will not be deducted should they commit an incorrect answer (due to carelessness) in the final answer line.

Slide 3 & Slide 4 
The pupils were also taught to work backwards to check the accuracy of their answers.

Model Drawing 
Lastly, many parents and pupils ask if it is necessary to draw models for their solutions. I shared with the pupils that it is not a must to draw models. But if drawing models helps them in the solution, please draw. Model Drawing is one of the heuristics in problem solving.

Primary 3 pupils need to start learning to draw so that they are familiar with the model drawing skills.

I hope you will find the above useful.

Have a great June Holidays :)  

 

Knowledge-building Lesson

We had a Knowledge-building (KB) lesson in the computer lab this morning. Since last week, we have been working in groups to write our composition on Fire. We then read through the compositions written by various groups on the Knowledge Forum website and chose the composition that we like. You may read the comments posted by your peers at your free time.