"The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." This quote sums up my philosophy on using hands-on manipulatives to teach my mathematicians. My school services over 750 Pre-K through fourth grade students. We are a high poverty area, with the majority of our students on free, or reduced, lunch.
My 26 first grade students; however, come to school everyday with a smile and a desire to learn.
Math is definitely their favorite subject. With the implementation of the Louisiana State Standards and the Compass Evaluation System, the rigor and achievement levels expected of my first graders have been raised. The use of hands-on math manipulatives during whole group and small group math instruction can help to increase student understanding by providing a visual representation of the math concept being learned.
My Project
In first grade, I have the task of helping my students develop an understanding of numbers, which includes their meaning, their relationships with other numbers, and how we operate with them. Rekenreks provide a visual representation that will encourage my students to build numbers in groups of five and ten, to use their knowledge of doubles, and to count-on from known relationships to solve addition and subtraction equations.
By using the Rekenrek, it is my hope that, over time, my students will develop a richer sense of numbers by being able to actually see that one number may be a combination of two or more other numbers.
The uses are endless. My students will get to discover number relationships and develop a variety of addition and subtraction strategies, which will ultimately lead to basic fact automaticity.
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