Early Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication/Division

Hi,in this next entry, I am going to talk about early addition,subtraction, multiplication and division. In teaching those skills to the students, there are plenty of activities or strategies that teachers can incorporate in the classroom. Before we proceed to the suggested activities and the learning experience that the students encounter in carrying out those activities, let's take a look on what the expert has to say about this topic!

"A reasonable goal for almost all children is to be able to deal mentally with addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers and multiplication and division by one-digit numbers. The basic addition and multiplication facts/relationship are important and children should develop near-instant recall of them-however memorization is not enough: children need to develop strategies for efficiently reconstructing forgotten facts".

(Morony Brinkworth, 2002, p.25)

Suggested activities : In constructing student's early addition and subtraction skill, activities for instance ten frames is doable. As to make it more interesting, butterfly ten frame can be used in replacing the regular dots of ten frame.Teachers can point out questions like

“If you add three butterflies to one butterfly, how many will it be?”

- Using the butterfly frame, the students will put one butterfly in a frame, then 3 more butterflies. As to get the answer, the students will count how many butterflies in the frame, thus getting a correct answer for the question posted by the teachers.

"If Susan has less 3 balls than Ravi have, how many balls does Susan have

if Ravi has ten balls?"

Ten frame strategy can be used to solve the problem posted by the teacher

Take three out of ten from the frames, and the children counts the remaining dots, thus 10 -3 =7

- Students can also use stackable counters in solving the mathematical problem of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.

By illustrating 3 + 2 using stackable counters, it helps in picturing and framing the concept of addition, thus making learning process more exciting.

Furthermore, in teaching multiplication, the integration of the song is indeed useful as it helps making learning process more fun. Before starting the lesson, teachers can play this song and perhaps drill it a few time to get the students familiar with the multiple. However, teachers need to ensure that the students do understand the multiple concept itself rather than memorize it. In making sure that students do understand the concept, teacher can visualize the multiplication through objects or cards.

"The visualization of the dots enables students to visualize the concept, thus enhances their understanding of the concept"

* Important note : teachers need to show to the students that 3x2 = 2x3. Triple 2 is equal to double 2. When the students are doing the multiplication card as shown above, they will realize that those two equations equals the same, thus developing the concept that which number comes first does not matter, as long as the two numbers are the same, the answer is still the same.

On the other hand, division could be divided into three parts, which is divident, divisor and quotient. Let's take 6 divided by 3 as example. 6 is the dividend, 3 is divisor and 2 is the quotient. In developing children's early skills and understanding of the division concept, teachers can come out with this kind of problem.

" 6 marbles, 2 to each person. How many are there?"

"6 marbles, shared equally with two person. How many are there for each person?"

- In solving the problem, teacher prompts the students to use their drawing skills.They need to draw six marbles. Then,the teacher asks them to group the marbles into groups of two and see if they can come out with the correct numbers of group. For six marbles, students will group the marbles into three groups so that there will be two in each group. By doing so, students will realize that if 6 marble were to be given 2 to each person, there is only 3 persons. 6 divided by 2 equals 2

"The six paper clips"

"By grouping the paper clips to group of two, students will eventually gets the answer, which is only three persons will be receiving those paper clips. So, 6 divided by 2 is 3."