Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three In my year three classroom we have a prescribed mathematics text book. The text we use is Rigby Maths and it contains units of work set out progressively over the four terms. One of the main focuses for this term has been adding and subtracting ones, tens and hundreds from three digit numbers. Therefore I chose to use Win A Flat as my threading activity. Other activities that I wanted the students to puddle around in included: -Predict A Count -Human Calculator -Tin Can Counting Machine

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Win A Flat The students were introduced to Win A Flat in week two. After a demonstration of how to play the game they began. About half of the class had no problems getting started but the other half needed further assistance. By the end of the second session all groups knew what they were doing.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Win A Flat cont… By the second week of playing Win A Flat most students were playing with ease and the exchanging of the tens stick for the ten ones became second nature. Three weeks in and the students were able to move very quickly through the game process and were very proficient in collecting and packing away the equipment.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Win A Flat cont… After playing the game for four weeks I showed the students what the game looked like when you use paper and pencil to add up the numbers. The students were given paper with columns ruled up into hundreds, tens and ones and together we followed the process using the paper and pencil.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Win A Flat cont… The first time we did this about 6 students went ‘Aha’ and found it quite easy. The second time there were a few more. Not everyone was able to make the connection here so I decided that we’d try a different puddle.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Text book work The text book presented tasks such as… Start Number 1 More 1 Less 10 More 10 Less 100 More 100 Less

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three The Text book cont… About half the students had great difficulties when they had to add or subtract 10 and a hundred. They didn’t know that you could just change the number in the correct column, they saw a large number and assumed the task would be difficult.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Predict A Count I then introduced Predict A Count to the students and we started off adding 10. Most students were able to recognise the pattern straight away and got no incorrect predictions. A few students had trouble getting past a new hundred e.g. 198 to 208 although they all had it by 400.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three One student had trouble getting over the hundreds. They eventually predicted correctly at 403 however they didn’t understand the pattern properly. This was correct but they crossed it out.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Human Calculator

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Human Calculator The first time I introduced this game with the students we predicted how long it would take to reach 100. The predictions ranged from about 1minute to 2 hours. It only took about 8 minutes. The second time we set up the Human Calculator we focused on adding ones, tens and hundreds like in their text book.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Human Calculator cont… The students could now see that they need only change one number (most of the time) when they were asked to add or subtract one, ten or a hundred. They could now direct the Human Calculator by themselves and explain why they chose to move them in the way that they did.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Tin Can Counting Machine

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Tin Can Counting Machine One day when we were splashing around in our maths puddles I mentioned to the students that if they were to bring in a tin can I would help them make their own personal counting machine. The next day a few cans came in, machines were made, then more and more.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Tin Can Counting Machine I showed the students how they could use the Tin Can Counting Machine and they thought it was terrific. Some students now use them on a regular basis to check their answers or use them when they play Win A Flat.

Melissa Rickman St Brigid’s College, Lesmurdie Year Three Aha So after several weeks of jumping in different puddles, most of the students in my class have gone ‘Aha’ and can now competently add or subtract ones, tens and hundreds from three digit numbers. Their basic number skills have also improved greatly.