Reflection Blog

Needless to say, I've learnt a lot from this module and it would be impossible for me to list all of them down. 


Three things I've learnt


1. The Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract Approach (CPA)

Concrete components include manipulative, measuring tools, or other objects the students can handle during the lesson. 

Pictorial representations include drawings, diagrams, charts, or graphs that are drawn by the students or are provided for the students to read and interpret. 

Abstract refers to symbolic representations such as numbers or letters that the student writes or interprets to demonstrate understanding of a task.

As a teacher to very young children, I am glad that I'm on the right track when comes to teaching Mathematics. When I planned for Math lessons, I made sure to include exploring with concrete materials all the time. For the topic on 'Exploring numbers', I introduced the counting rhyme 'One potato, two potato' and brought in real potatoes for them to explore. As an extension activity, they placed the potatoes one by one in the egg tray. Through the activity, I could see how children picked up the skill of one to one correspondence. After learning about this approach, it would provide as a guideline when I'm planning for different levels in future. Now I know what needs to be introduced first and last so children will be exposed to various ways in learning Mathematics.

2. Differentiated Instructions
Throughout the pages in my notebook, the word 'differentiated' will surely appear everyday. From teaching geometry to whole numbers, Mr Yeap never failed to ask the students how we can differentiate the lesson for both advanced and struggling learners. That's where we teachers come in as we will surely have cases where children are either lagging behind or having the- child- who- knows- everything! It is sure helpful that Mr Yeap brought this up for every topic so that we'll be able to facilitate when the need arise. Most teachers I knew had this misconception that differentiated instructions will mean more work for them. I learnt that using the same material, you can simplify the lesson for the struggling learners and made the task doable for them.  For advanced learners, you can get them to think further simply by restructuring your questions to make it a little complicated from the previous problem. All this is possible without doubling your workload!


3. Teaching children the right thing and using the right language to teach Mathematics
As I've mentioned in my earlier blogs, I am looking forward to new discoveries in class every day. Because of these new discoveries too, I felt smarter and more knowledgable. 




1. When teaching ordinal numbers, Teachers need to be mindful on how she used it to indicate position and space.
For example, "Ali is 1st from the finishing line". 


2. Instead of using the word 'weight', Teachers should use 'mass' instead. This is because the unit for weight is Newtons (N) and not in kilograms. Dr Yeap suggested putting the question or sentence differently like "How heavy are you?" or "How much do you weigh?"


3. The textbook suggest not to use the language 'take away' as children might use the word wrongly. This is significant for mastering subtraction facts. Instead, use the word 'subtract' or 'minus'. 


4. When you say 'divide', you also mean 'equal'.


5. It's not 3 out of 4 but 3 fourths


5. The use of 'less' and 'lesser'
less- refers to quantities (countable)
lesser- refers to qualitative (uncountable)
The right way: 2 is less than 3


6. When teaching measurement, teach children the language to connect quantity with numbers. When using non- standard unit, use 'about'. For example, "The length of the table is about 6 ice- cream sticks. 


7. Pi is not equal to 22/7 or 3.14. Instead, put it as "Take pi to be...."


Two questions that I have


1. I'm just wondering if a child displays good Mathematical skills at an early age, will that mean he will excel in Mathematics as he grows up? Will a child who's poor at Mathematics during his preschool years will eventually catch up when he goes to primary school?


2. Are there any recommended resource book in teaching Mathematics for early childhood educators in the market? For example, examples of how you can integrate technology when teaching Mathematics or ideas for related Math games.