Elementary Math Methods Essay Example for Free

Elementary Math Methods Essay The aim of this practice is to help students understand place value concepts such as ones, tens, hundreds and grouping. In the activity, students are encouraged to record school days using straws. They add up the straws every day until they total to ten so as to transfer the bundle to a tens pocket. Depending on the grade level, they can go further to group the tens bundles to make a pocket of one hundred straws. In addition, students are told to note down the right integers to represent the number of bundles and number of single straws (Kawas, 2010a). Place Value Race http://www. theteachersguide. com/Mathactivities3. html This practice engages students in some sort of competition aimed at assisting them understand place value of integers (0-9) according to their position in a number. The students are grouped into two and each group given a set of red, yellow, blue and orange colored cards. The students are then instructed to select a color to stand for each place value (e. g. yellow for ones, red for tens, blue for hundreds etc) (Math Activities III, n. d. ). The instructor then says a number (let say 3456) and the groups compete to create the number using the cards. The first group to create the number is awarded some points and the game continues until all students have participated effectively. Number Line-Up http://www. mathwire. com/numbersense/morepv. html The aim of this place value activity is to help students to develop and master place value concepts of numbers. Some students are given demo cards and instructed to go in front while the rest remain on their desks with integer cards (Kawas, 2010b). The teacher says a number and instructs students at front to line up in such a manner to create the number while those at the desks are required to organize the cards to create the same number. After creating the number, students are asked to say the integer at the tens or hundreds, or thousands position. To encourage creativity among the students, the teacher can randomly choose a student to give out directions for creating the numbers to the other students. Conclusion School Day Count Routine practice helps students understand place value concepts such as ones, hundreds and grouping. On the other hand, the other two activities are aimed at encouraging students to master place value ideas such as tens, hundreds and ones etc. References Kawas, T. (2010a). Place value activities: School day count routine. Mathwire. com. August 9, 2010. http://www. mathwire. com/numbersense/placevalue. html Kawas, T. (2010b). More place value activities: Number line-up. Mathwire. com. August 9, 2010. http://www. mathwire. com/numbersense/morepv. html Place value race. (n. d. ). Math Activities III. August 9, 2010. http://www. theteachersguide. com/Mathactivities3. html