Learning and Teaching

This week, our students were invited to participate in the Mathletics World Maths Day online challenge. They completed 20 x 60-second live maths games, and earned 1 point for each correct answer. Congratulations to all of our competitors. 

Mathletics is a fantastic online resource that parents can incorporate into home learning, at a small cost. It is important to note, however, the value of hands-on learning, particularly in the early years. Research shows that parents and carers can give their young children a boost in learning mathematics by noticing, exploring and talking about maths during everyday activities at home or out and about (Phillipson, Gervasoni & Sullivan 2017). The mathematical knowledge developed before school is predictive of literacy and numeracy achievements in later grades, so it is important that parents play a key role in helping their children learn mathematics concepts involving time, shape, measurement and number. 

Parents are encouraged to provide opportunities for the following activities at home:

• ‘Comparing objects and describing which is longer, shorter, heavier or holds less
• Playing with and describing two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects
• Describing where things are positioned, for example, north, outside, behind, opposite
• Describing, copying, and extending patterns found in everyday situations
• Using time-words to describe points in time, events and routines (including days, months, seasons and celebrations)
• Comparing and talking about the duration of everyday events and the sequence in which they occur
• Saying number names forward in sequence to 10 (and eventually to 20 and beyond)
• Using numbers to describe and compare collections
• Using perceptual and conceptual subitising (recognising quantities based on visual patterns), counting and matching to compare the number of items in one collection with another
• Showing different ways to make a total (at first with models and small numbers)
• Matching number names, symbols and quantities up to 10’ 
• Exploring maps, shapes and money
• Playing children’s card games and games involving dice, such as snakes and ladders

During everyday activities with children, such as walking to school or playing in the garden:

• bring their attention to the objects around them that they are interested in – houses, cars, trees, signs
• guess the distance walked, in order to create a mental benchmark of metres and kilometres
• look at insects or small pebbles, highlighting millimetres or centimetres to encourage the need of using appropriate different metric units
• talk about the shapes and sizes of the objects, talk about and look for similarities and differences (for example, let’s find a taller tree or a heavier rock)
• count the number of cars parked in the street or time how long it takes to reach the next corner
• talk about the shapes within the objects, or the sizes of the objects
• talk about and look for similarities and differences (for example, let’s find a taller tree or a heavier rock)
• count the number of cars parked in the street or time how long it takes to reach the next corner
• discuss the temperature and how that feels
• discuss the speed of your walking pace
• explore sharing and dividing objects that are whole or in half to develop the understanding of equal groups and fairness.

So, from the earliest of ages, engage your child in the world around them, being descriptive and using mathematical words, and build on what they notice about shapes, numbers and measures as they learn. It is never too soon to begin these activities - babies who are only weeks old notice differences in shapes and the number of objects in their line of sight. 

Laura Leung

Learning and Teaching

UPDATE ON THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE:

Apologies for the delay in receiving usernames and passwords. There were some difficulties with uploading all of our students onto the challenge website in order to register, however we have received contact from the coordinators and all has been resolved. Passwords will be sent out on Monday 24th. Please refer to the video that was uploaded onto Seesaw on how to navigate the student dashboard and allocate challenge books. You may also like to choose some of the books from the challenge list over the weekend in preparation for Monday. Thank you for your patience.

The Premier's Reading Challenge has commenced and all students from Prep to Year 6 are invited to participate. The challenge encourages students to read a set number of books over the year and record their efforts online. Students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 can read books by themselves or with someone else.

Prep - Year 2

Number of books: 30

Number of books from the Challenge book list: 20 or more

Year 3 - Year 6

Number of books: 15

Number of books from the Challenge book list: 10 or more

Most of the books you read should be from the Challenge book lists. The rest can be any book you choose. You can read books on the book list for your year level or a level above and they'll count towards your Challenge total. You can read a book from a level below your year level if your teacher agrees. You still need to read the number of books for your year level to meet the Challenge.

Your child will be given their own unique username and password, which they can use to login to their account. Go to Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge, login as a student and then choose VPRC login. This will take students to their dashboard. 

A tutorial about how to use the Dashboard and enter the books they have read will be uploaded to Seesaw, for any families who are unfamiliar with the challenge.

Certificates will be given out for those students who meet the challenge requirements. Please join in as we aim to promote and inspire a love of reading for our students.

Mrs. Jessica Wickens

Literacy Leader