Learning and Teaching News

We all use maths in everyday life whether we are aware of it or not. If you look closely enough you will see maths present in many unlikely situations.  We use it when we are making, cooking, building and creating.  It is an essential ingredient when we are playing games, building lego, flying paper planes, driving places, and reading the weather. 

I recently  had the opportunity to watch a cabinet maker install our kitchen. I commented to him that I noticed he was using so much maths in his daily work and asked him if he enjoyed maths at school.  He responded that he was terrible at maths as a child and still doubted his mathematical ability. 

This expert tradesman used mathematics in all aspects of his job without even being aware of it. He measured, identified angles, multiplied, added and subtracted with automaticity and confidence. 

Our challenge is to make the maths we learn in an academic context, relevant and connected and natural in our everyday lives.

Click on this link for a great resource - Maths All Around You Top 5 Tips

It gives some great ideas for connecting 'school maths' with real life maths. You may find some ideas helpful during Remote and Flexible Learning 2.0. 

Reading to and with children is one of the most enjoyable and important things we can do. Reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and sparks curiosity. It expands children's understanding of the world and helps them develop language and listening skills. It prepares and extends their understanding and use of the written word. 

Find some old favourite books and share them again and again. Look at them differently - through the eyes of a character, the message in the book and its relevance today, the words used by the author, the detail added to the story through illustrations.

This link provides some different ways for learners to engage with reading and to nurture a love of reading during Remote and Flexible Learning 2.0  Reading Bingo

Elise Coghlan

Literacy & Numeracy Leader