Category Archives: Tools

It is not about the tool but….

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

We always say; ” It is not about the tool, it is about the talk that accompanies the tool”, but some tools are just better than others.

See in our link for today the Tiny Polka Dot from @MathforLove that has no less than 16 math games and will be with your students for years.

Read all about it: HERE

Get real with fractions

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We tend to say: ” They need to get it into their hands before they can get it into their heads”. It refers to lots of math operations but the mathcoachcorner has an interesting take in how to show fractions early and have them play it out.

Read all about it: HERE

Teaching time tables with rekenrek

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There is a pilot study going on to see how we can teach children time tables by using the Dutch invented rekenrek. See all the details in the link for today.

Read all about it: HERE

Using the ten frames

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Donna Boucher from the Math Coach Corner shares a wonderful article about a game the children can play to boost their familiarity with the all important combinations with ten:

Ten is obviously an important benchmark in our number system. In Kindergarten, learning the combinations of the numbers up to ten is a year-long process. Ten-frames are an ideal tool for exploring combinations for ten. Because of its relationship to ten, one hundred is also an important benchmark. Students can practice composing 100 with a kit of small printed ten-frames.

Read all about it: HERE

Work on numeracy

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Corbettmaths has a wonderful site with five questions a day for primary students.

The nice part is that there are various levels of questions to work with and the answers are given too. A great resouce.

Read all about it: HERE

Free board game

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Board games are fun and a great exercise for the youngsters to help them count up and down and skip count.

Many boardgames can help you with that but here is one that you can print out and play, with a Thanksgiving theme around it. Thank you Yourtherapysource.com for sharing that with us. Get the game in the link for today.

Read all about it: HERE

Math must be visual

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One of the great methods to have children learn about math is when they can see it and feel it. You often hear :” They need to get it into their hands before they can get it into their heads”. In this time of remote learning however we can not always sit next to them and use some apples and lemons to make things clear.

So Berkeley Everett helps out and has a whole site with math visuals, great idea and wonderful execution.

Read all about it: HERE

Card games are great for math but, sometimes you need to adjust them a bit.

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The Erikson Institute, also knows as Early Math Collaborative, sends a great article on how to adjust some popular card games to the skill level of your children. That way you can still have the benefit of the game to help their number sense and you avoid the frustration if they are not able to play the game. The article gives some downloadable sheets on how to do this.

Read all about it: HERE

Games are the new worksheets

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Children love playing games and playing math games will improve their skills. Kristen Reed from edc.org puts it like this:

Math games and puzzles develop children’s problem-solving and independence and foster mastery motivation. Mastery motivation is the motivation to master new, somewhat challenging skills, and it is a key behavior that supports children’s early learning now, and then later, their academic success. By providing children with challenging activities and encouraging them to try different strategies and make their own decisions, teachers and caregivers can foster this important skill.

Read all about it: HERE

Visual math

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New research is presented on the page from Stanford by youcubed from Jo Boaler and it all shows how visual math can be.

our brain wants to think visually about maths. Building students’ mathematical understanding doesn’t just mean strengthening one area of the brain that is involved with abstract numbers, it means strengthening connections between areas of the brain and strengthening the visual pathways.

Read all about it: HERE

Engagement is key

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As we always emphasize in our golden rules for dyscalculia interventions, you need to move in the student’s pace and make sure they are with you. The Edtech magazine gives some options for interactive tech tools that may help that engagement.

Read all about it: HERE

Building fluency but with improved cards

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Building fluency in multiplication is important but the old fashioned flash cards are not the way to go. So here is a link to two free sets of improved cards to use with your student. One uses subitizing and the other set uses arrays to make things clear for them.

Read all about it: HERE

Neurodiversity Early Years Service

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The ADHD foundation in the UK has a wonderful page filled with resources about neurodiversity in those important early years.

They have articles about managing executive function for example. A great resource.

Read all about it: HERE

Encourage number talk participation

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Read about the journey into number talks for elementary math classes and how one teacher comes up with solutions to get more children to participate in a non threatening manner.

Read all about it: HERE

Number Sense Bingo

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This bingo-like game allows children to think about numbers in different ways. Children roll a dot cube and try to find one or more matches on their board. Though the representations may look different, two dots on the cube can match a picture of two blocks, two fingers on a hand, or the numeral 2 when we think about the meaning of the number 2. The first player to match ’em all, wins!

Read all about it: HERE

ADHD helpful hints

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A bit off topic maybe for our Dyscalculia blog, although Dyscalculia and ADHD frequently coincide. The ADDitude magazine has a wonderful article about measures and strategies to help children with ADHD get back to learning and help them to focus. Both help for the individual but also classroom tactics. See it all in our link for today.

Read all about it: HERE

A wealth of resources

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From the good people of homeschool-curriculum.org we get a wealth of math resources.

Not all suitable for children with dyscalculia mind you, but you know, it is not about the tool but about the talk so if you need inspiration to boost your tutoring sessions, take a look at what they offer.

Read all about it: HERE

Dots instead of aligators

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Children often learn the larger than and smaller than sign to see as alligators with the alligator eating the larger number. Donna Boucher has a nice more math focused alternative.

Read all about it: HERE

Get them to show their work

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New Tool to assess Math Reasoning and Strategies in beta testing

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We are beta testing the Math Assessment Reasoning Strategies system at MathStrategy.org

This tool is to help Teachers, Tutors, Counselors and Parents assess the status of the reasoning and strategies the student can apply in the various math operations. It is important when we want to help our students progress through the phases of learning that we not only assess by tallying right and wrong answers but that we also, and maybe mainly assess their reasoning and strategies to get to the answers. The system will, after you have entered your observations, make an analysis by operation and provide a status, the next steps and suggestions for activities to get there. Dr. Schreuder introduces the system in the below video.

Read all about it: HERE

Digital tools

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From time to time we highlight digital tools and today we show you a nice tool from White Rose Maths. You can find them in the link for today.

The team at White Rose Maths

Read all about it: HERE

Spot on with numbers

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A wonderful tool presented in the UK, with some Hungarian research supporting it. Looks like a very versatile tool. Let us know what you think.

Read all about it: HERE