Mental Warm Up - mental computational skills ...

Develop a Mental Warm Up (MWU) that can be used in a Stage of your choice and that focuses on mental computation skills.

A mental warm up (MWU) that could be used in stage 1 is the “How tall am I?” game. This game aims to promote the proper use of a ruler and allows the students to estimate lengths and measurements. The MWU represents these NESA syllabus outcomes:

• “MA2-1WM uses appropriate terminology to describe, and symbols to represent, mathematical ideas”

• “MA2-2WM selects and uses appropriate mental or written strategies, or technology, to solve problems”

• “MA2-3WM checks the accuracy of a statement and explains the reasoning used”

• “MA2-9MG measures, records, compares and estimates lengths, distances and perimeters in metres, centimetres and millimetres, and measures, compares and records temperatures”

The Materials/Resources:

• String

• Scissors

• Rulers - different types/material of rulers catered to Ss needs.

• Sticking material (either blu-tack, tape, magnets, etc)

• Sticky note

• Wall
  

This game uses mental computation in order to work out the individual lengths of the students, some students (depending of their ruler) will also have to remember numbers and add these to find their total height. The skill of remembering the previous number and mentally adding as they go is a key skill for working mathematically. This hand on activity reflects the ancient proverb recited by many educators (including the EDMA241 lecturers)

“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand’ (Marshall & Swan, 2008, p.338)

Enabling and Extending prompts:

For students who require enabling prompts, the T will provide a ruler where the 0cm starts at the beginning of the ruler with no gap and 30cm ends at the end of the ruler. This gives the Ss clarity on where to start measurements from. For extending students, the T can provide a ruler that is broken at the beginning and starts for example 3 cm in or only has lines with the 10’s numbers marked. For further extension, once the Ss has found their height, ask them to convert it into centimeters or millimeters.

Included is a video of myself presenting the lesson...

References:

• Monteleone, C. (2019)., EDMA241, Week 1 lecture [powerpoint slides] Retrieved from: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GOgoLQYN51HlDf2kWw3VeGDi1NT-ThCPkNy47oXmI2c/edit#slide=id.p4

• Swan, Paul, & Marshall, Linda. (2010). Revisiting mathematics manipulative materials: Paul Swan and Linda Marshall revisit the use of manipulatives. They look at the different types and the ways in which they are used by teachers.(Report). Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom