At Minden State School, Teachers have started to use
Back-to-Front Maths questioning in our Math Program. Please find below some
great ideas to help your child with Mathematics at home.
Back-to-Front Maths is pretty different to how we all
learned maths at school. It uses problem-based teaching, which is a fancy
way of saying “if you work it out yourself, then you will understand it
forever”. The idea is to ask kids a series of questions that get them to
work out how maths works for themselves, instead of just telling them how to do
it. This creates those “aha” moments that make learning increase in leaps
and bounds instead of progressing at a snail’s pace.
Three really important things to try and remember are:
1.
Limit yourself
to asking questions and pushing your kids to think and consider options rather
than telling them stuff.
2.
Remember that
if they give you a weird answer, it is probably a misconception that they
really believe. Try to get them to evaluate their idea and think it
through to see if it makes logical sense rather than just telling them that
they are wrong.
3.
Memorisation is
still really important, but if your child is having trouble understanding a
concept then memorisation is not likely to help. They need to know WHY
rather than just doing more of the same.
Here are some things that you can do with your kids at
home so that maths becomes part of everyday life.
Counting:
§ Count stairs, letter boxes, trucks etc as
opportunities arise.
§ Put out the number of knives needed for dinner and ask
your child to get the same number of forks and spoons.
§ Ask your child to get everyone a cup for afternoon
tea.
§ Ask questions like “If Grandma comes to stay for the
weekend, how many people will there be?” “If Daddy leaves the table, how
many people will there be?”
§ Talk about numbers as they play e.g. the number of
blocks they are using to build their tower or the number of wheels on their
car.
§ Read stories that have a number focus e.g. The Three
Billy Goats Gruff
§ Ask your child to count and sort larger numbers of
items.
§ Ask questions like “How many muesli bars do I have if
there are three packets of muesli bars that have ten in each and four single
muesli bars?”
§ Talk about larger numbers up to 100 as they occur
(e.g. House numbers on long streets).
Number
names:
§ Ask your child to tell you what the numbers on
letterboxes, number plates on cars or pages in a book are.
§ Look for examples of number names on signs and
environmental print.
§ Collect numbers from newspapers and magazines.
§ Read stories that contain numbers and ask your child
to find the number name or numeral on the page.
§ Talk about two-digit numbers whenever opportunities
arise. Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the
same/different?”
§ Take note of larger numbers as they occur (e.g. house
numbers, page numbers in books). Encourage your child to read the numbers
and talk about other ways they could have been written.
Counting
in 2s and 5s:
§ Count stairs or objects in twos whenever opportunities
arise.
§ Put out the number of knives and forks needed for
dinner and ask your child to count them in sets of two.
§ Ask your child to make pairs of the socks as they come
out of the washing basket and count them in twos.
§ Talk about numbers as they play e.g. the number of
blocks they are using to build their tower or the number of wheels on their
car.
§ Count the number of wheels on the trucks that go by.
§ Make hand prints to count in 5s.
§ Count shoes as these come in pairs
Number
Size and Place Value:
Place value is heavily linked to relative size.
Here are some good things to try with your kids:
§ Take note of larger numbers as they occur (e.g. house
numbers, page numbers in books). Encourage your child to read the numbers
and talk about other ways they could have been written.
§ Talk about numbers whenever opportunities arise.
Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the same/different?”
§ Encourage students to work out how they could pay for
something using different combinations of $100 notes, $10 notes and $1 coins.
§ Involve your children in decision making about buying
furniture. Look at prices for furniture/electric goods in catalogues and
talk about which is more expensive (e.g. when considering buying a new
microwave or tv or fridge…). Have students tell you what the price
is. Cut out the pictures with the prices, and order them from the
cheapest to the most expensive, and then write their good and bad points
underneath.
§ Have your children measure amounts of liquids using
millimetres (e.g. 250mL, 500mL) and compare which one is the biggest. Try
using smaller measuring instruments to put the total amount together and then
compare to check that they are the same amounts (e.g. to make 250mL use a 100mL
cup and a 50mL cup: 100mL + 100mL + 50mL = 250mL, then compare it to your
original measurement of 250mL to see that they are the same). This can be
done in bath time with different sized measuring cups and jugs.
§ Cut up a “hundreds chart” into a jig saw puzzle to do
at home.
§ Use number lines to examine relative size: For
example talk about house numbers up to 100 as they occur on long streets.
Fractions:
Basic understanding of fractions is pivotal to much of
primary and high school maths and is one of the most difficult concepts for
kids to understand. Try to build these into your regular routines:
§ Involve your child in cooking activities which require
half a cup of an ingredient. He/she could half fill the cup measure for
you.
§ When making sandwiches or cutting other foods, talk
about how you cut them into halves. Use words such as half, even, equal,
parts.
§ Involve your child in sharing with another ensuring
that each person has a fair share. Both halves need to be equal.
§ Make sure that kids understand that you cannot have a
“bigger half” or bigger third, or fifth or anything else. Fractions must
be equal.
§ Link quarters to the clock – quarter past, half past,
quarter to, o’clock. Four quarters only. Not all fractions are
called quarters, only fourths.
Ordinal
numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc) have strong links to fractions. Try
these:
§ Talk about the order in which you complete everyday
activities (e.g. making a cake, putting on the washing, set the table).
Use words like first, next, last, third, to describe the sequence of actions.
§ Give your child directions using the language of order
(e.g. “First put the rubbish in the bin and then go and do your homework”).
§ Ask your child to arrange things in order (e.g. the
family’s shoes). Talk about the order using words like first, second,
last.
Article from
Back-to-Front Maths Author- Tierney Kennedy