Search All of the Math Forum:
Views expressed in these public forums are not endorsed by
Drexel University or The Math Forum.
|
|
|
|
Re: Re[2]: Early Elementary programs
Posted:
Jun 7, 1995 9:20 PM
|
|
When talking about exciting elementary programs one should never omit
CSMP, R(not to be confused with ucsmp)
Every lesson in csmp is replete with more mathematics than most high
school "memorize the formula and plug in the numbers" lessons.
For example, the very first lesson if first grade has children exploring
relationships between two collections (mice and cats), using concepts (but
not the language) of belongingness, inequality, empty set, quantity. Later
lessons that same year (i'm talking about 5-6 year olds) have learners
exploring concepts very directly dealing with (again, without our
sophisticated language) negative numbers. A lesson i particularly like,
and this, too, is first grade, has ten children putting first one, then
the second puts three, the third puts 5, the fourth puts 7, up to the
tenth who puts 19 pennies into a bag. then the class estimates (or
guesses) how many pennies, then calculates how many pennies using an
abacus type of device, and finally explore the number sentence
1+3+5+7+9+11+13+15+17+19 for patterns that might help them determine the
sum differently. That's after they have already found it from the abacus.
What do these students do in fifth grade? i'm glad you asked.
Elliott Bird
|
|
|
|
