SATeacher Newsletter
Volume 2 Issue 1 - January 2010
 

SATeacher Home Page

  Mental Maths Grade 7
Flip Book now available.
 

Why Mental Mathematics (MM)?

-  Develops a sound number sense in learners;
-  Lays and reinforces the foundations for many mathematical concepts;
-  Helps develop problem-solving skills; 
-  Prepares for real life situations - we often work mentally with numbers, and
   seldom walk around with calculators or pen and paper; 
-  Teaches learners a variety of strategies which can be used in all maths related areas; 
-  Improves learners' estimation skills; 
-  Increases learners’ speed of doing all maths related work;
 -  Builds learners’ confidence (feel good when they can do things in their head).

Mental Maths Grade 7 Flip Book:

Just like the Grade R to 6 Mental Maths Flip Books, the Grade 7 book consists of 150 activities. The activities are based primarily on Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 of the NCS.  The objective is to build the children's' confidence and ability, not make them more afraid of maths! 

An activity per day
Each card has one activity. The teacher should start each maths lesson every day with one mental maths activity. Each activity should take about 10 minutes. Start with an easy activity and rather go very slowly, than making it too hard. This will impact negatively on their self-confidence and eagerness to try.

National Curriculum Statements 
The activities have been developed around the South African NCS.

Strategy
A summary (including, when necessary, an example) of the mental strategy applied or taught is stated on the lower left-hand side of each card.

 

Progression and Pacing
 The activities and strategies on the cards are progressive and the cards should therefore be followed in the order in which they are written.

 

The pace of working through an activity will vary from class to class.
-  If the activity is too easy for a class, the teacher could add more questions of a similar nature (perhaps increasing the number range).
-  If the activity is quite hard and learners struggle with it, repeat the card the next day.
- The teacher could use exactly the same numbers in the activity and/or change the numbers. 
- Teachers can also refer back to the Grade 6 book for less difficult questions. The link to the Grade 6 book is indicated in a table in the top right-hand corner.

Approach
We work on the principle that it’s best to show learners many strategies and let them practice each one.  When they are competent in all of them, they can choose which one they prefer (different people will choose different strategies).
One needs to ensure that they understand the strategy and that they are not just slavishly following the steps. 

Understanding Maths
One should beware of reducing the mental maths session to the transmission of sets of rules.  The whole point is that the exercise should be easy for a learner.  If a learner consistently cannot do one method, but can work out an answer using another method, even his own method, that’s just fine!

 

The Grade 7 Mental Maths Flip Book will be launched on 1 February 2010.

Schools can now capitalise on the pre-launch special - ORDER HERE
 

SATeacher
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Teachers must focus on teaching.

If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us, or
forward your comments on this article by email.
 
   

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