#truestory The other day, a friend was telling me about her recent CRT experience when teaching subtraction with re-naming to Grade 6 students and she was left absolutely gobsmacked! These students had never been taught how to trade because an “expert” had come in and told the teachers to just teach them one strategy – and not *several* maths strategies!! However, this one strategy just didn’t connect with every student…so there was a classroom full of kids who arrived at Grade 6 missing this foundational maths skill. 🙈

This is why I am SO PASSIONATE about giving students *multiple* strategies for learning. There is no one perfect way and we need to give our students different opportunities to master the basics. This inspired me to have “Get Your Teach On” as my theme for Term 3 and really focus on ensuring that as teachers we are setting up our students with all the foundational skills they need to be lifelong learners.

#1 Maths strategies for days

Maths is SUCH an important topic to teach. As much as sometimes we just want to fly through it and move on to something more fun, we really need to take our time teaching it. Each of our students learn so differently and in such a variety of ways. So we need to offer them as many different tools to help them solve mathematical problems. This will give them a real foundational understanding of maths and set them up for lifelong learning.

There are so many essential mathematical skills and strategies we need to instill into our student’s skill set to build up their mental computation and problem solving skills. In Number alone we have to cover addition strategies, subtraction strategies, fractions, place value, problem solving strategies, the good old fashioned times tables, measurement, math operations, odd and even numbers, ordinal numbers, friends of 10… the list goes on!!!!

I know that it can be so overwhelming and it is A LOT… but I promise you, that by using a simple tool like one of my maths posters, you can introduce a new strategy to your students, teach it, practise it and revise it all term long. By the end of the term, you’ll be blown away at how much it becomes second nature to them.

The strategies included in the Maths Bundle pack range from basic, hands-on strategies to more advanced mental math strategies to cater for the various abilities in your classroom. So they meet your students where they’re at and then take them to the next level in Maths – setting them up with a maths foundation for the rest of their school life.

#2 How to introduce the Maths Posters for greatest impact

As much as I’d love to just stick a Maths poster on a wall and see my students suddenly grasp the concept…the way we introduce the posters can be key to our students’ learning. Some of these concepts can be a little tricky for students to grasp in the Early Years, so I like to introduce each poster one at a time so the students don’t get overwhelmed.

As I model and introduce each strategy, the corresponding poster is displayed in our classroom and we refer to it REGULARLY! The poster provides a clear, bright and engaging visual reminder as you teach each strategy and skill. The constant reminder really benefits students as they slowly grasp the concept and they can look up and refer to it whenever they need to. It gives students the resources they need to solve a problem or to encourage them that they’re using the right strategy and to keep going. Then when the class is ready, introduce the next one!!

#teachertip Print them, trim the edges and back them onto coloured card to make them really POP in your classroom!

Check out my IGTV episode to learn more about how to introduce and use these incredible resources in your classroom, so your feel confident in setting your students your students up for success in maths!

This week…

I really encourage you this week to build your confidence in equipping your students with a solid foundation in mathematics. If this is an area you’re really familiar with, join the conversation on instagram and share your tips and tricks with the Miss Jacobs’ Little Learners community.

I would love to hear your thoughts on your favourite maths strategies, so leave a comment below!