Guest Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Hello everyone. My school has recently decided that 'using and applying numbers/maths' is a key area of development throughout our whole school which is Reception to Year 4. The year 4 teacher went on a Numicon course and thought it was great so we will be implementing this into our school as of September. The year 4 teacher has been great and talked about the resources etc however she does not have a good understanding of the EYFS so its very hard to ask her advice. I was just wondering if anyone on here uses it and how you do so. I am unsure whether to use it as a main basis for PSRN, for just one session a week or just have a Numicon station in my classroom??? Any advice would be greatly recieved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Have you looked here? There's an EY section Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 I don't know the resource but as far as I am concerned maths in the Early Years should be much more than reliant on one type of resource even though it is not straightforward to think about. Next year even as a team of experienced practitioners we are going to look at what constitutes mathematical thinking in the Early Years - so looking at how children use mathematical ideas in their play without necessarily giving the labels we often look for. We encourage large and small block play and children often demonstrate quite advanced mathematical skills in their construction without consciously knowing the correct terminology. Often as practitioners we don't really know what maths we are seeing. However if your school is going to give you a Numicon set I would set it up as part of the maths experiences on offer but not exclusively so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 That site suggests lots of different ways of using it and seems to find it incredible that children would use it for other than straightforward mathematical purposes. Making 'soup' with it in role play etc. It's funny you should say that androyd, I'm doing exactly the same thing this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 we have it in our school but I've got to admit I've not really used it yet. As far as I understand it, in EY you focus on getting them familiar with it, so e.g. put the shapes out with playdough to use as stamps and that kind of thing. I'm sure there's a million uses and it looks brill for older/ more able kids but I've just not got round to thinking properly about it yet. mine are all severely autistic so when I get round to using it, it'll be in an EY kind of way even tho they are yr 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_26037 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 That site suggests lots of different ways of using it and seems to find it incredible that children would use it for other than straightforward mathematical purposes. Making 'soup' with it in role play etc. It's funny you should say that androyd, I'm doing exactly the same thing this year! LOL - We started using numicon last year and I'd got some out to support my Y1s with something specific (can't remember what!) It was the first time we'd used it so I'd done a general introduction for everyone. While I was working with the Y1s some of my more intrigued reception came up and asked if they could have a go - there was a spare box so I just gave it to them. What did they do....? Get it all out on the floor and make pictures with it! We have it in school, I haven't explicitly 'used' it with reception as I tend to use lots of different things to support the work they are doing. However I have found it very useful to support my Y1s with specific work around number bonds and partitioning. Cait and Androyd that sounds really interesting - can I ask where you're starting? I need to do some work on problem solving over the next year. This is in part because when I did the profile at the end of the year I was giving hardly anyone 'point 8' in any of the PSRN strands. Having reflected on it I think that apart from a notable of notable exceptions last year's cohort just weren't that strong in this area. However, I also suspect that I'm not sure what constitues problem solving and mathematical thinking so I'm not seeing it even when it's there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I've started by a fresh re-reading of Numbers and Patterns, laying foundations in Mathematics and re-visiting the continuous provision sheets and looking at what I've been missing and what I need to do to highlight it a bit more. Last year we focused a lot on Communication using the Communication Trust's Every Child Understood (amongst lots of other resources). I find it's a way of making staff see more of what's going on, and plan more successfully for their key children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_26037 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Thanks for that Cait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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