Mathematics.Games for drill and practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mathematics.Games for drill and practice - Essay Example Since 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has developed standards for Mathematics in the schools. Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 are included in these standards that relate to instruction, classroom materials, and student evaluation.The NCTM standards are more specific and detailed models of teaching procedures. The NCTM standards describe specific ways base ten blocks and other manipulative can be used to help students understand the certain concepts within the standards. In this essay four different activities are described.In this particular game each student begins with 20 fish out of water. Each player rolls a die and counts out that many fish to return to the fish bowl. The first player to return all 20 of his/her fish to the bowl wins the game. The materials used are foam fish cutouts and a plastic bowl for a more realistic version of the game or download the directions, game mat and center icons for Fish out of Water.This game is designed especially for t he pre-kindergarten kids who are very new to numbers and help children understand basic number concepts thus helping them to develop the number sense of basic counting. Also, the activity enhances the kid's ability to recognize the numbers better and remember them for a longer period of time.The set of instructions given for this game are very simple and easy to comprehend for the kids who are just learning to recognize the numbers. For example the instructor can show a video of the activity and then play with the help of the instructor and finally let them play on their own. The second activity is called Addition Top-It: This game can be played by two to three players and the materials required are: a set of number cards with four cards each of the numbers 0-10, a penny which is optional in the game. A player shuffles the cards and places the deck number-side down on the playing surface. Each player turns over two cards and calls out their sum. The player with the highest sum wins the round and takes all the cards. In the case of a tie, each player turns over two more cards and calls out their sum. The player with the highest sum then takes all the cards from both plays. Play ends when not enough cards are left for each player to have another turn. The player with the most cards wins the game. There is an option available with the game which allows the children to toss a penny to determine whether the player with the most or the fewest cards wins. The other variations are also available with this game are as follows: 1. Use a set of double-nine dominoes instead of a set of number cards to generate addition problems then place the dominoes facedown on the playing surface. Each player turns over a domino and calls out the sum of the dots on the two halves. The winner of a round takes all the dominoes then in play. 2. To practice addition with three addends, use three cards and play the same as described above. This game is suited for the students in grade one where they begin to learn the basic concept of addition, subtraction, multiplication etc. The number sense that the player is the addition of numbers which is the second step after the children can recognize the basic numbers and are ready to do more complex activities with the numbers. Also, by practicing these kind of exercises skills like calculator skills, money exchange and shopping skills, logic, geometric intuition, and intuition about probability and chance because many games involve numbers that are generated randomly are reinforced within the children. The instructions given at this level are easy and simple and also less as compared to the instructions given for the first activity as the understanding of the children increase. For example the teacher can display the video of the game and then allow them to take drills of the activity according to the comfort of the students like practicing it during breaks or