Develop a Mental Warm Up that can be used in a Stage of your choice and that focuses on mental computation skills. Reflect on possible answers and misconceptions students might provide.

Mason Ping
Sep 9, 2018 · 2 min read

The mental warm up I have chosen to create is called “Rainbow to 10” and it is a mental computation activity aimed at assisting students to learn combinations of numbers resulting to 10. I have created it as a warm up activity instead of a game because I have designed it specifically for Early Stage 1. However, it can be noted that it could be used for Stage 1 or 2 by changing the final rainbows number to a larger one or multiple rainbows with different amounts for every rainbow. It could even be extended to higher stages by making the rainbow a multiplication or division rainbow. However, for the Stage I have chosen and the correlating content found in Stage 1 such as friend of 10 I have chosen to make this activity a mental computation for 10 only.

As this warm up activity focuses on mental computation skills is very fun for young children. The interactive dynamics of the activity allow computation skills to develop without students really knowing they are doing mathematics which creates a positive learning environment and will support further mathematics education into the future for the students undertaking the task.

As stated previously the focus strand of this warm up is addition and would be useful to introduce to Early Stage 1 students mid way through Term 1 or at the beginning of Term 2, depending on the student bodies ability to learn numbers up to 10 and their ability to mentally compute learnt combinations to 10.

The activity is has been simplified to be demonstrated firstly by the teacher at the front of the class or as a lead on activity after a friends of 10 mathematics session. The teacher may even want to go through the activity a second time at a slower pace to ensure all students in the class are confident before they undertake the task. The teacher could also assist students by giving them counters or using their fingers as informal recording tools. This will assist young students by creating a visual aide which is highly effective. It is important for teachers to use this activity in conjunction with further learning aides such as these which I have discussed.

The overall template for the activity I have chosen to deliver is as follows:

RAINBOW TO 10: How many ways can you make 10?

Mason Ping

Written by

Future Teacher//ACU//Pacific Palms🌴//22

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