Reflection 5

Develop a Mental Warm Up (MWU) that can be used in a Stage of your choice and that focuses on mental computation skills. Film yourself administering this MWU (2 minutes max) and upload the recording. Write possible answers children might provide during your MWU. 

This Mental Warm up activity was designed and development for Stage One (Year 1) students. It was used in close reference with the content descriptor; sub-strand of Addition and Subtraction One. Students will be able to “recognise, recall and record combinations of two numbers that add up to 10” (ACMNA015). The activity developed focused on the mental computation skills of the learner’s ability to be able to display and represent numbers ranging from 0-10. To begin the activity, the teacher will highlight to the students the learning intention for this warm up. The teacher will then write the number they would like the students to represent on the board. For the purpose of this warm up the students were asked to represent the number 8. The possible answers the students may provide are displayed below

The students were then asked to use the manipulatives provided in order to represent the displayed number.

There is a reoccurring theme seen throughout literature is that there is a strong emphasise of developing number sense through mental computation skills and strategies (Mildenhall, 2014). Hence, as affirmed by Janette Bobis (2007), “the promotion of number sense is critical to a basic understanding of mathematics and to a child’s ability to compute easily” (p. 22).

Bobis, J. (2007). From here to there: the path to computational fluency with multi-digit multiplication: Janette Bobis highlights the critical links between number sense and a child’s fluency with mental and written computation when learning how to perform multi-digit multiplication, Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 12(4), 22. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA170817120&v=2.1&u=acuni&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1

Mildenhall, P. (2014). Number sense development in the pre-primary classroom how is it communicated?, Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 19(3), 6. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA387827401&v=2.1&u=acuni&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d611c25e7446fd1807a9608e8ff1c28d

NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA]. (2017). Mathematics K-10 Syllabus: Addition and Subtraction. Retrieved from http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/mathematics/mathematics-k10/content/1106/