Equipment for your front wall
Welcome to the first blog in a series of four where I explain how I set up my primary mathematics classroom when I was a ‘Consultant in Residence’ at a metro Sydney primary school for six months.
I always wanted my ‘teacher props’ – ie. my teacher demonstration equipment – ready-to-go. So, I strategically placed them on the front wall of my classroom. Having everything ‘at my fingertips’ made differentiation doable.
These four short videos show me in my classroom explaining:
- WHY I placed particular teacher props on my front wall the way I did
- HOW I used the teacher prop to connect concepts and embed mathematical language
- WHEN I used the ‘teacher prop’ within my 5-part maths lesson.
Click on the thumbnail to play the video via YouTube.
Click on thumbnail above to play video (1:22 min)
This video explains why I have my teacher props at my fingertips using an example of a 30-bead rack (beads in groups of five in alternating colours of yellow and blue) and 100-bead Rack (beads in groups of ten in alternating colours of blue and white) on hooks attached to the front wall.
Click on thumbnail above to play video (1:07 min)
I love using clock faces to co-construct the start and end times of my maths lesson with students. In this video I explain how I use a 12-hour clock face (yellow) and a 24-hour clock face (green) to connect the concepts of time, 2D shapes, position and angles!
Click on thumbnail above to play video (1:00 min)
I love using playing cards in primary maths. Any opportunity to familiarise students with the contents of a deck of 52 playing cards is invaluable because in high school they will be expected to answer questions such as ‘What is the probability of drawing a red Queen and a 2 of spades without replacement?’.
I explain how I use playing cards during my warm-up strategy ‘Compare/contrast’ where I use repeated teacher questioning to draw out students’ thinking.
- eg. ‘What’s the same about the two cards?’
- eg. ‘What’s different about the two cards?’.
What cards do I have on the front wall?
2 spades, 7 hearts, 4 clubs, 9 diamonds.
- ‘Do you see a pattern with the four cards?’. Hints: black/red, even/odd, prime/composite.
- ‘What do you notice about the four cards?’. The product of the black suits is the same as the average of the red suits.
Click on thumbnail above to play video (3:11 min)
I explain my favourite zone of the front wall where I used velcro dots to attach my teacher props. You can respond to student needs in the moment by simply grabbing a teacher prop from the wall to facilitate class discussions using mathematical language.
In the video I model how I bring questions such as 5 + 2 = 7 to life by connecting to real-life situations, eg. ‘My niece Tani gave me $5 then my nephew Ethan gave me $2. How much money do I have?’.
I also demonstrate how I ‘make the maths visible’ using a bendable plastic metre ruler. This allows students to ‘see’ the distance of 20 cm (or 0.2 m or 200 mm) when I ask a row of students to move backwards 20 cm.
What ‘teacher props’ did I velcro to the front wall?
- Subitising dot plates in various arrangements (odd-even, random)
- Jumbo money (notes & coins)
- Plastic metre ruler (coloured-coded red and white in 10 cm increments).
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