Lorin Juliana October 26, 2020 Math Worksheet
In my 5th grade classroom, we use a math review series that’s engaging and entertaining at the same time. In essence they are simply halfpage handouts with ten standards based math problems woven into a special picture or exciting scene. Remember, I want to keep the math review time quick, but effective. My students are engaged in the activity because they are always eager to find out what the next scene will be, and how the math problems will be nestled within. They also like how within each handout I inscribe the title in a way that fits with the theme of that particular scene – another attention catching technique. And since this review activity only takes about fifteen minutes of class time, it is quick yet extremely beneficial.
Today we all know that benefits of math are considerable. Math is not a subject one learns by reading the problems and solutions. American children have very little practice with multi-step problems, and very few opportunities to think their way in to and through problems that don’t look like ’all the others’. With a packed curriculum and the increased emphasis on testing, our children are taught tons of procedures – but procedures disconnected from when to use them, and why. Sustained thinking – the key ingredient to math success – is painfully absent in too many math classes.
A lot of the websites charge high dollar amount for these math worksheets. Considering your willingness to spend the high dollar, you run in to a new problem – the uniqueness of the material, a lot of websites offer sheets packed with identical problems leading the child to almost rote memorization of the problems and solution. This leads to deprivation of student and his/her ability to solve the problems logically. And some websites offer sheets in portable document format. And to open such sheets you are forced to download special software.
Another problem with almost all worksheets is that they don’t prevent incorrect answers. Self-checking worksheets just let the student know they did something wrong–after the fact. I am a firm believer in the concept that, if at all possible, learning should be structured in small chunks in such a way that there is very little possibility for error. Worksheets often allow for mistakes to be made and then to be repeated many times. A mistake that gets practiced is extremely difficult to correct. This especially happens when worksheets are used as time fillers or baby sitters and the work isn’t really being supervised.
If you have read my article ”Helping Your Child With Basic Arithmetic? Stay Away From Worksheets” then you know that I am not a fan of traditional worksheets. After writing that article, I found another credible teacher who has written many ezine articles expounding on the benefits of worksheets. I decided some clarification of position is in order. The primary problem with most math worksheets is that the problems are already written out and the child need only write the answers. For learning and practicing the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, it is much more beneficial for the child to write out the entire fact and say the entire fact out loud. A child will learn a multiplication fact much faster if they are writing out 6 x 8 = 48 at the same time they are saying ”six times eight is forty-eight” than if they just see 6 x 8 = ___ and only have to supply the 48.
1st grade math worksheets and my Mom’s math teaching style. Math won’t be as terrible as it seems if parents take interest in preparing their little ones for math before school age. I grew up not understanding how it is that people talk about math as difficult as they do, it was my best subject at school. It was easy because of my upbringing that ensured that math and I got acquainted long before school. My mother who was a primary grade teacher told me how she began teaching me math in different guises at home before I got to school age.
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