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ENTRY 6: Reflective Journal

Create two resources that can support student’s understanding of place value. Reflect on their use with students.



Figure 1. Numbers Chart (Image source from Pinterest

Figure 2. Base Ten Blocks (Image source from Pinterest)


There are many resources to provide guidance and understanding in learning place value in a classroom. Understanding place value is highly beneficial in everyday life, students must understand the system of place value to be recognised as proficient people (Reys, et al. 2020).

The two resources provided above are a 1-20 number chart and base ten blocks. I previously worked as a teacher’s aide and attended a maths class which the students were learning place value. It was scary on my behalf as I had little experience in helping students learn place value however I remembered how useful number charts and base ten blocks were when I was in school. Visually presenting mathematical problems such as counting by 10s while using the number chart allowed students to develop their critical thinking and connect number patterns in a way that allows them to visually understand place value (Reys, et al. 2020). From a young age, children develop an everyday informal mathematical skills and ideas that include shapes, spaces, patterns and numbers (Ginsburg, et al. 2020) implementing the base ten blocks in the classroom I have witnessed has been a great success in students learning skills. Students were more aware of the objects and naturally counting and the visually touching and removing objects it develops their place value learning skills such as addition and subtraction.

Providing students with resources that allow them to explore numbers and visually work out how to solve problems is highly beneficial in teaching place value.



References:

Ginsburg, H. P., & Ertle, B. B. (2015). Giving Away Early Mathematics: Big Math for Little Kids Encounters the Complex World of Early Education. In The Wiley Handbook of Developmental Psychology in Practice: Implementation and Impact (pp. 222-263). Wiley.

Reys, R., Rogers, A., Bennett, S., Cooke, A., Robson, K., Ewing, B., & West, J. (2020). Helping children learn mathematics (Third [Australian] ed.).

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