Reflections after the 5th session 5/4/2013

In this lesson, Dr Yeap introduced the concept of working with nouns in data handling.
12 can be read as 12 ones (working with 1 noun)
12 can be read as 1 ten 2 ones (working with 2 nouns)

If a teacher wants to teach > 10, she also needs to teach in 2 nouns.
1 ten 1 one
1 ten 2 ones
1 ten 3 ones
1 ten 4 ones

Dr Yeap also constantly reminded us to go for enrichment rather than acceleration. That is to enrich their learning rather than going for more.

For counting, children must learn to count with nouns. (e.g. 1 apple, 2 apples, 3 apples)

Theory of Variability

Zolten Dienes found that in teaching of young children, we must be careful when choosing materials. Things that are closer to real things, it is easier for young minds to perceive. For things further away from real things, it is difficult for young minds to perceive.
It is not advisable to give young children identical things to count. Things in real life does not come in that manner. Manipulatives must be of different colours (e.g. orange square, dark orange square)

Shapes
Young children only need to identify the shape – circle, triangle, rectangle and square.
A rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. A square is a rectangle.
Mathematician
Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German world top 3 Mathematician found the way to look at numbers through patterns.
M, m+1, m+2, m+3

Number sense, visualization and patterns, strong communication and mental cognition all contribute to the method for raising a gifted child.