Is it enough for children to be "happy"
◆ Mathematics activities in large classes: equal division
Case description:
The teacher provided some operating materials for each group of children: irregular cakes, a large number of steamed buns and a large bottle of orange juice. The teacher's purpose is to let the children feel the concept of equal division in the process of cutting cakes, dividing steamed buns and drinking orange juice. After the teacher explained the requirements of the activity, the children were very happy. Some couldn't wait to cut the cake, some poured orange juice out of the bottle and drank it first, and some shared steamed bread while eating. As for the equal share, they seem to have completely forgotten it. There is a group with only three children. How to divide the cake into three parts? They thought and thought and finally came up with a solution. First, they cut the cake into two pieces, and then cut a little from each piece to form another piece. The division is good and the method is good, but do you have the concept of equal division? The answer is no, let's see how the children divide the orange juice equally. They pour orange juice, or three or five cups, and drink it while sharing, which is also a very lively scene.
Analysis: From the activities, we can see several problems: First, teachers failed to take into account the psychological characteristics of children when providing these materials. These tempting foods distract children from their study and affect their exploration. Second, irregular cakes are not easily divided equally. For children who have only been exposed to graphic division, it takes a long span of knowledge to transition from plane to stereo. Thirdly, three different materials contain knowledge elements such as shape, quantity and volume, and all have different characteristics and equal division methods. When presented to children at the same time, children are at a loss and the purpose of learning cannot be highlighted.
Adjustment: In this activity, if the operating materials provided by the teacher are snowflakes, line segments, graphics, etc. Let the children perceive and explore the method of equal division first, and then put the equal division cake and orange juice into the expansion activities or let the children take the task home to continue to observe and experience, then the children not only learn knowledge, but also have the opportunity to migrate and apply it to life without losing interest in the activities.
The more life-oriented, the more appropriate?
Middle-class math activities: classify shoes.
In this activity, the teacher first asked the children to classify the shoes worn on their feet according to the material, including leather shoes, cloth shoes and plastic shoes; According to the color, there are red, black and yellow ... and then there are records. Let the children count how many pairs of each kind of shoes there are and record them on the record sheet. The teacher asked: Please ask the children wearing leather shoes to stand in the circle marked with leather shoes, and the children wearing cloth shoes to stand in the circle marked with cloth shoes ... The children looked at their shoes one by one and looked for the corresponding circle. At this time, the author found that several children were hesitant, standing here for a while and there for a while, and saw that most of them had found their own circle. The children who haven't found the circle ask the teacher for help: "Teacher, look at the shoes I am wearing, some are leather and some are cloth. Where should I stand? " "Teacher, am I standing here right?" The teacher quickly set up another circle: "Children who can't find the circle can stand in the middle circle." These children who can't find the circle reluctantly walk into the circle just drawn by the teacher. The situation of classifying children according to the color of shoes is similar. Looking at the colorful shoes on their feet, many children are at a loss.
Analysis: Clothes and shoes are the necessities of children's life. Judging from the shoes and clothes worn by children at present, the texture, color and style are different. It is really difficult for teachers to work out clear criteria for the classification of materials chosen in activities, which is also the reason why many children can't find their own circles. Children in the middle class have poor classification ability. If the characteristics of materials are not obvious, it may cause obstacles to children's learning and affect their learning effect.
Adjustment: There are many materials in life that can be classified and counted. For example, children nowadays like shopping in supermarkets very much. Although there are many kinds of goods in the supermarket, it is a major feature of the supermarket to place them strictly according to the categories. Children know which direction to go when buying snacks, and also know which container to look for toys ... so that children can feel the classified statistics. We can let children play the game of "supermarket" and let them put, put and record items by category. For example, we can also let children perceive the classification of objects by arranging toys ... these are common and familiar materials in children's lives, which can not only reflect the requirements of life, but also achieve the purpose of learning.
Have you considered possible mistakes in materials?
◆ Large class math activity: weighing.
Case description:
In this activity, the teachers provided the children with self-made measuring tools such as steelyard and balance, as well as fruits and vegetables such as apples, plums, eggplants and radishes. At the beginning of the activity, the teacher asked the children to weigh it with a steelyard to see which thing is heavy and which thing is light. The children carefully weighed the measured object and the results came out, but the answers were not exactly the same. Some people say that apples are the heaviest, others say that radishes are the heaviest. The teacher was very anxious, so he picked up the pole and weighed it. Sure enough, he found that the two were almost the same, and there was a certain error in the self-made steelyard, so it was difficult to compare the weights of the two. Then, the teacher asked the children to be divided into two groups, so that one group of children could explore how many plums an apple weighs with a self-made balance, and the other group could weigh how many eggplants a radish weighs. I saw a child put an apple on the left side of the balance, and then began to put plums on the right side of the balance. When one or two plums were placed on the sixth plum, the whole balance fell to one side of the plum, so he had to pick up the plums that had just been placed, but the balance immediately tilted to one side of the apple. He fiddled for a long time, but he couldn't balance the two sides of the balance.
Analysis: Kindergarten mathematics activities are an integral part of the scientific field. In the activity, the teacher wants children to perceive and compare the weight of objects by weighing, and also wants children to discover the equivalence relationship between substances through exploration. The measuring tools and measuring objects provided by teachers are familiar to children, but from the exploration of children's operation, we find that the teachers' preset activity goals have not been successfully completed. The reason lies in the operating information provided by the teacher to the children. On the one hand, these measured objects, such as apples, plums, eggplants and radishes, have no fixed weight, so children can't balance the left and right sides of the balance when operating. On the other hand, the measuring tools are self-made steelyard and balance, which are easy to produce errors in the measuring process and affect the measuring results.
Adjustment: Cultivating children's interest in scientific activities is an important goal of children's science education. In this activity, teachers try to combine scientific experiments with the study of mathematical knowledge, but the operation of scientific experiments must follow the principles of accuracy and scientificity. Due to the large error of active substances, the accuracy of the experiment is difficult to grasp and control. If these tested substances are replaced by objects with fixed weight and can be converted to each other, such as jelly 25g, yogurt 50g, bottled purified water 100g, etc. Then make the self-made scale more accurate and minimize the possible errors in operating materials, then the problem will be solved.
How to make the provision of materials more hierarchical?
◆ Math activities in the middle class: See who got it right.
Case description:
The purpose of this activity is to let children try boldly, learn and compare the number of closed arranged objects with various experiences, and correctly judge the number within 10. The teacher provided the following materials: 1. Foam boards with closed patterns are all numbers within 10. If there is a square with 10 circles, then there are 1 large circles and 9 small circles in this 10 circle, which shows the hierarchy of size; There are eight flowers arranged in an oval shape, of which 1 is red and the rest are blue-reflecting the hierarchy of colors; There are 1 circles and 8 triangles arranged in a closed square-reflecting the hierarchical shape; Some of them are arranged in a closed triangle, and all the patterns have no difference in color, shape and size-there is no difference sign. Two, decorated with stars, flowers and other patterns into ring-shaped plastic barrels, washbasins and other three-dimensional objects. The third is a column made of big building blocks, which is also decorated with patterns (taller than children); A slowly rotating umbrella decorated in a closed pattern.
Analysis: The teacher has made a lot of efforts in providing materials, from plane to three-dimensional, from static to dynamic (rotating or not), from what children can touch to what children can't touch. Some of these materials help children remember the starting position of counting by distinguishing the size, shape and color on the pattern; Some do not provide any distinguishing marks, so children need to explore ways to remember the beginning of counting, such as marking, holding down the first counting pattern with their hands or cooperating with their partners: holding down the patterns one by one, counting a number, etc. And explore the method of "how to count without counting mistakes". The provision of materials is from easy to difficult, with distinct levels, which meets the needs of children's development at different levels.
Kindergarten mathematics education has its unique subject characteristics. Children learn mathematics by interacting with materials. Teachers must pay attention to the following two points when placing homework materials:
First, we should pay attention to the suitability of materials. Too much emphasis on "stimulating interest" may lead to children's negative feelings about learning materials. In the case of "equal share", attractive food distracts children's attention in learning, affects their concentration in exploration, and shifts the basic teaching content of children's conscious learning to factors unrelated to learning. In the case of "classified shoes", the teacher used children's daily necessities-shoes to guide the study of classification statistics, but shoes of various materials and colors interfered with the boundaries of "categories" and affected the effect of learning classification. Therefore, the suitability of materials is the basis for children to learn mathematics. Materials should arouse children's positive thinking, highlight the essential characteristics of mathematics, make perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge harmonious and unified, and avoid the wrong tendency of weakening essence for the sake of form.
Second, the delivery of materials should be scientific. In the case of "weighing", there is a big error in the self-made measuring tool, and the selected measuring object has no fixed weight, which directly affects the scientificity of children's exploration and the accuracy of conclusions. Children need to learn abstract mathematical knowledge with the help of concrete objects to support the exploration of thinking. Therefore, the materials put by teachers should be convenient for children to try, explore, find and solve problems, and the operating materials should not only meet the needs of children's scientific inquiry, but also become a powerful tool for scientific inquiry.
Appropriate operating materials are the material basis of children's activities, which can develop children's thinking in the process of hands-on thinking. The provision of operational textbooks for kindergarten mathematics education should focus on the learning of children's mathematics knowledge and the construction of their abilities, so as to make the textbooks suitable, scientific and hierarchical, so that children can participate in them and communicate fully, so as to make children's mathematics learning more meaningful.