Using our Fingers in Maths

All of us at WBS have embarked on an online Maths Course with Stanford University.  Jo Boaler, the professor, explains a bit about why it's important for kids to be able to use their fingers in Maths. 

"Research tells us that it is very important for students to develop ‘finger discrimination’ that is, for students to know their fingers really well. Evidence from both behavioral and neuroscience studies shows that when people receive training on ways to perceive and represent their own fingers, they develop better representations of their fingers, which leads to higher mathematics achievement."

Here is an article going into it a bit more if you're interested in the science and research behind some of what we are doing: Article about why kids should use their fingers in Maths

This week in Maths we have been exploring our fingers, beginning to learn the names of the fingers and the difference between our left and right. 

Here we are exploring finger mazes with both our left and right hands, having to match our finger to the colour line.

 

  

  

Stay tuned for more around how we use our hands and fingers to help us with maths! 

And we're back!

It was lovely to have a few weeks off to rest and think about all of our learning and now we are back and rearing to go! Our Autahians have come back with the same enthusiasm and love of learning that they had all term! They are showing creativity, teamwork, perseverance and bravery as they navigate new classmates, new challenges and new learning. 

Here's a little of what we have gotten straight back into!

We were lucky to inherit Jude's doll house that her dad made when she was a little girl--lined with even the same carpet and lino of her own house.  And we have loved using it for socio-dramatic play! 

   

We have been doing lots of building and constructing.  We have been problem solving, trying things out, fixing them up and changing them as we need.

  

Thinking like mathematicians.  We have been exploring measurement and weight.  We are seeing if the different coloured bears are heavier or lighter.

We have also been exploring counting the characters on these cards and pegging the number that matches the patterns. 

   

We have been creating.  We have been drawing, making collages and exploring different dot patterns.

  

We have also been continuing to focus on our goals and spending time during discovery to practise our goals.  We are practising some number sentences, some letter writing and some word writing with stamps. 

  

We have been having a wonderful first week back and have jumped straight back into it! Stay tuned for more of the awesome things we do in Autahi!

Inquiry Learning Parent Workshop

On 4th April, we held a parent workshop on Inquiry Learning.

Purpose of workshops:

• to show that Inquiry is authentic and is about deep thinking

• to unpack the Inquiry process

• to encourage conversations about learning to continue at home.

Goal setters

This term we have had a school wide focus on goal setting and what it means to be a goal setter.
In Autahi we look at things we can do and things we can't do yet. 
That word yet is very important to us. It tells us that even though something might seem tricky to us now, with some practise and new learning we can make small steps towards being able to do it.
Those steps are called Kaizen steps.

They are smaller steps that we can practise in order to help us reach our goals.
In writing we have been thinking about what makes a good writer and how being able to write is goal we all share.

Each child has chosen one aspect to keep in mind and work on during writing. This is them using the small steps to help reach their goal.

We talk about goals a lot and ways we can practise our goals. Many children have used discovery time as a chance to work on some of their goals and practise things they can't do yet.

Autahi Term One Overview

Wow, it has been an amazing first Term in Autahi. We have done so much and the tie has really flown by. Here are some of the highlights from our first ten weeks at school.

Our Bush trips


Space Inquiry

Exploring maths

Literacy

The Arts

There is so much more we could add but it would take days to get through this blog post. We have had lots of fun on our learning journey this term and are already looking forward to the next one.