The International Schools Review Forum

Greetings,

I will be switching to primary math from middle school math, which is quite different. Way more focus on games, activities aka make things fun and interesting.

What are your favorite games you use in class?

What are your favorite activities you use in class?

What are your must-have manipulatives you use in class?

Or anything that you find helpful or crucial for your success teaching math in primary.

I am even willing to pay for things if it will be beneficial and make my life easier.

Thanks in advance

Not really.
Usually the major difference between primary and lower secondary maths is breaking the skill down into more but smaller instructional units; and while there are play based approaches to primary math instruction, for the most part its direct teach (drill and skill) methodology with a colorful activity workbook rather than a textbook of algorithms and proofs.

I agree that is how it should be, but I will be at a bilingual school where I am confident they prioritize "fun/games/image" over "learning".

@ncteacher23

Im not of a particular position how it "should be" just that far more often than not primary maths isnt taught any differently than any other level of maths in IE, including at bilingual ISs.

White Rose Education has a bunch of free resources, but its popular with the UK NC so youll find lots of ancillary and external resources for it.
RightStart Mathematics is about as complete a curriculum in a box as you can get, it utilizes a common manipulable throughout the lessons in the form of a special abacus that is used during games practice.
Pearson is a popular resource for edus that want to try createing their own program.

Yea I am familiar with RightStart as well as Math With Confidence. Both are curriculums that use games and activities.

I am not sure if the school even has a book to be hones. They might just rely on the teachers to source everything.

If that is the case I am def going to be buying a curriculum and other resources to base my lessons on.

Didn't know about the other ones you mentioned, so I will give them a look as well.

Cheers

@ncteacher23

Its not uncommon to find primary classrooms without textbooks in IE.

I would be remiss if I didnt mention the IB (PYP specifically). If you wanted to do the work you could structure your courses around the PYP using various materials both online resources and through Follett. The Oxford Mathematics Primary Years Programme series (Oxford University Press) covers years K-6 with student, teacher, and mastery resources that do contain various activities (but there is no box of manipulables). You could then (if you wanted to do the work) put together an inquiry driven program that emulated a PYP classroom which you could then base a portfolio on and reflect upon in the recruiting process. Youd spend more time creating, curating and resourcing activities but youd spend less time documenting curriculum standards and objectives. There is also an inherent validity to the PYP and its very short connection to their sponsored resources you wont find with other materials and resources.