Stern equipment from MathsExtra

Learn the best by far the best equipment of mathematics that I am over the years come the Stern structural arithmetic program, which encourages children to reason than just rote. This approach was designed to follow a child's natural stages of learning and development in the early years, up for the development of a number of number sense, concepts, knowledge and number of relationships, as well as to ensure that the required skills in place prior to any formal work. It is also ideal for SEN children where little or no progress has been made in the past and for children who are ' on ' move to the next phase, a clear insight in the earlier phases.

Stimulate a child's cognitive processing functions is the core of the programme; the range of equipment offers beautiful ' pictures ' which Visual and auditory perceptual processing to develop.

An example is the ' trap ' in the 10-Box, where a more cube add makes it the same size as the next number. The concept is explicit-adding a to any number always will result in the next issue.

The Board of Directors position and counting introduces order. The simple task, when you are prompted for a block to fit in an empty groove indicated, develops, of course, judging, scan and discrimination ability of a child. Children discover that each block has its own special place in the series of blocks to 10. This means that there is not only to work with numbers up to 5.  Number of relationships are an essential building block. Instead, children see the small numbers of all ' live ' at the beginning, and larger ' live ' at the end, (later to be on the left and right).

As an example of the approach of the structural arithmetic, look 3 + 7 = 10. Children discover all combinations that will create 10 by fitting combinations of blocks in the 10-box. They reason that if 9 1 should make 10, 8, 2, 3 and 7, 10. By switching of the blocks around, they discover that the order of the addends can be altered without the sum. So, they understand that addition can be done in random order and put it to use, reasoning that if 7 + 3 = 10, then 3 + 7 = 10. This fact is not taught in isolation, but has been examined in a context where the relatioship to the other facts can be seen.

When children see an example like 5 + 4 = and don't know the answer, they often respond by counting ' 6, 7, 8, 9. Teachers can assume that encouraging children to count, will one day result in their stop counting and say, ' 9 '. Stern argues that, in fact, every time they see + 4 (as in 6 + 4 or 9 + 4), they are practicing automatic counting. The numbers themselves have no sense. Counting child equal 5 plus 4 not 9; It makes 9 by counting. No picture in the mind of the child makes it number fact 5 + 4 = 9 unforgettable. In addition, if children the total incorrect if 10 count, they have no certain way to check that result except by another uncertain counting procedure. On the other hand, in the structural arithmetic measuring the two addends actually 9 5 and 4 in the Track number.

The stern kits are not cheap, but I would advise having a further read on

http://www.mathsextra.com/