Mathematics Exploration from Kindergarten to Grade Six

My peers and I spent some time looking through the mathematics resources that Newfoundland and Labrador have to offer their students and teachers from kindergarten to grade six. I was very happy to see the enormous piles of resources that were accessible for all students and teachers. 

First of all, I was very thankful for the supports that would avail to me as a first year teacher (knowing that I most definitely would need them). It was great to see such a wide variety for each grade level including: curriculum guides, teachers manual, textbook, workbook, big books for shared reading, and independent readers for the primary grade levels. 

I was fortunate to peruse the grades in sequence from kindergarten to grade six, and was shocked to see the great deal of difference that existed between the primary and elementary levels. 

The primary selection of resources were brightly colored, large and visually appealing. I was very excited to see what I would be in all primary classrooms across the province. I feel that the selection of resources would make learning fun and exciting for children. Many of the large, shared reading picture books asked questions and played games. I feel that this is a fun way to help engage children in learning. Although, the difficulty of the text changed drastically from grade to grade. While this would be fine for shared reading, it would make learning mathematics very problematic for children who would be expected to read the text to derive an answer or solve a problem in mathematics. But, even still the books remained fun, exciting and full of pictures. 

Once the children began elementary their style of learning mathematics changed drastically. There were no longer picture books to help learn concepts, and textbooks were mainly black and white with very tiny print. These resources while rich in content, were not visually appealing for children. I would suggest using the text as a mere guide to help yourself, the teacher plan and implement lessons, rather then bombarding children with enormous, heavy and plain books that may frighten them from learning and accepting mathematics. 

My experience with these resources taught me a valuable lesson that being- it is great to have resources available when teaching, but it is up to the teacher to choose which resources to use. Most importantly it is our job to help children learn and have fun while doing so!