What it’s about
The idea of displaying a “wall” of vocabulary to help pupils remember key terms and ideas will be familiar to many. Children need mathematical language to discuss and gain understanding of the concepts involved, so 42rebeils has shared display cards to build a mathematics word wall, writes Sara Carroll.
Getting started
Originally developed by US teacher Michele S Weiner, the cards include mathematical terms displayed in a way that illustrates the concept they describe. For example, “parallel” has the two “l“s highlighted, “litre” uses a bottle of water to represent the letter “i” and “metre” has a rule. Both the UK and US versions are available online. “This is perfect!” enthuses CazzleMcdazzle, while jacbonner is “absolutely delighted” with the resources. 42rebeils’ uploads have generated more than 61,000 views. In addition to mathematics, he has put up resources on the Victorians, the Egyptians and behaviour.
What’s more
Also for the maths classroom wall, try some inspiring quotes provided by amanda goddard. Amanda’s maths resources have attracted more than 117,000 views. Although a secondary maths teacher, she has uploaded materials for early years and primary, too. One for key stage 2 (upper primary) is a quick, light-hearted, algebra starter, another take on the “Think of a number”. Depending on level, this can be extended to turning the instructions into an expression.
What else?
For a fun starter to warm up the brain cells, Not_Just_Sums has shared a dominoes game that assesses how well pupils know their shape names. Continue this active, fun approach to quadrilaterals with alutwyche’s cut- and-stick “always true, sometimes true, never true” activity - a perfect plenary.
