We welcome Rosa Kim to our classroom. She is completing the University of Canterbury Post Graduate Teaching Course. Rosa will be with us until the end of the term. The Tamariki love working with her and she has previous experience teaching Numicon during her last placement and has shared many great ideas.

Ruma Pukeko are passionate about their Numicon work. It has been a joy to see their excitement and motivation to complete their mathematical work.

Some comments from the children about numicon……

Atticus: “I like making Numicon sandwiches and counting up the numbers.’

Shayde: ‘I like learning about numbers and my favourite Numicon numbers are 1 and 2. 1 is orange and 2 is light blue’.Harper: ‘ I like making numbers bigger than 10 using the Numicon shapes.' Kairan: ‘ I like making Numicon towers and then counting the numbers.' Sariah: ‘I like putting the Numicon shapes in order’.

This term some Pukeko tamariki have been working on efficiently ordering the Numicon shapes from 1-10 while other children are working on ordering numbers beyond this. The children have been matching the correct digit with the Numicon shape. We have explored finding the Numicon shapes on the number lines. We have been using the cuisenaire rods to explore and compare shortest to longest.

While the teachers have been working with small groups, the Tamariki have been enjoying matching the Numicon shapes on the peg boards and counting each shape, making Numicon sandwiches by using the pegs and then counting how many pegs have been used.

Ms D shared an excellent resource with us, where the children cover the inside of a picture using the Numicon shapes. This has been very popular! They need to do this without any shapes going out of the boundary of the picture. The children enjoy the problem solving thinking that is involved in completing this task.

Another enjoyable activity the children love completing, is pressing the Numicon shapes into the play dough and asking their friends what number they have created.

The children are loving the hands on nature of this equipment with multi-sensory approach. This in turn, builds their enjoyment of this subject as well as their mathematical confidence. Ruma Pukeko are loving the learning experiences we are all having with Numicon.