Mindset Maths

Mindset Maths

Some children, and adults, feel that they are no good at maths and they don't have a 'maths brain'.  This is not the case and over the course of the next five maths lessons the children will experience activities which encourage them to recognise this.

Today the children were very quickly shown a series of dots and they had to identify the amount.  Although this may seem an easy activity, the children were asked to explain how they saw the dots in order to know how many their were.  Some children saw shapes, some saw patterns.  There was no right or wrong answer, the important aspect was the explanation.

The second activity required the children to stick small dot stickers on their fingers but they had to get the right stickers on the right fingers for this to work.  Expecting to experience some difficulties with this, I was pleasantly surprised when they all managed this with the support of their peers.  They were then asked to use the corresponding coloured dot to follow the line on the maze.  As the mazes got trickier, the children rose to the challenge.  They all really enjoyed today's lesson and were able to see that you don't need a maths brain to do maths.