Using and Applying Mathematics at Key Stage 1: A Guide to Teaching Problem Solving and Thinking Skills

By: Elaine Sellers and Sue Lowndes

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Synopsis: All pupils - able children included - need to be taught strategies to enable their thinking skills to progress. They also need help with developing different approaches to problem solving. A sustained piece of work that requires perseverance, logical strategies, and refinement of method and extension of the original task is not the same as a straightforward quick-fix type problem. Both types of problem solving need to be taught. This book presents a series of activities that can be used with whole classes to provide a curriculum for the teaching of problem solving and the development of thinking skills. Each tried and tested investigation is clearly explained with ideas on how to introduce the task to a class, full solutions and resource sheets. Activities include making 10p: a task to encourage systematic listing; tables and chairs: working systematically and spotting patterns; polygons and polyhedra: investigating diagonals, triangles, faces, edges and vertices; hidden faces: investigating different shapes and sizes of dice; and pond borders: investigating area and perimeter.