Singapore Math Primary series users...I have a question.

[Capt_Uhura]

Hello all,

 

A friend sent me the HIG for SM Primary 3A. I have a question about the mental math pages in the back. Is the student reading these himself and writing the answers but not using trading marks etc gong from left to right? Or do you give the student these problems orally ie he can't see the problem on the page?

 

for ex: Mental Math 6 has problems like 3716+400; 3716+402; then 3716+452 or 9999-6871. I know there are many people who can hold these numbers in their head and do it (my FIL being one of them) but I'm not one of them. :001_huh:

 

CaptUhura

[nmoira]

We do them orally, but I wouldn't sweat it either way.

[Jen500]

We don't do them orally.

[elegantlion]

We did some of them orally. Others I had ds write on the white board. He tends to remember the numbers and does most of his work in his head at this point.

[skylark]

Sometimes we do them orally, sometimes I just write some out.

[Tree House Academy]

My son did all of them on the pages in the back of the book. He is decent in math, but to ask him to hold the numbers in his head when he has a hard time even remembering people's names after meeting them 10 times, would be torture. (He has ADHD)

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I have always used the HIG but I haven't always used the mental maths as I should have. We've been using Singapore and the HIG from the begining but we only really started using the mental maths sheets this year. I really want my student to be able to do this work mentally and orally so I began in the previous year's HIG. I give her the problems orally everyday. I began with just 5 problems and then ten . . . now we're at a column at a time. I think we're at a point where we could do the page at a time but well, time is an issue, too.

 

So, to answer the question: orally. Somewhere along the line . . . I don't remember which level/book, Jenny gives strategies for doing the problems mentally. I'm not sure why I never really focused seriously on this before b/c I really do think it is important/valuable. I love that we do it now.

 

If you want the strategies (they were pretty simple: make 10 and that kind of thing, no really neat tricks or anything) you can ask her at the Singapore site. She moderates the forum (and wrote the HIG).

[Capt_Uhura]

Thanks!!!!

 

We're doing RS math which has oral problems everyday but so far (level D) hasn't had them to the difficulty level of SM HIG. My son can do them seeing them on paper, not putting a mark, just giving the answer but I think holding all the numbers in his head is a different story. I only have the HIG for 3b so I'll start there and see how he does.

 

 

CaptUhura

[inashoe]

I tried them orally and it just didn't work. I now make a photocopy of the page, and dc write the answers directly onto the photocopied page on the line.

I don't follow the HIG schedule when giving the Mental Math pages - I wait till a little later in the book, and give them to dc when they have light workbook exercises to do.