Saturday 17 August 2013

Lesson 6 : Card Trick

For today's lesson, I found out something interesting that I am very eager to learn. And that is the card trick, in which when I spell the word "O-N-E" sliding the card to the bottom of the pile (1 letter, 1 card) I am able to produce the card that has 1 in it. At first, when I saw the trick that Ms Peggy had done I was truly amazed. Of course, I didn't think it was magic but instead it was mathematics. I was eager to solve the card trick.

At first, I tried the odd, even, odd, even number pattern but could not solve the trick. But this does not stop me from trying to solve the trick. I tried to count O-N-E, and place the Ace card that represents one at the 4th position. At the 5th position, I counted T-W-O and placed the number 2 card at the 8th position. I understand that there are 10 cards in total, and the maximum position I can place the card is the 10th position. I carried on doing the remaining numbers till 10. And I placed the cards according to its position that I had placed, starting from the card at the 10th position at the bottom and pile the cards to the top, starting with the 1st position. I tried to do the card trick like what Ms Peggy did, and I was shocked myself that I had solved the card trick in which I can use this trick to amaze the 6 years olds' and get them to solve the card trick too !


Here's the line up of the cards starting from the 1st position on the left.

With this, children must have the prior knowledge of counting 1 to 10, knowing the values of 1 to 10, spelling the number words and recognition of numerical numbers 1 to 10.  Children are able to manipulate with concrete materials, in which in this case is the poker cards. 

This activity is challenging and interesting and I am sure the children would be eager to be engaged actively in this activity.

In addition, i have also learnt that when planning lessons for children, we must take note of the diverse learners in the classroom. As children learn at different pace, we could not "force" a child to learn when the child is not ready. If we "force" them to learn, they would give up easily as it is not within their capabilities. Instead, we should create activities for diverse learners, such that making an activity simple for struggling learners in which concrete materials must be used for them to enhance their visualizing skills. Whereas for the average learners, we should make the activity understandable for them. For the advance learners, if we make the lesson standardize for all they would get so bored and would end up getting into mischief. Instead, I should challenge them by getting them to do abstract activities in which involved them to think critically. However, the children should be learning the same content in which process and product may differ. This allowed us to be on the same track of content, of what we should be learning in that lesson. As children need prior knowledge of the content in order to do the task. 

I have also learnt to identify the "content", "process" and "product" of the planned lessons and this gives me a deeper insight of how i should plan my lessons in future to cater to diverse learners in my classroom. 



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