As easy as 1,2,3.Byline: By Gordon Barr Pupils at a Newcastle first school have things all figured out this week - through magicking away their timetable. Teachers' numbers are up at Milecastle, Chapel House, with hundreds of four to nine-year-olds enjoying school without lessons. But parents need not worry - the teachers themselves had the idea. To celebrate the pupils' achievements in the subject, Milecastle is having a maths week. And the emphasis is on fun all the way - with a sprinkling of learning for good measure. To kick the week off, magician Martin Duffy turned into Martin the Mathematical Wizard and had the kids doing what so many would love to do at school - making numbers disappear. There were tricks with cards, and magic words, delving into a spot of English as well as maths. Maths co-ordinator Gill McNestry said: "Although the children are off the timetable for the whole week and the emphasis is on maths, we are including other curriculum subjects throughout the maths week. "The pupils loved the magician, and they loved it when he made a white rabbit White Rabbit agitated rabbit in a perpetual hurry. [Br. Lit.: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland] See : Frenzy White Rabbit pocket watch-carrying rabbit. [Br. Lit. appear. "We've organised the whole week to be exciting and fun, with the emphasis on celebrating the success of numeracy numeracy Mathematical literacy Neurology The ability to understand mathematical concepts, perform calculations and interpret and use statistical information. Cf Acalculia. at the school." Activities included an architectural maths workshop in which pupils made a 3D tetrahedron tetrahedron: see polyhedron. sculpture, using problem-solving and thinking skills. The whole school, on Hillhead Parkway, is acting as a massive maths workshop, with parents invited to attend with pupils for numerous games and activities. The youngest pupils will dress up programmable toys as their favourite nursery rhyme nursery rhyme Verse customarily told or sung to small children. Though the oral tradition of nursery rhymes is ancient, the largest number date from the 16th, 17th, and (most frequently) 18th centuries. characters and there will also be PE sessions in which number games will take place in the schoolyard. The week will culminate culminate, in astronomy, the maximum height in the sky reached by a celestial body on a given day. At the culminate the body is crossing the observer's celestial meridian and is said to be in upper transit. in a Who Wants To Be A Maths Millionaire? game, in which teams of children will compete against each other. Ms McNestry has set the questions, and pupils will be able to ask the audience - or even phone a teacher! "We're showing that maths and numbers can be fun and how they can be brought into other subjects," she said. |
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