Classroom Resources

Last Tuesday, our class had the opportunity to check out the resources from Kindergarten up to and including Grade 6 for the Mathematics curriculum in Newfoundland and Labrador.  I honestly did not know there were so many!!  I have been in various classrooms during my observation days and have always seen Math in the classrooms, but I have never really thought about the resources or how many there were for each grade.  What sparked my interest the most was the fact that K-2 have the most beautiful little picture books that deal with math but it breaks my heart to know that the colourful happiness ends there.  Starting with the third grade, they only have text books and workbooks, which are very dull I might add.  I can completely understand why children begin to shy away from math at young ages. 
In my experiences with tutoring Mathematics, children of any age enjoy when you give them things to do "outside" the curriculum.  For example, I would use games for my students so that they were not always just reading and solving the same types of problems over and over.  Some children benefit more from games than we realize because not only are the games very engaging for them, but they are also a fun distraction from the math that is involved.  I also think that students from the ages of 5 to 8 benefit from the math picture books shown in class because they are used to reading these in class and they probably do not realize just how much math they are learning while reading them.  I also do not agree with having these resources for 3 years then taking them out and using only a text book.  It would be like letting small children draw using markers and crayons and then all of a sudden giving them just pencils - it is a huge change that takes away much of the excitement and motivation. 
In the same breath, I am not saying that I think all grades should have these picture books because I understand that as the children get older and learn more, they will be given harder concepts with more thinking involved, but I believe they should have the bright illustrations in their workbooks as well.  When reflecting on going around to the different tables, I had the most fun at the Kindergarten through second grade tables because there was so much more to look at because I was most intrigued by what was inside these little books than I was when I looked at the workbooks and texts - it all appeared to blend together.
Chapter 4 of our textbook deals with planning for a problem-based classroom and there is a section that really got me thinking about the resources that I have seen in the past week.  The section deals with planning for all learners and how to differentiate instruction to fit every student's needs.  Not all students will be able to turn their textbooks to lesson 6 and complete the problems that are presented.  Some students find it easier to learn when there are pictures or graphs or some other kind of visual aid that allows them see exactly what the problem is asking.  I believe that the picture book resources would be great for these students.  Just because the students have outgrown reading simple picture books does not mean they are the only reasonable resources out there.  Take for the example the book that we were shown in class called Math Curse.  This would be a great book for students both younger and older, and there are many more that could be used, we just have to go looking for them! Here are a few I found by simply searching "Math books for children over the age of 7".  I hope to be able to provide my students with a resource-rich mathematics classroom in the future by using some of these books.