Singapore maths didn’t get to the top of the table by chance; its schools teach children with concrete images in mind, until they’re comfortable with abstract calculations. Try this bar model maths lesson plan from Cherri Moseley…
In this lesson plan, you will set children a number of bar model maths problems to solve. The first set of problems will use the part-whole model:
- There are 29 children in Class 3. 16 of them are boys. How many girls are there in Class 3?
- George has 6 weeks to save the £30 he needs for his trip to the theme park. How much does he need to save each week?
- George saved £5 a week for 6 weeks. How much has he saved?
- George saved £5 a week. How many weeks did it take him to save £30?
- Sophie buys 24 flowers. Two thirds of them are yellow, the rest are white. How many white flowers were there?
The second set of bar model maths problems will use the comparison model:
- Tom is playing with 5 toy cars, Sam is playing with 9 toy cars. How many more cars than Tom does Sam have?
- The ratio of apples to bananas in the fruit bowl is 2:3. If there are 12 bananas, how many apples are there?
Cherri Moseley is an independent primary mathematics consultant and author.
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Bar model maths – Singapore-style lesson plan
