School Planning Council

Supporting Children to Become Mathematical Thinkers

Surrey is part of a National Math curriculum designed to meet the changing world and the learning needs of the individual child. The curriculum is designed in a completely new way, different than most of us parents and educators learned in school, but based on helping kids be thinkers and problem solvers, not calculators and memorizers. Parents may have trouble following “new math,” but we need to remember we are there to support, not teach. We don’t need to know all the answers but we do need to be willing to guide our children through the process and provide them with tools (ie. counters) or questions to help them remember what they have already learned and practiced in the classroom (ie. Have you ever done a question like this before? How did you solve this type of problem in your class?). For support and resources (including great learning games for all grade levels), check out Carolle Fullerton’s blog: www.mindfull.wordpress.com