Calculator Fun!!!

Communication and Comprehension

Using a calculator is exciting for many learners, and the act of seeing the display change when buttons get pressed promotes the recognition of patterns. It is also a great approach for tactile learners.

This activity also helps overcome a common trouble spot for learners, where they often stumble or stop when they reach a number they aren’t comfortable with, by providing an infinite sequence.

As well as being a powerful mathematical tool, calculators can be a great way of communicating numbers without having to articulate or write them. This could be as simple as representing a learners age, number of collections, days till the weekend, and more.

Collaboration and Inclusion

Before individually exploring calculators, the activity and tool are introduced in a while group setting. This often includes counting (or skip counting) together as a class as the calculator is projected.

There are also many other ways that calculator fun incorporates group discussion and teamwork. Some activities and prompting questions include:

• Who can ‘calculator count’ to 100 the fastest?

• What's the biggest number you can make on the calculator?

• What do you notice about the number pattern when we count by 2s, 5s, or 10s?

• Can you show your age/house number/number of books you have…?

Creativity and Curiosity

Access to a new tool and skill promotes learner confidence to explore creative ways to use their new counting skills.

Learners who may have previously struggled with counting, (or wanted to extend themselves), will be proud of their new ‘calculator counting’. Not only will learners be given the opportunity to count to larger and larger numbers, but also explore how these numbers and number patterns exist in the larger framework of the world.

Whether that's by:

• Counting collections

• Exploring the numbers they know (like house or phone numbers, age, prices, etc)

• Or by observing new and exciting maths such as subtraction or multiplication

Access to calculators and calculator counting is sure to excite learners and engage them in a new or deeper curiosity into how maths impacts them.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Calculators and calculator counting are great enabling tools for mathematical inquiry, providing a new way for learners to explore number ideas and solve questions that they have about the world. Some examples of this could be:

• Using calculator counting to tally objects in collections

• Using skip counting to solve problems like “how many chair legs are there in the room (4+4+4+.....)”

• Representing numbers in the learners life

This is also an opportunity for learners to begin their exploration of other mathematical concepts, such as basic mathamatical operations (+ − × ÷), place value, etc.