Understanding Primary Math

Welcome to Understanding Primary Math by S. Sundaram

I opted for a second career in school education after a 17-year corporate career in India and Nigeria. After a 24-year career as a Principal and math educator in several schools around India, I retired in 2013. During my career in schools, I had the opportunity to relearn primary mathematics from an outstanding math educator, the late Shri P K Srinivasan.

He made me realise that though I could “do” mathematics, there were many concepts that I had not understood, particularly in K-8 mathematics. My learning association with him lasted more than 15 years. During that time and till 2015, I conducted more than 50 teacher training programs under the theme “Understanding Primary Math for Effective Teaching”. These programs were much appreciated by many teachers.

After my retirement, I decided to write down my understandings of K-8 mathematics as a book. The first draft was completed in 2020. The entire book had come to about 280 chapters divided into 40 sections roughly following the K-8 math curriculum . Each section is about a specific topic area. Each chapter is only 1 or 2 pages long.

As of end of July 2024, the number of chapters has increased to 390.

I want these ideas to be easily accessible to any teacher who may want to read and incorporate them into their teaching. That is the genesis of this website. In the first section “Introduction & Background”, I have described in detail, how I came to write this book.

In these articles, readers would find explanations of concepts underlying different types of numbers, geometrical shapes and various other topics in the K-8 curriculum. Generally, they would not find explanations of computational procedures or algorithms unless these are used as examples to explain underlying concepts.

I firmly believe that students would find math easy and enjoyable, if they are enabled to understand the underlying concepts.

There are also many articles for both student and teacher enrichment. The student enrichment topics may not be part of their curriculum, but they can be easily understood and provide a window into more advanced topics as well as the the fascinating world of math.

I sincerely thank Sridhar Rajagopalan of Educational Initiatives (EI) for designing the former website (Miraheze) and uploading the files, in the midst of his several professional responsibilities.

From August 2024, I have created a new website, with the help of my grandson Vedh Krishnan. Thanks Vedh.

Please go to the Topic Index via the menu on the left to reach the list of topics or use the search feature and start reading.