Closing the Gap with Numicon, due September 2008
This kit has been designed specifically for pupils of any age who are experiencing significantly greater difficulty learning mathematics than the majority of pupils of their age – that is, pupils who are working well below the level expected of their chronological ages.
It is suitable for use as a Learning Intervention Programme and also for pupils who have special needs. It is well documented that pupils with SENs learn most effectively through multi-sensory teaching; Numicon’s emphasis on doing and seeing, alongside speaking and listening, capitalises on pupils’ visual and kinaesthetic strengths throughout the teaching activities. The aim of this Kit is to enable pupils to develop the sound foundation of basic number understanding essential if they are to achieve their individual potential and for all pupils to have a positive experience of learning mathematics.
The Closing the Gap teaching materials offer practical solutions to pupils’ difficulties to support teachers in their assessment, planning and teaching. The programme of small-step teaching follows the typical acquisition of early number skills, addressing the acquisition of numerosity (awareness of the number of objects in a set), counting, the ability to recognise and exploit pattern, and early computation.
All activities include further ideas for differentiation; mathematical language; connecting activities and application; and are linked to the Assessment tools. Some pupils will move quickly through the Closing the Gap activities and move on to the work in Numicon Kit 1. Others will move more slowly and take longer because they have greater barriers to learning. However independent research projects report consistently that the majority of children show a marked rise in confidence with maths when they work with Numicon.
What to order if you are using Numicon for learning support and intervention
• Closing the Gap with Numicon
• Kit 1 Plus Pack (Kit 1 teaching materials and components for Kit 1, which build on and extend the Closing the Gap with Numicon Teaching Programme)
• 1 Box of Numicon Number Rods.
Closing the Gap with Numicon Contents
Teachers’ Book in four sections:
Section 1: The Teaching Guide - provides suggestions to help teachers make the essential number ideas accessible to pupils and address the underlying cognitive difficulties that can hinder pupils learning.
Section 2: The Teaching Programme - follows the typical acquisition of early arithmetic competencies. Each teaching activity comes with suggestions for smaller steps and extension ideas, so that activities can be adapted to pupils’ individual stages of mathematical development.
Section 3: Photocopy Masters for use in various activities from the Teaching Programme.
Section 4: Assessment Tools including Assessment Signposts, Profiling Pro Forma and the Individual Record of Progress.
Components:
1 x Boxes of Numicon Shapes (160 shapes in two boxes)
80 x Numicon Pegs
2 x Baseboards
12 x Baseboard Overlays
1 x Feely Bag
2 x Spinners
2 x Large Format Table Top Number Lines
1 x Tray
Numicon’s strong visual imagery with emphasis on pattern, multi-sensory approach and ‘small steps’ teaching programme is proving successful for pupils with many different special needs.
Find out more
Additional Numicon teaching materials, ideas and resources to help you get more from Numicon.
Click here