Exploring Mathematical Arrays
Singapore Math is a teaching method based on the national mathematics curriculum used for kindergarten through sixth grade in Singapore. Students solve mathematical problems in an abstract way by using numbers and symbols. Singapore Math allows students to develop an understanding of different mathematical concepts before they are taught the procedures.
One of the mathematical concepts is an array, which the students in Ms. Wells’ math class started exploring. They learned that an array is an arrangement of objects in rows and columns. Their lesson objective was to use rectangular arrays to illustrate multiplication and write two related equations. The students created a cityscape by gluing buildings with arrays together and then wrote a related equation for each array. They also made real-world connections when they looked out the windows and discussed the other arrays that they saw. There are many ways to solve a problem, and combining the concrete, the pictorial, and the abstract methods can really help us understand the ideas behind the math!