SNC Mgarr Primary School

School Motto : Dak li tiżra taħsad / Reap what you sow

Maths Workshops for Year 1 students…

Posted on December 4, 2014 by mgarrprimary

On 3rd December 2014, the year 1 students of Ms Marilyn Bugeja and Ms Louise Cutajar, together with their LSAs, Ms Josephine Galea and Ms Anna Cassar had a great day fun packed with maths workshops.

These workshops were coordinated by Ms Joanne Vella, Maths Support Teacher. The workshops consisted of a number of stations. In every station students participated in games which involved mathematical thinking skills, reasoning skills and creative arts skills.

The students had a whale of a time and look forward for more. Thank you to all for making this yet another successful event for our students’ learning experience 🙂

Doubling and Halving…

Posted on November 22, 2014 by mgarrprimary

The year 5.2 students of Ms Sharon Calleja did a series of Mathematics lessons about doubling and halving. Since the lessons were held close to Halloween, during one of our lessons the student played an on-line game called Ghost Blasters. They were then given a number and they had to find the ghost which had the double of that number written on it. It was so much fun 🙂

In another lesson, the students carried out an investigation. The students started with a number and kept doubling / halving it several times to see how many times this could be done.

Then, the students practised more on-line games for doubling and halving 🙂

Maths Workshops for Parents

Posted on November 21, 2014 by mgarrprimary

A good number of parents attended the Maths Workshops Mgarr Primary has been organizing for the last 3 years. This year the Maths Workshops focused on sharing with parents how teaching Maths can be fun and meaningful.

During Year 1 and Year 2 workshops, the Maths Support Teacher emphasised that children this age need to have a good number sense (recognition and value). Children build a bank of knowledge of each and every number which will later help them in Mental Maths and problem solving. Parents were given an opportunity to experience activities their children are doing in Maths.

Workshop 3 and 4 focused more on the calculation strategies and how teaching maths is shifting from rote learning (knowing the procedure) to understanding the process. Parents were introduced to different problem solving strategies students use in non-routine problem solving situations and had a shot at similar ‘problems’ in groups. The aim of these workshops is to empower parents to reflect upon and share their uses of mathematics in everyday life, so they can support their children’s mathematics learning.

Ms Joanne Vella (Maths Support Teacher)

Maths with a difference…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by mgarrprimary

On 17th January 2014 the year 3.1 students of Ms Rosette and the year 3.2 students of Ms Rodianne had a hands on maths lesson. This lesson was co-ordinated and organised by the Maths support teacher, Ms Joan Vella.

The students had to make their on healthy sandwich. However they had to prepare their shopping list and then go shopping to buy the ingredients needed for this sandwich. They had to pay for the ingredients and make sure that they were given the correct change.

The children enjoyed their shopping. They went to the baker and to the grocer at Mgarr. When they returned to school they prepared their healthy sandwiches.

Well done to everyone 😉

Christmas Maths Workshop for Year 1

Posted on December 12, 2013 by mgarrprimary

On 12th December 2013 they year 1 students of Ms Marilyn (yr 1.1 teacher) and Ms Louise (yr 1.2 teacher) had fanstastic maths workshops which were organised with the help of the maths support teacher, Ms Joanne Vella.

Organising such maths workshops required a lot of preparation and co-ordination between the class teachers and the maths support teacher. It is very satisfying to see the results of great team work.

During the maths workshops, Ms Janice Vella Muscat (Yr 2.1 teacher), Ms Josephine (LSA), Ms Isabelle and Ms Morris (both maths support teachers) assisted the class teachers and their students. It is through such experiences that in our education system we work hard to instill a love towards maths.

The workshops included: sponge printing (to learn shapes), decorating the Christmas under 1 minute (to learn time), sorting caps according to colour (sequencing), sorting thinsel (to learn longer and shorter), helping Bee-Bot eat his chocolate treat (thinking skills, direction and counting) and matching number cards to value cards (number concepts).

Well done to all and keep up the good work 😉 Special thanks goes to our photographer Ryan Micallef, a year 5 student 🙂

Learning through play…

Posted on December 12, 2013 by mgarrprimary

The teachers at Mgarr Primary strive hard to help their students learn through play and by making use of hands-on sessions. Even technology features in their daily lessons.

The photos above show the students during an English lesson during which students were learning the use of ‘a’ or ‘an’. We can see the students having fun during maths lessons learning counting in twos with the help of interlocking blocks. Finally we can see our students using their “technological friend” Bee-Bot who helped them to learn the names of various colours.

Well done to Ms Stephanie for the hard work done 😉

Fun with maths

Posted on December 6, 2013 by mgarrprimary

From the very first days of this scholastic year the year 3 students of Ms Rosette embarked on learning maths through play. It is a well know fact that some children fear maths. One of the reasons may be that maths is not presented in an attractive and hands on manner to children.

Ms Rosette, in collaboration with the Maths support teacher, has made sure that her students learn maths through play by doing practical sessions held in class and in the school yard.

Such learning styles ensure that students learn maths, while enjoying themselves.

Maths Workshops for year 6

Posted on November 19, 2013 by mgarrprimary

Maths is an integral part of our daily routine. Sometimes students struggle with this subject. However, our teachers always do their best to present maths as a fun activity.

The best way to learn maths is through hand-ons activities, where students learn by discovery. With the support of our Maths support teacher, a number of maths lessons are being delivered at school with the aim of having students coming up with their own solutions and discoveries during a set of planned workshops.

Year 3 pupils go mad for SuperT.

Posted on June 23, 2013 by mgarrprimary

This year two year 3 classes at Mgarr Primary took the SuperTmatic competition on board. The year 3 teachers (Ms Sharon Richard and Ms Kylie Vella) together with the Maths Support Teacher introduced the children to the card game and its rules.
Every week time was allocated for SuperT game sessions. All the children involved looked forward to play SuperT and class teachers noted improvement in children regarding mental calculations. This game generated a lot of interest amongst parents too and in one of the Parents’ meetings, children were invited in to show their parents how it’s played.

What is SuperTmatik?
SuperTmatik Mental Maths is an educational game which combines mental stimulation and fun to develop skills in the four basic maths operations (+, -, x, ÷).

Mgarr Primary participated in the 7th International Mental Maths Competition

In February we started preparing our participants for the championships by explaining the rules. There was an intra-class tournament in both Year 3 classes. This was a knock-out tournament for students in the same class. Then there was an inter-class tournament which was contested by the champions and runners up of each class. The finalists were Matteo Stagno and Shanice Sammut.

Contrary to what we thought, the children who did not make it to the final continued to support the finalists until the day of the grand finale. It was a united effort so that the school chooses the best finalists to compete in their name.

The Results of the 2012/13 Edition
The finalists at Mgarr Primary did very well. Matteo Stagno placed 10th and Shanice Sammut the 76th in Category 2. 7% of the 247,000 participants in The SuperTmatik Championships enrolled in Category 2 which means that 17, 290 were playing in this category. St. Nicholas College Mgarr Primary is proud of all the pupils who took part in this competition.

Full results can be found here.

How to play SuperTmatik?
In this video, one may learn more how this game is played.

Photos of the Maths trail outing

Is-sur Siegħa u Bee-Bot…

Posted on April 14, 2011 by mgarrprimary

L-istudenti ta’ Ms Analisa Magro tat-tieni sena kellhom lezzjoni nteressanti mas-Sur Siegħa u Bee-Bot fejn tgħallmu jaqraw il-ħin bil-Malti b’mod mhux tas-soltu. Wara li l-għalliema ntroduċiet lis-Sur Siegħa permezz ta’ preżentazzjoni, t-tfal kellhom l-opportunita’ biex jużaw il-Bee-Bot biex japplikaw dak li tgħallmu.

Ara dan il-video biex tara l-esperjenza sabiħa li kellhom it-tfal.