Number Agents: Maths Eyes - A Fabulous Addition To Agency

During Maths PLD this year we came across an approach called maths eyes. The website can be found here

I am a massive fan of Jo Boaler and love her work. So this idea of maths eyes linked in beautifully with the research I had done.

I absolutely can not take credit for this idea, but it has had lovely spin off effects for agency.

This year I have used maths eyes separately from agency, just as quick activity that can help to develop children's visual problem solving. I have been giving some thought to how it will work in agency, but did not want to implement it till I had a full handle on how it could work.

Quotes from Jo Boaler's work on visual maths I love....
Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics. -

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, openness, visualization, and flexibility, the mathematics comes alive

When we don’t ask students to think visually, we miss an incredible opportunity to increase students’ understanding and to enable important brain crossing.

whole article here.

After playing around with maths eyes this year, I have some initial ideas of how it will fit with agency and think I have a character to specialise in this. I am unsure of his name yet, but I think this wizard fits well with the concept. He will be used at the beginning of agency during our warm up. Basically maths eyes can either require agents to solve a problem using the picture, or my favourite way to use it is for agents to pose their own questions. It is a great way to integrate strands.

I know as a staff we have been really enthusiastic about maths eyes. At a junior level it is pretty basic, but once you start looking for it you see it everywhere. It is also great for agents to go and take photos to capture their own images for maths eyes.

Some examples of maths eyes I have used this year:

Basically these questions are generated by the children themselves....there are far more challenging ways you can do this, but starting simple gives them a good idea of the process.

(youtube is great as you can pause a number rhyme and take a screen shot)