NL Curriculum Resources

On February 25th, our class viewed the mathematics resources for the k-6 Newfoundland and Labrador curriculum.  We viewed these resources in a "stations" set up (a set up that I have seen used effectively in k-6 class on my observation days) where each table was assigned a particular grade and had a variety of resources available for said grade.  

The primary resources were bright, big, colorful, and a pleasure to view and work with. They use minimal text and focus mainly on visuals and keeping the math fun and exciting to its users.  However, I noticed that as the grades progress, the colour and brightness decrease.  Once the resources for elementary came along, there was way more text content, which is completely understandable because they are becoming more skilled readers, but why do the visuals have to disappear? Why can't the older students enjoy the same bright and colorful resources? I know I personally enjoy reading text books with fun activities, and colorful images, so why should older students be deprived of these elements?

The number of resources also decreases as the grades progress.  It appears that the older grades generally just focus on using the textbook, and even though textbooks are a great resource, I feel that there are benefits to using other materials.  Using other activity books, worksheets, games, etc, allows students to learn the objectives in different way, steering them away from the mundane lesson, then text book work at their desks.  It allows them to learn in a different way which helps to keep them motivated and engaged.  Why not keep math fresh and fun like it is in the younger grades? Elementary students deserve to have a good time while learning math too, because that is how they will learn to love and value the subject.

Overall, I really enjoyed looking through these resources.  Going through the education program, it is easy to feel very overwhelmed.  There is so many outcomes we need to meet when we become teachers in just one year, and it is easy to stress out over not getting this done.  It is nice to know that we are not alone in our classrooms, and that there is a wide variety of resources available to us to make meeting these outcomes a little easier.