Importance of More or Less Terms in Student’s Life
I’ve often heard more or less used as a term to describe a similarity between two items. That is a waste of terminology. More is more when comparing mass, weight, capacity and volume, while less indicates that what once was, is no more. In other words, something has shrunk. These words are about comparison, and when working with matter, a comparison is a good and valuable tool. However, when applied to people, it can be divisive and unhelpful. Comparing siblings or other students’ academic performance is a sure way to undermine a student’s confidence. If you suspect that your student’s self-assurance is suffering, then I encourage you to book an assessment at one of our local, affordable Fruition Tuition centres.
Early learning requires students to have spatial awareness, and comparison is part of the language. Terms such as more, less, larger, smaller, before, after, higher and lower all relate to one object’s size, volume, and position against another. I often have fun while teaching these concepts. There are myriad ways to make learning captivating; the home kitchen is a perfect object lesson store. Every parent has heard the cry, “They have more than me; it’s not fair!” at least once, use it as a perfect opportunity to explore the concepts surrounding volume and capacity. Does a teacup or a measuring cup hold more? How many strawberries can fit into a box, a bowl or the blender? How much fluid do I add to the strawberries in the blender to make enough smoothies for the whole family? Will I need to make more because the jug is not big enough? What a fun way to learn more than how to make a delicious drink; did you know you have been teaching maths all along? Early childhood spatial awareness is critical for the development of reading, writing and mathematical proficiency. Fruition Tuition tutoring services provide excellent, affordable and knowledgeable tutors in this area.
Primary school children learn about volume, capacity and a host of other measurements. More or less is a number operation. Addition results in more, subtraction less. Division gives more groups of less. Capacity is the potential to hold something, whether it be liquid (water), powder (flour), or solid (eggs). Students explore different containers while learning about capacity, deciding and conjecturing which container will be best to hold what substance. After they have matched substance and container, they can learn about how to measure these things. People measure liquid in volume, and the measure is the litre, millilitre or another variant. Students assess solids by weight or mass, the standard being the kilogram, gram, milligram or similar, and measure distance in metres, kilometres, etc. Maths tutoring assists students in learning about capacity, volume and measurement.
Middle school students learn about corresponding time and distance. Do you need more or less time to cover a distance, depending on the speed at which you are travelling? A student must be able to understand time measures and distance measures to make the necessary calculations. Answers vary enormously between km/sec and km/hour or m/sec and mm/hour (snail pace). Engage a student’s brain with practical applications in the yard or on a car trip. Ask them to calculate either the time required for a trip or the distance covered at a specified speed and time.
However, suppose a student does not understand how to measure speed, distance, or calculate the time required for a specified trip. In that case, you may consider seeking assistance from our friendly, local and affordable tutors.