Exploring Numeracy with Rods
March 17, 2021 | Sossi Essajanian
Rods are a rectangular, 10-color set. Growing in increments of 1 cm, each colored rod corresponds to a different length. This material provides opportunities for exploring a multitude of concepts…
- length
- pattern
- color
- comparing and ordering
- spatial relationships
- symmetry
- composing and decomposing shapes and numbers
- visual sequencing
The children first explored the new material and made important discoveries.
Then they were challenged to make shapes. How many sides would they need? Would a triangle with orange rods look the same as a triangle with blue rods?
Next challenge: making a staircase.
Going up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs…
Final challenge: Staircase in a Bag
Which rod did you pull out? Where does it go in the staircase?
Sossi Essajanian
Teacher, Sky Class
Sossi Essajanian is excited to continue her teaching and learning journey at the Mustard Seed School. She began teaching at the United Nations International School where she worked with children and colleagues from around the world. This inspired her to take a primary teaching position abroad in Nicosia, Cyprus, where she lived and worked for two years.
Ms. Essajanian has a passion for supporting children’s social/emotional skills and learning through a loving and caring classroom community. These are built on creating shared understandings and opportunities for children to identify and express their feelings and of those around them. She believes in creating experiences through pair and group work where learning blossoms through social experiences.
Ms. Essajanian also enjoys reading and talking about books and continues to pursue her second passion: editing. She’s worked in various editorial capacities in newspapers, magazines, and books. She was recently excited to serve as the development editor of a children’s book about engineering and is looking forward to leading some tinkering investigations of her own with her students!
In her free time Ms. Essajanian runs, swims laps, and likes to take long walks to explore the world around her.
