Students with special needs will benefit from a kit known as Closing the Gap
This kit has been designed specifically for pupils of any age who are experiencing significantly greater difficulty learning mathematics than the majority of pupils of their age – that is, pupils who are working well below the level expected of their chronological ages.
It is suitable for use as a Learning Intervention Programme and also for pupils who have special needs. It is well documented that pupils with Special Educational Needs learn most effectively through multi-sensory teaching; Numicon’s emphasis on doing and seeing, alongside speaking and listening, capitalises on pupils’ visual and kinaesthetic strengths throughout the teaching activities. The aim of this Kit is to enable pupils to develop the sound foundation of basic number understanding essential if they are to achieve their individual potential and for all pupils to have a positive experience of learning mathematics.
The Closing the Gap teaching materials offer practical solutions to pupils’ difficulties to support teachers in their assessment, planning and teaching. The programme of small-step teaching follows the typical acquisition of early number skills, addressing the acquisition of numerosity (awareness of the number of objects in a set), counting, the ability to recognise and exploit pattern, and early computation.
All activities include further ideas for differentiation; mathematical language; connecting activities and application; and are linked to the Assessment tools. Some pupils will move quickly through the Closing the Gap activities and move on to the work in Numicon Kit 1. Others will move more slowly and take longer because they have greater barriers to learning. However independent research projects report consistently that the majority of children show a marked rise in confidence with maths when they work with Numicon.
What to order if you are using Numicon for learning support and intervention
Closing the Gap with Numicon Contents
Teachers’ Book in four sections:
Section 1: The Teaching Guide - provides suggestions to help teachers make the essential number ideas accessible to pupils and address the underlying cognitive difficulties that can hinder pupils learning.
Section 2: The Teaching Programme - follows the typical acquisition of early arithmetic competencies. Each teaching activity comes with suggestions for smaller steps and extension ideas, so that activities can be adapted to pupils’ individual stages of mathematical development.
Section 3: Photocopy Masters for use in various activities from the Teaching Programme.
Section 4: Assessment Tools including Assessment Signposts, Profiling Pro Forma and the Individual Record of Progress.
Components of the Group Kit for up to 6 students:
1 x Teaching Materials
2 x Boxes of Numicon Shapes (160 shapes in total)
2 x bags Numicon Pegs (160 pegs in total)
6 x Baseboards
12 x Baseboard Overlays
3 x Feely Bag
6 x Spinners
3 x Large Format Table Top Number Lines
Components of the Single User Kit for one teacher to one student:
1 x Boxes of Numicon Shapes (80 shapes in total)
1 x Numicon Pegs (80 pegs in total)
2 x Baseboards
12 x Baseboard Overlays
1 x Feely Bag
2 x Spinners
2 x Large Format Table Top Number Lines
The teaching binder is also available separately for purchase. Click here for details.
Some students may experience a colour-processing difficulty. There are now grey shapes and black and white pegs available for these students.
Please specify for these when placing your order. We are happy to change the colour set for Grey shapes and Black and white pegs before shipping.
