What is Gymathstics®?
Gymathstics® is an educational maths program designed to meet each child’s individual learning style in a fun and easy way. Children learn through three learning styles, and there are three types of learners:
Visual Learners
Auditory Learners
Kinesthetic Learners
The Gymathstics® approach caters for every learner, thereby creating a multi-sensory approach to learning maths. The mental-maths-through-movement program is delivered through 5 gym levels.
Learners’ progress is recorded on the Gymathstics® assessment chart. For every level completed, learners receive a badge to add onto their gym cap.
The aim of Gymathstics®
The aim of Gymathstics® is to help learners build pathways in the brain to develop mathematical concepts and relationships in a fun and meaningful way. It strives to create a love for maths. Gymathstics® aims to develop the necessary skills for thinking, abstract reasoning and problem solving — all of which form the basis of mathematical understanding.
The ability to think and solve problems is crucial to learning. Thinking and problem-solving skills are the highest-order skills to which mathematical capabilities can be attributed. Thinking involves the ability to recognise and categorise, enabling the child to use these basic skills to later discover and investigate answers based on abstract reasoning. To reach a level of abstract reasoning, children need to be exposed to a range of concrete and semi-concrete sensory activities — creating a multi-sensory approach to learning maths. Gymathstics® provides this so that mathematics becomes a fun learning area, promoting the whole-brain approach to learning.
Advantages of Gymathstics®
- Keeps learners physically and mentally fit
- Gross motor skills with the use of resources
- Fine motor skills with the use of Clip-Count
- Listening skills with the Point Response technique
- Visual memory skills with the Match-Up technique
- Concentration with the use of exercises
- Sequencing skills with the use of Number Squares
- Eye–hand co-ordination with Number Balls
- Logical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Social interaction by means of group learning
- Crossing the mid-line with the Math Tube
- Communication skills through the Assessment technique