Mental calculation is a game played with images of quantities, without worrying about written numbers. Precisely for this reason it is an achievement within the reach of all children starting in childhood, to open the doors to learning mathematics.

Workbooks for learning

Stronger in Mental Calculations is a new series of workbooks designed to help primary school children learn mental calculations by playing with pictures without worrying about written numbers. Many didactic proposals and various mathematical exercises according to Camillo Bortolato’s Analogical Method to help students consolidate reading and mental calculation skills.

The quantities are presented according to a precise spatial arrangement and organized into groups of five.

This allows for reading of quantities up to 1000, without counting one-by-one or introducing digits.

The image of the euro made up of 100 cents represents the link with everyday life and concreteness, consolidating reading and mental calculation skills (addition, subtraction, grouping). Moreover  using coins and banknotes ignites the children’s enthusiasm because they experience joy in doing grown-up things.

The web App Digital Mental Calculations

In the volume there is a code to access Digital mental calculations, an innovative web app designed to reinforce the program at home and at school. The proposed interactive activities allow you further practice of the book and the immediate feedback allows for self-correction and an autonomous approach to the task. The app can be used on tablets, PCs and IWBs.

In the Dots and Cents sections, the recognition and reading of quantities are practised, enhancing various strategies and training image restructuring. The constant spatial arrangement allows a natural transition from small to large quantities, up to 1000, and from dots to cents.

The series

Level 1

Stronger in Mental Calculation – Level 1 offers various mathematical exercises according to Camillo Bortolato’s analogical-intuitive approach and exercises about cents, euros, coins and banknotes. The book presents the strategies of mental arithmetic, which are different and independent from the procedures of written arithmetic, and the quantities according to a precise spatial arrangement and organised in fives. This allows the reading of quantities up to 1000, without counting element by element or introducing digits. The web app allows for additional practice.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the book that have been translated into English to facilitate your evaluation:

THE AUTHOR

Camillo Bortolato is a pedagogist and teacher with over 40 years’ experience in primary schools. In addition to teaching, he has for many years been intensely involved in research on methodologies and teaching tools for mathematics. With Erickson he has made several tools, amongst which the innovative Line of 20, and has published a number of books on how to apply the analogical method, which plays on the innate intuition of children, in order to turn the learning process into a spontaneous one.