2026 Summer Camp · Session 2 Day 12

아날로그 시계 읽기부터,
1억까지 세어봤어요 🕐

JC After School · Coquitlam, BC · August 19, 2026 (Wed)

A maths day, run at two levels at once — and one lesson that both groups did together, on the floor, with the biggest sheet of paper we had.

A student drawing an enormous analogue clock face on poster paper, with hour numbers inside and minute values written in red clouds around the outside — Sixty ticks, twelve hours, and the minutes written out loud 🕐

🕐 Analogue vs Digital Both groups, one big clock

Telling the time on a round clock is one of those skills adults forget is learned. On a digital display, 3:15 says 3:15. On an analogue face, the hand points at a 3 and you are somehow expected to say fifteen.

So the clock got drawn out at poster size, and both numbers were written on it: the hours inside (1 to 12) and the minutes outside in red — 00, 05, 10, 15, all the way round to 55. All sixty tick marks, one by one. Once both sets of numbers are visible at the same time, the translation stops being a mystery.

Two students working together on the large clock face, marking the minute ticks — Sixty ticks is a job for two ✌️

Students adding the minute numbers around the outside of the clock face — The outer numbers are the whole point

🔢 Large Numbers, up to One Hundred Million Also both groups

The other whole-group lesson: how to read large numbers out loud, and how to multiply by multiples of ten — all the way up to one hundred million.

Reading big numbers is really a place-value skill in disguise. Once a child can chunk the digits correctly, multiplying by 10, 100 or 1,000 stops being a rule to memorise and becomes something obvious: the digits do not change, they just move.

➗ The Intermediate Group Moves Up Exponents & negative numbers

The older students have been climbing steadily all summer, and today they took the next step:

Multiplication→Division→Ratios→Fractions→Word problems→Order of operations→Exponents & negative numbers

Order-of-operations equations — solved correctly, which is the hard part — are now landing reliably. On top of that came today's introduction to exponents and to calculations involving negative numbers.

An order of operations worksheet with the BIMDAS rule listed beside ten equations — BIMDAS, and ten to solve

A worksheet of problems combining parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division and subtraction — Brackets and exponents together

An order of operations maze where each correct answer reveals the next step of the path — Same rules, as a maze

Why BIMDAS matters more than it looks
Brackets, Indices, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. Get the order wrong and every step afterwards is wrong too — which is exactly why we practise it until the sequence is automatic, before the numbers get any harder.

➕ The Primary Group, Building Up Chosen sheet by sheet

The younger students have been working on adding and subtracting larger and smaller numbers, and pushing themselves through a series of worksheets that are anything but random. Each one is picked deliberately — for maximum exposure in minimal time, aimed at what their coming grade level will actually ask of them.

A colour the answer worksheet where each sum has three possible answers to choose between — Colour the correct answer

An addition maze worksheet where solving each sum reveals the route to the finish — Solve to find the path

A missing addends worksheet with circles to fill in, such as 3 plus blank equals 8 — Missing addends — the harder cousin

Encouraging & enjoyable

Mazes, colouring grids and puzzles mean the child keeps going without noticing how many sums they have done.

Challenging & building

Every sheet starts from what they have already shown they can do, then asks for one step more.

Note the shift hidden in that last worksheet: 3 + ◯ = 8 is not the same question as 3 + 5 = ◯. It is the first quiet step toward algebra, and they are doing it with circles and a pencil.

🍚 Lunch Fried rice, kimchi & dumplings

A large pan of beef fried rice — Fried rice

A tray of freshly cut kimchi — Freshly cut kimchi

A plate of fried rice served with kimchi — Plated up

Students gathered round the table sharing a plate of pan-fried dumplings — Dumplings, distributed 🥟

Pan-fried dumplings resting on a plate — And dumplings 🥟

A student pulling a cheerful face at the camera — Post-lunch mood 😄

🎤

Tomorrow: the first three group presentations — including a science lesson delivered by the students themselves. We will warm up with group challenges and a short round of maths games for review first.

Ask them tonight what the hand pointing at the 3 actually means. And then ask what 10³ is. Depending on which group they are in, you will get a very different answer — both of them correct. 🕐

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