Math in Storytime

Across the state children entering kindergarten are lacking math skills. So this school year we will be focusing on integrating math into our storytimes.  

Now don’t have nightmares about your high school math classes!  Math in storytime will be easy…in fact you are probably doing a lot of math already! 

5 little fishes…one swam away, then there were 4!

However, by being intentional in adding math concepts into our storytimes we will help children be better prepared for school.  As we add math into our storytimes we can add parent tips about incorporating math into everyday activities with children.

The Learning Pathway to Numeracy document and the Washington State Early Learning and Development Guidelines are resources we can use to help us more intentionally add math concepts into storytime.  We need not worry about such terms as cardinality and algebraic thinking, instead we will focus on activities and language skills that will help build math skills.

Easy math activities to use during storytime:

•  Sort
• Count (Toddlers: 1-5; preschoolers: 1-10)
•  Introduce numerals “one” = 1
•  Use words such as: more, less, same
• Use counting up and counting down flannel boards/fingerplays
• Compare items’ length, weight, size using words such as: big, heavy, long, etc.
• Order items by size: big, bigger, biggest
• Name shapes
• Use positional words such as on, under, behind

Take a few minutes to look at how you already incorporate math concepts into your own storytime.