More on Math

A few weeks ago I was able to attend the Gift of Childhood Conference.  Douglas Clements was the keynote speaker and I also attended one of his workshops.  He is a researcher of early childhood math education from the University of Denver. 

Dr. Clements spoke about the immense importance of providing better math opportunities for young children.  We can continue to add math concepts into our storytimes to strengthen children’s understanding.  In fact, recent research showed that counting predicted arithmetic success in Kindergarten, which in turn predicts later school achievement in all areas.

Here are a few other tidbits I learned that I’d like to pass along:

• Subitizing (knowing how many without having to count)  When children are subitizing larger numbers (6 and above) we can ask how they know because usually kids will “see” at least one number and then they add the other number they “see”.  For example 8—the child could see 5 and 3 or maybe they see 4 and 4.  Children may know that 4 and 4 is eight.  If children know the number don’t make them count; this discourages subitizing, the very thing we are trying to teach.  However, when children are subitzing 1-5 we do NOT want to ask “how many”.  We want them to be able to look and just know; thus not being able to tell us “how” they know with numbers one through five.   
• Placing items to count horizontally is best when children are first starting to count.  Using just one color or one type of item is also best.
• Count as you add items to the flannel board.  Put one monkey on board, count one, put next monkey on say two and so forth.  This helps children hear and see the number.  After counting be sure to ask, How Many? to help children with cardinatility—understanding the last number they say is “how many”.
• Don’t just count to ten, go on to eleven or twelve! Try a movement activity, such as jumping, and count the number of times a child can jump—hearing numbers past what they can recite helps children gain a greater understanding of numbers. 
• Try a flannel board such as “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” but have 2 or 3 fall off at once. Dr. Clements believes that we often don’t challenge children enough in regards to math.
• Use math language more in every day situations.  We can help children see numbers by talking about numbers.  Instead of saying “Pick up the blocks” you can say, “Pick up the three blocks”.