Last week I wrote about the importance of impartial and accurate observations of children. Teachers of young children need to systematically use observation as a part of their daily practice in order to plan for appropriate and engaging learning opportunities, to set up the environment so it is both challenging and safe, to collaborate with […]
For the past 6 years, I have been involved in one way or another in the Early Math Counts Project; initially as the primary blogger, later as the designer and one of the authors of the professional development series …. and most recently as the coordinator of the Guest Bloggers. Each of these roles has […]
In preparation for Summer, Leslie Layman, coordinator of the Truman College Child Development Program, will discuss her favorite ideas for taking Math and and other STEAM ideas outside. Parents often bring their young children into our professional care because they want better for their child in future. They hope for their child to become more […]
In preparation for Summer, Leslie Layman, coordinator of the Truman College Child Development Program, will discuss her favorite ideas for taking Math and and other STEAM ideas outside. “When I think of these experiences and interactions, I wonder why we, as teachers, feel the need to intervene and explain so often.” –Nora Thompson I love […]
In preparation for Summer, Leslie Layman, coordinator of the Truman College Child Development Program, will discuss her favorite ideas for taking Math and and other STEAM ideas outside. When thinking about using a scientific inquiry approach with young children, I often refer back to one of the guiding principles of the Reggio Emilia […]
In preparation for Summer in this series, Leslie Layman, coordinator of the Truman College Child Development Program, will discuss her favorite ideas for taking Math and and other STEAM ideas outside. http://lapisdemae.com/7-formas-de-mostrar-as-criancas-sobre-a-criacao-de-deus/ When I teach Truman College’s Science and Math for Young Children course, I have the students break into groups, do research about, and […]
posted by Chris Kruger So far, we’ve seen what it takes to prepare an exploration, a graphing progression, and a discussion about what kind of questions can be centered around an exploration. To wrap up our month, I’m going to extrapolate from a specific example to a general framework for explorations. A General Framework for […]
posted by Chris Kruger Pictographs and Pie Graphs I’m going to start this week with a frank statement: I messed up this part of the exploration. When I was planning the scope of the exploration, I intended for the class to spend two weeks on bar graphs and two weeks on pictographs. I knew that […]
posted by Chris Kruger Welcome back to week 2 of making graphs with kids! Today we explore rolling out an exploration and pushing students to think more deeply about a concept. Let’s Make Bar Graphs! Since I knew the class had only limited exposure to bar graphs going into this exploration, we spent the first […]
posted by Chris Kruger The difference between an activity and an exploration Exploration based learning may be all the rage, but not every Pinterest post is an exploration. Explorations are intensive, thoughtful investigations into a concept, while an activity is a solitary project, isolated from any surrounding work. In my Pre-K/K classroom, the emphasis is […]