I know Abby through Alison. Remember that little preschool I wrote about where everyone’s needs were met in thoughtful and meaningful ways? Abby worked there when she was a young teacher, prior to having her own children. She was one of those teachers that people in Chicago talk about like this. ” Ooooh, do you […]
No matter how much I go on and on about early math – please remember that 99% of what we do with young children should be in the context of play-based learning. I saw this poster this morning, so I thought I would share it with you here.
The second half of Chapter 3 “Principles of Teaching Number” in Kamii’s Number in Preschool and Kindergarten describes “counting” as an emergent skill that can be observed in stages. Citing research from two studies that looked at children’s counting conducted by Greco (1962) and Meljac (1979) Kamii found that even though children may be able […]
I was recently at the Chicago Children’s Museum when I discovered this large shelf in the middle of the hallway filled with enormous dominoes. I stopped and took some pictures of them so I could write about them here (I am always thinking ahead:) Dominoes are such a great math manipulative and a wonderful classroom […]
When we began playing checkers with the boys they were only really interested when they got to yell, “King Me!” Otherwise, they never got too excited about Checkers, Chinese Checkers, or Chess. I don’t know if this was because Checkers and Chess are played with only 2 players (and I would sometimes suggest that they […]
Mathwire.com has a whole page dedicated to Dominoes. If your kids like playing with them, you should check it out here. Scroll down the home page and you will find domino templates, additional domino games (Have you ever played Mexican Train?), literature connections, and online domino games. We’d love to hear what you think of […]
Today we are going “old school” to talk about dominoes. Dominoes have been around for centuries and have been used for all sorts of gaming in countries around the world. Traditional dominoes were made of ivory with black dots, called “pips”. A traditional complete set of dominoes has one unique piece for each possible combination […]
I have been relentlessly hounding my friend Alison for her responses to the Early Math Counts Parent Questionnaire only to find out that she sent me her answers ages ago! My bad…. Alison and I go way back. In the late 1990’s, we were both directors of small preschools in Chicago. We met by chance […]
Did you know the game commonly known as Chutes and Ladders is derived from an ancient Indian board game that taught life’s lessons by depicting one’s progression through life as virtuous and forward-moving/climbing via ladders, or sinful and backward-moving/falling via snakes?The version that most of us play also has a numbered 10 X 10 grid […]
One of the Early Math Counts readers mentioned that she plays a computer version of Candyland with her kids and they love it. I did a little digging and found this Hasbro website that has all sorts of games that use the images from Candyland. Most of the games are pretty basic, focusing on moving the […]