Early Math Counts

This phrase “scope and sequence” can be heard in every area of education.  “Scope” refers to what we teach and “sequence” refers to when we teach it. Both the scope and the sequence are very important when thinking about math curriculum.

When I was teaching kindergarten, I was frequently questioning the scope and sequence of our curriculum.  I was never quite sure if we were teaching “enough” or “too much”  material.  I found that different children had different needs in terms of scope and sequence which made following a set curriculum difficult.  That can be exacerbated by mixed-age settings as the ages and stages of those children are vastly different.

For young children, we need to consider developmentally appropriate practice by considering this question: Is what we are attempting to teach children appropriate not only for their chronological age but for their developmental age as well?  We must also consider when and in what order we present new materials and new ideas.  We must think about the children in our specific group and what they are ready for,

Have you ever tried to teach something and right in the middle of it, you realize “Hey, these kids are simply not ready for this?”