You can find them here. http://www.safespaceconcepts.com/

Take a look at the page called “Tools for Discovery” and explore the wonderful materials they have that support early math learning.  I love the huge Tic-Tac-Toe board

and the cooperative arch building set.

Tic-Tac-Toe is a game that even very young children can begin playing.  They practice taking turns, recognizing the symbols X and O, and exploring spatial relations.  Unlike older children, Tic-Tac-Toe often ends with a winner, rather than a cat’s game, but that is OK.  In order to really master Tic-Tac-Toe children have to be able to see more than one aspect of the game at once, which is nearly impossible for young children to do. It is actually much more fun to play it with young children and observe how committed they are to completing a row of Xs or Os.

The arch building set requires a certain amount of cooperation between children, which in and of itself, is difficult.  This kind of arch is especially tricky because it demands an understanding of the “keystone concept.”  I bet you know a lot of adults who don’t understand this concept.  Anyway, I think this set will provide a lot of satisfying play in a classroom.  The  blocks are numbered which provides extra clues to how to assemble the arch.  You may find that the children can build it successfully horizontally before they figure out how to get it together vertically.

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Just like frequent opportunities to read sight words support the development of the skill, so too, do frequent opportunities to subtitize number. In addition to having several kinds of dice and dominoes in the classroom, other materials with small numbers of objects should be available so children can practice. Begin with groupings of 1 to 5 as these will provide the foundation for subitizing larger groups using part/whole understandings as well as composing and decomposing number.

This memory game has small groups of objects with matching numeral cards.  Start with 1-5 and put the rest away for later.

Even though I don’t like flash cards for young children for any reason I think that these cards could be used in interesting ways.

It got me thinking about Developmentally Appropriate Practice and how we need to trust that the teachers who work with children daily, know what is appropriate for the children in their group.  I would not necessarily say that this set of dominoes is designed for toddlers.  Indeed, the box says “Ages 8+” but we all know that that designation is meant for playing Official Dominoes, not playing with dominoes as a manipulative.

So what does the toddler get out of manipulating this manipulative?  The obvious answer is that he is using his motor skills to stand each domino up to balance them on one end.  Less obvious is that he needs to use his spatial knowledge to place each of the dominoes out so if they were to fall, they would not knock the others down.  He may also be using his spatial skills to try and get them close enough to each other so when one falls over it does knock the others down. From the picture, it looks like he is trying to line them up in an even row.   In any of the above ways, he is thinking about spatial relations – which is early math.

I am also quite sure that this child does not have rote counting skills yet, nor one-to-one correspondence, but by playing with the dominoes he is exposed to the grouped pips (dots) in number formations that he will see throughout his life.

Just because dominoes may not be designed for toddlers and may even be considered to be Developmentally Inappropriate, after observing this child engaging with this set, I believe that the teacher made a great choice when she put them out.

Dominoes are such a great math manipulative and a wonderful classroom tool.  I wrote about them last week so I won’t revisit those same themes, but I did want to explore the difference between a table top manipulative and one that can be played on the ground.

A traditional set of dominoes has 28 tiles and offers several options for children in terms of matching, adding, counting, sorting, etc.  For children who like to sit at a table and play, these are perfect.

But what about those children who prefer BIG play?  The children who choose the large rug and the big blocks over just about everything else?  How do we get them interested in the math concepts that a traditional set of dominoes offers?

Rather than insisting that these children come to the table and engage in an activity that is neither interesting to them nor appropriate for their need to play “big”, I say, “Bring the play to them.”  Access to materials such as the BIG dominoes above affords children another way to engage with materials they might not otherwise have interest in. All of the traditional domino math concepts can be explored with this large set with the additional dimension of size so they can be built up, knocked over, used in addition to the big blocks, and thrown around a bit.  (I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but they are soft and made from foam rubber).

I also like the idea of adding these to a toddler area.  These are lightweight, a two-year old could carry one, and safer than large blocks.  This set is available on-line, but they are not nearly as large as the ones at the museum.

Providing more opportunities for children to engage in exploration in ways that are interesting to them through active play is one of the goals of an early childhood program.  Investing in a variety of materials for diverse learning styles and learners is worth the cost.  Think of it as an investment in your program that will come back to you in the success of the children and families you serve.

Does anyone know where you can get a set of the huge dominoes described above?

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 it.

There are literally hundreds of games that can be played with dominoes.  Here is a website that describes many of them.  For our purposes, a simple game of matching like ends to like ends can keep kids busy counting pips for days.