One of the most interesting and, hopefully useful aspects of the Early Math Counts website are the lesson plans that were designed to be easy to use and simple to execute with materials found in your manipulatives area or simple materials you probably already have at home.

Today, I wanted to take a look at that part of the website.  If you click here you will see that there are drop-down boxes that will help you narrow your search for an appropriate lesson plan.  You can choose your lesson by age group, material, or concept.

Let’s say you went to the Dollar Store over the weekend and while you were there you found a large set of boxcar-type cars that you know that your kids will love, but you also want to connect to a math activity.  You could go to the drop-down list called “Find Math Lessons that Use” and when you click on the drop-down list you will see cars as one of the items.

The lessons can be printed on one page (all of the colorful details are taken out so they are easy and cheap to print) PLUS there is a “Letter to Parents” included with each lesson that can be adapted to suit your particular needs.

We would love to hear what you think about the lesson plans in general, or if you have tried any of them specifically.

The letters are in an easy-to-use format so that each center can personalize them.  On the right side of each page there is a button that says “Share with Parents”.  The letters are then downloaded in a .doc format.  It’s as easy as that!

Today we are going to take a look at the “Increase Your Knowledge” page on the Early Math Counts website.  This page and its content was designed for the early childhood professional as well as the early childhood layperson (parent or guardian) who wants to increase their own knowledge about basic math concepts.

If you scroll to the middle of the page you will see seven small images that will link you to short, informative videos.  These are about 3-5 minutes each and will either serve as a reminder about math concepts you may have learned many years ago (some of us haven’t been in school for awhile) or may be completely new to you.

The more we deepen our own understandings of math concepts the better we will be able to serve children.  As our own knowledge increases so does our confidence in working with specific material.

Click on the “Data and Probability” link and watch the video.  What do you think?  Did you learn something new or did you dust off some old memories of math concepts long since buried?

The Home Page has a navigation bar along the top that links to the various areas of the site (these are in small green boxes).  The first one on the left says “Site Home“.  From there moving across the page you can find out information about this project by clicking on About M.A.T.H.  The next area is called Increase Your Knowledge which we will look at more closely next week. The Set up Your Environment area is still under construction but I will let you know when it is ready to go.

Find a Math Lesson is the next area which we will be exploring in a couple weeks time, but is filled with great lessons that you can investigate and begin to use.  Math Resources is divided into links and standards all connected to math learning.  Finally, on the far right you will see the link to this blog. In addition, there are four colorful boxes in the center of the page that also serve as links to the different areas of the site.

We are hoping to get some traffic moving through the site… What do you think?