Fascinating!  We have always believed that human beings are hard-wired for language from birth and before.  Perhaps, we need to rethink our ideas about baby brains and math.

Numeracy begins long before toddlers know the word names of numbers (one, two, three, etc.).  It begins when the youngest infants begin noticing differences in quantity and develop the understanding of “more and less”.  For older toddlers and preschoolers, learning the word names of numbers and saying those words in order is another really important numeracy skill.  Counting small groups of items is often the next step. Preschoolers can practice counting groups of objects as long as they are in small sets (1-5) and distinguishing between sets of quantities when those sets are very different (3 vs. 25).

Numeracy skills, like literacy skills, should be promoted as much as possible in child care. When opportunities arise during play-based everyday occurrences, every effort should be made to enhance and highlight concepts around quantity, space, and patterns.

Next week, I am going to write more about early Numeracy and ways in which teachers can promote it.

These can be piled up, lined up, knocked over, and thrown about.  They are created so that providers and parents can label them and encourage language, especially mathematical language.  Using words like “blocks” and “squares” encourages spatial thinking language.  Using color words encourages categorizing.  Using words like “more” and “less” and “1, 2, and 3” encourages number and quantity.  These blocks are a great infant manipulative.

I like to allow the children to create whatever they want, especially when I am first introducing the concept of bookmaking to them.  Later, you can help them with ideas by putting out specific materials that might spark interest (stickers, stencils) or you can create simple templates in the books themselves that allow the children to explore a specific idea.

You might write the word “Number” on the first page and then number each subsequent page with 1 – 6 (or 10, but I wouldn’t go beyond 10).  Explain to the children that they can illustrate each page with pictures that represent the number on the page.  This “Number” book offers an opportunity for children to explore number as a part of the language of math.

Here are 2 pages from a book that Noah made.  This whole example was filled with “dots” that represented the numbers.

He wrote his own numbers, but you get the idea!

The first goal in the Mathematics section is

“Goal 6 – Demonstrate and apply a knowledge and sense of  numbers, including numeration and operations”

 

The associated learning standard is

“Learning Standard A – Demonstrate beginning understanding of number, number names and numerals”

and the benchmarks are

6.A.ECa – Count with understanding and recognize “how many” in small sets

6.A.ECb – Use subitizing (the rapid and accurate judgment of how many items there are without counting) to identify the number of objects without counting in sets of four or less

6.A.ECc – Recognize and describe the concept of zero

6.A.ECd – Connect numbers to quantities they represent using physical models and representations.

6.A.ECe – Differentiate numerals from letters and recognize some written numerals

6.A.ECf – Verbally recite numbers from 0 – 10

 

Without looking at the example performance descriptors, I think we could come up with a thousand and one ways to look for examples of the children meeting these benchmarks.  Using a variety of math manipulatives, regularly as a part of your everyday program, children will begin to know how many pips are on a die without counting them (6.A.ECb), count the number of Unifix cubes there are in a set, (6.A.ECa, 6.A.ECf) identify numbers in a matching game and name them (6.A.ECe), and so on.

It is important to note that although the authors of this document provide performance descriptors, that we as practitioners, do not get caught up in “teaching to the test.”  It would be easy to use these examples as specific ways that we look for successful achievement for children, but it is much more developmentally appropriate to expect that there are a variety of ways that children can show us what they know.

This goal is about number- recognizing a written numeral saying its name and differentiating those symbols from letter symbols. It is about understanding the concept of “nothingness” and that “nothing” can be represented by the symbol “0”.  It says that, just by looking, children should be able to tell how many of something are in a set of 4 or less and that they should be able to count individual items in a set accurately.  Children should be able to answer the question, “how many?” and make representations of that number by creating a set using physical numbers and representations of that number.

In April, I plan on exploring perhaps the most important book ever to be written about young children and number….it is aptly entitled “Number” and hopefully, this discussion will continue to shed let on how children achieve these goals and meet these benchmarks.

I was an assistant kindergarten teacher in a small school and we were all sitting on the rug at circle time.  The other teacher asked the children one of those broad questions you ask every day.  Only this time she worded the question just differently enough that they children had to consider what they already knew and then make adjustments about this new information in order to create sense out of the question and their answers.  She asked, “What day were you born?”  Not one child raised his/her hand.

Now, I knew that they all knew their birthdays.  We had talked about birthdays frequently and their own special day was even posted on the classroom “birthday board.” The teacher repeated the question.  One boy -Joseph- repeated the question to himself, just under his breath.  I started watching him.  He was saying, “What day were you born?  Born day, born day.”  All of a sudden, his face lit up like a beacon and he yelled out, “Born day is birthday!”  By asking a question just a little bit differently than you have before, you require the children to think in a new way.  That new way is how they construct knowledge.

Some of the games on this site are clearly for older children but there are some that would be perfect for preschool-aged kids.  I like “Crazy Faces” that uses the dice to give the children direction about what to put on their paper faces.  It takes a little bit of preparation, but your kids will love it.