numbers – Early Math Counts

Magnetic Numbers

Early Math Counts — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 10:18:36 +0000

The first set of refrigerator magnets we bought had 3 sets of the alphabet’s 26 upper case letters with several duplicates of commonly used letters (E, N, S, A, etc.). We kept these in a large bucket in the kitchen so the kids could play with them on the bottom half of the fridge. For the most part, they ended up getting thrown around the kitchen eventually gathering dust under the appliances.

If I were to do it all over again, I would purchase these number magnets.

My kids had language all around them, while exposure to numerals was less apparent. I also now know that Noah preferred manipulating numbers and these would have provided a more relevant experience for him.

Often, centers and classrooms have a magnetic surfaces somewhere in their spaces. I have seen wall mirrors attached to the lower half of the wall so that crawling babies, toddlers, and preschoolers can see themselves. Usually, these mirrors are magnetic, so mirrors provide not only a wonderful reflection of self, but create another area where children can explore magnets in a meaningful and consistent way.

Dice are Cool Redux

Early Math Counts — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:33 +0000

If I was still an early childhood teacher, I think I would use these big dice for all sorts of things in my classroom. I would have the kids roll them to take turns, make decisions, and choose activities.

Even very young children could roll one of these die and, with help, count the pips to find out what number it is. If you have three children in your group, each one could roll the die, tell their number, and put themselves in order based on that number. Here is a nice lesson plan that uses dice for counting.

These dice are a bit different. Rather than pips, they have the number written on each side. These too are interesting- especially if children are working on identifying integers rather than counting.

Different materials support different learning goals and create different learning outcomes. Yeah for dice!

Counting- Don’t be fooled

Early Math Counts — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:00:32 +0000

Many young children can count up to ten, twenty, fifty and even a hundred. They recite the words, one, two, three and so on, often while they are not actually counting something in particular. Don’t be fooled. Counting like this, is a memorization task, that requires many skills, none of which are mathematical. Learning the sequence of the words may be mathematical in the purest sense, but counting is primarily a language skill.