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INFORMATION TAKEN FROM EARLY MATH: ITS MORE THAN NUMBERS BY ANN S. EPSTEIN
Math learning happens when teachers intentionally incorporate mathematical experiences, vocabulary and concepts into the early childhood classroom.
Classification
Provide and label interesting materials such as ~ Materials that encourage sorting by multiple attributes
Encourage children to collect and sort things throughout the day. Use clean up time for matching sorting.
Ask children to make/group things that are the same and to make/group things that are different.
Challenge children with increasingly complex guessing games that require them to hold more than one mental image in mind.
Seriation
Provide materials whose attributes can easily be compared such sets of materials in different sizes.
Provide materials children can use to make their own series and patterns.
Number ~
Preschoolers see the world as an arena for counting. Children want to count everything
Howard Gardner
Provide materials that encourage comparing numbers that children can line up and count.
Encourage counting by inviting children to gather and distribute materials at snack time, clean up, and small group time.
Preschoolers negotiate the physical world with confidence. They run, climb, follow familiar routes, solve puzzles, build things.
Allow time for children to explore and work with materials on their own.
Preschoolers deal with time concretely. Have materials that children can set in motion ~ Objects that fall, roll, dip, spin or rock in space can be used to explore fast, slow, and other time concepts.
Learning Environment ~
Include living things outdoors and indoors to show natural cycles of plant and animal life.
Daily Routine ~
A consistent daily routine is the single most important element in developing time concepts.
Daily Routine ~
Encourage children to describe their intentions and activities in time related language.
What
will you add next? Did it take longer to carry the blocks or stack them?
This is the first duty of an educator; stir up life, but leave it free to develop. Montessori, 1895,