What I Did Associated Foundation

During circle time, as a group, we go through

1.1 Recite numbers in order to ten with
the calendar and count days on the board.
increasing accuracy.
Because Thursday was the 10th, all of the

children counted 1-10.

Because it is St. Patrick’s day next week, I

1.3 Identify, without counting, the number of
have been teaching the children what St.
objects in a collection of up to four objects
Patrick’s day is. Throughout the day, the

children found four leaf clovers around the

school and I hid 4 of them.

After work I went to the store and had to 1.5 Understand, when counting, that the
count how many kool aid packets I wanted. number name of the last object counted

represents the total number of objects in the

group

2.0 Children begin to understand number

The children know when to ask for more if
relationships and operations in their
they need things such as more food or water.
everyday environment.
The children notice when I accidentally give

more water to another student than to them

because they will tell me that they have more

than them.

On Thursday, the children were served mixed

1.0 Children expand their understanding of
vegetables and one of the children would take
sorting and classifying objects in their
the peas and put them on the other side of his
everyday environment.
plate. He later explains he doesn’t like peas.

During circle time, I had the children sit in a

2.2 Attempt to create a simple repeating
circle and we took turns singing “who took
pattern or participate in making one.
the cookie from the cookie jar.” The children

were learning that they had to point to the

person next to them and that created a pattern

around the circle.

One of the children yells “I have to drink milk

1.0 Children begin to compare and order
because I have to be big and strong like my
objects.
mom and dad!” He yells this every time we

give him milk in the morning with his cereal.

On Thursday’s, we go to chapel with the 1.2 Order four or more objects by size.

children and I have them stand on the stage

from smallest to biggest, therefore all of the

children can see.

One of the children’s parents were late to pick 1.0 Children identify and use a variety of

them up and in order to stop him from crying, shapes in their everyday environment.

we walked down the hallway and I asked him

1.1 Identify, describe, and construct a variety
to find me a circle, triangle, diamond, square,
of different shapes, including variations of a
and rectangle.
circle, triangle, rect­angle, square, and other

shapes.
 1. What surprised you about this activity?

One of the things that surprised me during this activity was writing down everything I did with

the children and discovering it had to do with math. I didn’t realize how many times throughout

the day that children and myself are using different types of math.

2. What was the strand most frequently listed? Least frequently listed? Why do you think

that is the case?

I think the biggest strand was counting because my children are at the age where they are

learning to count and say their number to 10. We work on numbers every week and the children

love the activities we do throughout the day.

3. What does this tell us about math concepts and skills in our own daily lives?

This shows that math is continuously used even when we don’t think it is. Writing this essay

even has to do with math because many words are on the page. It is exciting to learn that math is

being used constantly because we don’t expand our minds to think so.

4. What does this tell us about the importance of mathematics learning in ECE?

Math is very important because if children want to become an engineer, they will need to learn

and know math. Same with anything they do in life, math will always be relevant in a job. Even

if a child grows up to work in fast food, they will have to learn to count change.

5. What does this tell us about some of the ways that children gain experience with the math

concepts in the math foundations?

Children gain math concepts by learning through arts and crafts that show them math.