Experience in Math, and a Counting Book

 We read a book called 10 Black Dots by Donald Crews, and then counted out our own black dots and created pages for a new book. Counting and creating gave the children an opportunity to choose a number, check their count, and then create a picture with that number of dots. The pages were very creative!

 We spend time with math manipulatives every day, choosing activities and exploring the materials in free play.

We've added a new activity to our classroom, the Counting Jar. The children count out how many cubes are in the jar, and then create their own set of buttons to illustrate that number. We check their bags of buttons to see if the child is counting with one to one correspondence, if they are adding choices like matching colors or sizes, and if they have followed through with an activity independently. 

Kindergarten Math is all about hands on experiences in learning. As the year progresses, our play will become more formalized and their might be rules and cooperative activities that need to be completed.

Until Next Time,
Michele

Here We Go Again!

We have started to meet for Kindergarten Math, and it's very exciting and new to us. We have a schedule to follow: circle (take attendance), choices (materials at tables) and reflect (meet up again). We are exploring materials in free choice time to begin with, and this will continue each time a new topic is introduced. The Kindergartners are learning to cooperate with each other, make choices, use their time wisely, and they are also becoming familiar with the materials that they will use in learning games in the future.

Until Next Time,
Michele