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Loved the parking idea for the block area!

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Loved the parking idea for the block area!

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10 Apples Up on Top

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What is your number one take away of an "out of the box" math idea to use during a part of a preschool day?

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What is your number one take away of an "out of the box" math idea to use during a part of a preschool day?

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Sensory Timers: Sensory Sand Timer Countdown

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Customise the colour of sand, set the time and watch the grains of sand fall slowly as time passes. A versatile timer that can be used again and again.

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Jack Hartman

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I Can Show Numbers In So Many Ways | Math Song for Kids | How to Represent Numbers | Jack Hartmann

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HighScope Resource - Math Throughout the Day

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HighScope Resource - Math Throughout the Day

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Early math learning can sometimes feel daunting for both teachers and young children. Let's take a trip through the preschool daily routine and find where math learning opportunities turn up. We might discover that there are many ways to cement children's understanding of basic math concepts by providing them with a variety of materials in different contexts that give them the time and opportunity to grow their ideas, develop their understanding, and increase their math fluency.

GREETING TIME

Many preschools gather first thing in the morning to greet each other, take attendance, discuss what they might do that day, and anticipate upcoming events. In HighScope classrooms, this is when children and teachers gather to read the message board, which supports children's developing language and math skills in meaningful ways.
Greeting Time Math Activities:

Children may read numerals on the message board.

Children may count the number of links on a paper chain until the last day of school or the number of candles drawn on a cake for someone's birthday.

Together, you can count and graph the number of children present vs. absent.

PLANNING & RECALL TIMES

When children make predictions (planning) and assess outcomes (recall), they are building a foundation for mathematical and scientific thinking. The planning process goes well beyond a child's choice about what they want to do; it also involves deciding on actions and predicting interactions, recognizing problems and proposing solutions, and anticipating consequences and reactions. Many of these strategies incorporate math concepts such as numbers, spatial relations, and measurement.
Planning or Recall Time Math Activities:

Show the children a large die with numerals 1-4 on it. Have each child roll the die and say the number of materials they will use/used; the number of areas they plan to play in/played in; or the number of plans they will do/did at work time.

Put the symbol and name of each interest area on the sections of a round piece of cardboard that has three clothespins with the numerals 1, 2, and 3 on them. Ask the children to put the clothespins on where they will play first, second, and third, and then ask them to explain what they will do in each area.

Draw a very simple map of the classroom that has the symbol and name of each interest area highlighted. Give the children a small toy car (or dog, person, truck, etc.) to drive to the area where they want to play or to the area where they already played.

Work time promotes children's natural need to explore, experiment, invent, construct, and pretend - in other words, to play! Mathematical concepts that children discover, explore, repeat, and experiment with can be observed during work time in every interest area, as these anecdotes illustrate:

Josslyn counts the movie tickets using a number word for each ticket.

PJ makes a sign for his store that says "Cars 5, Trucks 5, Dolls 8, Food 7."

Betsy runs out of square Magna-Tiles but finds two triangles that fit together to make a square.

Nygel needs a roof for his barn. He tries using one of the baby blankets. When he sees that it's too small, he tries the shower curtain, which works because it is bigger.

Irvin and Fatima are playing with the pegs and pegboards. Irvin says, "Mine is taller."

At snacktime, Emily says, "I want all the pretzels but none of the raisins."

At small-group time, Omari uses a measuring tape and says his tower is 10 steps long. The teacher helps him count the number of blocks in the tower and he says, "I have 12 blocks and it is longer than Selina's."

Large-group time activities include singing, making music, moving and dancing, storytelling, story reenacting, and more. Any of these activities may offer opportunities for children to hear and use math vocabulary, particularly words related to spatial relations, measuring, and numbers.
Large-Group Time Math Activities:

As children move around an obstacle course, you might hear something like "I'm getting down low to crawl under there," "Turn it upside down and let's walk on top of it," or "Go faster! I'm going to fall off!"

While singing counting songs such as "Ten in the Bed," children may respond to different parts of the song with comments such as "Two dinosaurs fell out," "Six monkeys are left," or "When Jamal rolls out, there'll be no monkeys left in the bed."

When playing a movement game, children may make math observations such as "I landed on a triangle this time - that means I turn around," or "Micky's standing on one foot because he's on a circle."

While children are dancing and moving, you might hear someone say, "It took me five long steps to go across the circle. I wonder how many small steps it will take."

SMALL-GROUP TIME

During small-group time, children make choices about how to play with materials, use language to communicate their ideas, and solve problems encountered while using materials. The mathematical concepts that children learn about during small-group time depend on the teacher's plan and the nature of the materials they have chosen. Here are just a few examples of what you might hear children say during different small-group time activities.
While creating aluminum foil sculptures:

"I ripped mine in half."

"Kacey, here's a triangle package for you!"

"I scrunched it and made a ball."

While making play dough pizza:

"I made the pizza pieces into squares."

"Jakob, mine is the hugest pizza ever. Can you help me measure it?"

"Oh, I don't want rectangles on my pizza!"

"Only yellow triangles and red circles."

When finding numbers in the newspaper:

Learning does not stop when children go through the door to outside time. The outdoors is a complete learning environment - an open-air annex to the classroom where all the same concepts are explored.
Among other things, children continue to explore mathematical concepts as they

Count acorns.

Negotiate who will be first (and second) on the swings.

Run a race to determine who finishes in first, second, and third place.

Discover shapes in unexpected places.

Speculate which of the balls will reach the bottom of the hill first

MEALTIME AND SNACKTIME

The emphasis during mealtimes and snacktimes is on social interaction. It is important for adults to sit down to eat with children because it provides time for them to share casual conversation, rather than focus on specific academic skills (although it is a time when teaching and learning activities occur naturally).
Here are some examples that illustrate this point:

When it is Sascha's turn to pass out the plates for lunch, he is involved in one-to-one correspondence of matching plates to the people who will be eating.

As soon as Alana pours her scoop of snack mix on her napkin, she begins sorting it by ingredient. When she is finished, she counts each pile to see which has the most pieces.

Curtis looks over at Allie's glass of milk and comments, "You have more milk than me; yours goes all the way up to the line."

During cleanup time, children and adults work together to return materials to their storage spaces and, when appropriate, put away or find display space for children's personal creations. You will be surprised at the abilities and math concepts that children learn during cleanup time!
Cleanup Time Math Activities:

As children put away objects in their assigned spaces, they are noticing relationships such as length, thickness, position, and quantity.

Children see that objects are ordered by size when they put the small, medium, and large pots away on a shelf marked with small, medium, and large outlines indicating where the pots go.

Children consider number concepts when they notice there are three kinds of paintbrushes; each with its own container, as well as when they see that a marker corresponds to a hole on the marker holder.

As you can see, learning opportunities in mathematics occur naturally throughout the daily routine. However, it is crucial that all children have experiences in which mathematics is the primary learning focus in addition to sustained and frequent times in which they themselves enact core mathematical content (e.g., number, geometry, and measurement) and talk about what they are doing and why they are doing it.

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Math Learning Throughout the Daily Routine | The Playground

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Early math learning can sometimes feel daunting for both teachers and young children. Let's take a trip through the preschool daily routine and find where math learning opportunities turn up.

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What are some of your favorite Math Related Music and Movement songs?

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What are some of your favorite Math Related Music and Movement songs?

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Online classroom dice that can be used in a number of different ways. Works great on tablets and on digital whiteboards. Works with all browsers.

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Five Ways to Build Math Into Your Child's Day - Resource for families

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Five Ways to Build Math Into Your Child's Day - Resource for families

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5 Ways to Build Math into Your Child's Day

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Math is everywhere. That's great news for parents, because we can talk with our kids about math in fun, natural ways. And that kind of math-talk is really important.

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Program Guidelines/Teaching & Learning Standards

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Governor Phil Murphy * Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver

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Math is a difficult subject for many children, so difficult in fact that many children claim they hate math! One way to pique interest in math and to help solidify math skills is to use picture books to help explain mathematical concepts. This post includes 72 of the very best math picture books for kids.

I love teaching math!

But I have to admit, this was not always the case. As a kid, I struggled in math. From elementary school through college I struggled. It did not come easily to me and I had to work hard to maintain the scores I wanted.

When I was a new teacher, guess what? Teaching math didn't come all too easily to me, either. I had to study and prepare for my math instruction more than any other content area, and when my students' work came back to me showing that they too were struggling, I had to study and prepare some more!

But that was then.

Having taken a handful of exceptional professional development classes in math instruction, I can say with confidence I finally get it! (Well, mostly). But more importantly, I can teach it, too!

One thing I learned along the way is the importance of solidifying concepts using literature. While children may not be drawn to math, children are almost certainly drawn to great stories. So when we combine the two, we sneak in math concepts that can be reinforced with fun activities at the same time as retaining the interest of the children. And what administrator or director doesn't appreciate the effort to integrate math and reading!

72 Math Picture Books for Kids

As many of you know, I have written an entire year of math lesson plans which spiral through all five disciplines of math. Included in those lesson plans are two recommended math picture books for kids to be used as an optional literacy element. This post includes every picture book I mention in those lesson plans.

I say these are math picture books "for kids", but they are all appropriate for preschool, not just elementary school. I do own each of these books, and highly recommend them, which is why I've thought to put them all in one place to make it more convenient for you.

Picture Books That Teach Counting

There are thousands of counting books out there, but these are some preschool favorites.

1. One Duck Stuck: A Mucky Ducky Counting Book by Phyllis Root

2. Elmer's First Counting Book by David McKee

3. Hop Jump by Ellen Stoll Wash

4. 20 Hungry Piggies by Trudy Harris

Picture Books That Teach Shapes

There are lots of shape picture books out there, but these are some preschool favorites.

Picture Books That Teach Comparing and Sorting

Some of our all time favorite books come from this collection of books that teach comparing and sorting.

Picture Books That Teach Positions and Patterns

It's difficult to find picture books that teach positional words and patterns, but here are eight that my preschoolers really enjoy.

Picture Books That Teach Measurement

Measurement sometimes gets forgotten in the preschool setting, so these picture books are great for working it into the day!

Picture Books for Teaching Graphing

Graphing is an important skill that can easily be taught with these fun picture books.

Picture Books That Teach Addition and Subtraction

There are thousands of addition and subtraction books out there, but these all preschool approved.

72 Picture Books That Teach Math

Just to help you visualize what an awesome resource this collection of math picture books for kids is...this is what it looks like all together:

Now that is quite the library of math picture books for kids!

But here's the thing.

These books will seriously strengthen your math instruction. They are interesting, colorful and approach math in a very kid friendly way.

Looking for Preschool Lesson Plans?

Do you like having your lesson plans done in advance in a systematic and intentional manner? Then my Preschool Literacy Lesson Plans Bundle and my Preschool Math Lesson Plans Bundle are just what you are looking for! (These are also sold in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.)

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72 of the Absolute Best Math Picture Books for Kids

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Math is a difficult subject for many children, so difficult in fact that many children claim they hate math! One way to pique interest in math and to help solidify math skills is to use picture books to help explain mathematical concepts. This post includes 72 of the very best math picture books for kids.