Category: Skip Counting

Preschool Math Standards: Problem Solving

8/29/2014

In order for a child to have a comprehensive mathematical understanding, he must be exposed to mathematical concepts beyond numbers and counting. There are five fields into which we group our Math Standards: Number Sense, Geometry, Measurement, Sorting and Patterning, and Problem Solving.

This blog entry will cover the Academic Standards that fall under the Problem Solving category.

Thinking Ahead - By playing strategy games like "Nim," a child can develop the ability to think one or more steps ahead of her opponent.

What's Missing? - Given a pattern or a set of objects, a child can determine what is missing.

Estimation

Probability - For preschoolers, this is the ability to determine whether an outcome is likely or unlikely. Given the shapes shown below, is it likely or unlikely that I will pick up a square?

Story Problems

Skip Counting - Counting by fives, tens or twos. At this age, this could be categorized with problem solving skills or number sense.

Problem Solving is just one small part of preschool mathematics. We have broken Problem Solving into six standards:

Thinking Ahead
What's Missing?
Estimation
Probability
Problem Solving
Skip Counting

In our classroom, each lesson, game or classroom material has been intentionally planned and placed in the room to fulfill our Academic Content Standards.

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Skip Counting: Tens

3/15/2014

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One of the ways that we teach children to count by tens is through song. Any child can be taught to do this; it is simply memorization. There is not necessarily any mathematical understanding involved.

This is why it's important for us to spend time working with groups of ten to give children the understanding of WHEN we CAN count by tens.

Each child in my small group made a group of ten unifix cubes. When they were done, I asked how many cubes were in each stick. "Ten!" They shouted.
"How do you KNOW?" I asked.
(Pause)
"Because we counted them...?" One girl responded.
"Yes! Now that we know there are ten cubes in every group, we can count by tens!"

Each child got a turn to be the "teacher" and point while we counted. It's interesting - the first time we do this every year, the children's one-to-one correspondence goes down the drain. They haven't yet associated each separate number (ten, twenty, thirty) with a separate group of ten. They regain this quickly. It's quite fascinating to watch.