Early Math

Today I noticed that some of my little's could not count one to one up to ten.  They would get lost around number 4 and just point at the air and keep counting.  It was amazing.  I know I shouldn't be amazed by this, but I was.  You see, my own children were counting one-to-one very early, definitely before age 4.  We just worked it into everything we did.. from the pea's on our plate, to the coins we gave the clerk at the store. 
Soooooo... this little information will bring us to what I call, "The Very Beginning!!" I will have to begin at the beginning with this group this year.  Today we worked on counting to 10, and one-to-one correspondence.  Something I haven't had to really work with until this year.  My little's are usually a little older, this happens to be a very young group this year, so it isn't that this behavior is not developmentally appropriate, I'm just not used to having to teach it from the beginning.  I have reviewed and reinforced the skill, but never had to start fresh.  I am up for the challenge though :)

 

I would call out and show a number and the students had to find the number on their number line and cover it with a counter.  It was actually much harder than I thought it would be.  If I'd known I would have started with the numbers 1-5 instead. 

 

Some of the students were able to count with no problem to find a number that they didn't recognize, but most of them could not, so they would continually be covering the wrong number (especially after 5)  I am excited to say, that with loads of help and repetition they were getting the hint to actually TOUCH each counter as they counted so they wouldn't lose their place... whoa was I sweating ;) but they got it and we will continue this game all week to transfer that information into the long term memory slot :)

 

 

MY #happyclassroom for today...

 

Although it is sometimes hard to keep the negativity out of your day or away from yourself... I didn't allow a bit of information to consume me with negativity.  I went with the flow and realized that it was not something I could control and I can only control myself and how I react to any situation and I definitely handled it well!!! 

 

Have A Great Day!!!

Building in TK

 

We have been learning about number sense in TK these days.  Lots of counting going on, decomposing of numbers and as you can see from the picture above... building.  I brought out the cups for the 100th Day of School.  I thought it would be great to build with them and thought it may get some use from some of the kids... but they have become a hit.  It has been great watching them become more confident and proficient with them, building and getting them to stay up where they put them.  In the beginning they could only get two or three rows to stay up, but now look at that structure!! 

 

TK is AMAZING!!!!