Stop and Reflect How did this project involve children in mathematics and science processes reflected in the standards? How might you have documented the work children were doing to encourage ongoing discussion and problem solving? Temperature Understanding that temperature is something that can be measured is abstract and difficult for young children other than in […]
Stop and Reflect How did this project involve children in mathematics and science processes reflected in the standards? How might you have documented the work children were doing to encourage ongoing discussion and problem solving? Temperature Understanding that temperature is something that can be measured is abstract and difficult for young children other than in
The Twenty-Four Foot Python: A Teachable Moment about Measurement Ms. Deanna was working her way through Shel Silverstein’s book Light in the Attic (1981, p. 44) with her preschool/kindergarten class when she came to “Snake Problem”: It’s not that I don’t care for snakes, But oh what do you do When a 24-foot python says
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Linear Measures, Weight, and Volume Examples of standards measuressuch as a growth chart, weight scale, or masking tape on the floor to mark off distances in inches or feetshould be displayed and used to build awareness of linear measures (length, width, height). Children should be encouraged during play to describe nonstandard measurements, such as “How
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Doing Math and Science The process standards for mathematics and practices for science focus on how children learn and apply concepts. Common to the disciplines is an emphasis on using concrete materials (Witzel, Ferguson, & Mink, 2012) for inquiry and problem solving, active involvement in the processes and practices used in mathematics and the sciences,
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Mathematics Standards The national mathematics and science standards differ in content and the ways in which strategies are applied and used for problem solving and inquiry. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) developed the standards (2000) for math education from pre-K through high school. The NCTM describes principles on which math education should
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Social-Conventional Knowledge Conversations are part of teachers’ daily interactions with children. These exchanges provide numerous opportunities to help them develop socioconventional knowledge by modeling the language and vocabulary of mathematics and the sciences. As you describe and label what they do, you also ask them questions that prompt thinking. As an educator, you will want
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Knowledge of Patterns and Relationships Photodisc / Thinkstock Children begin to form an understanding of auditory patterns as rhythm when they take turns clapping or clap along to music or a rhyme. As young children encounter repeating patterns in daily life, they begin to understand that the natural world is organized. As their thinking becomes
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Sensorimotor Stage Infants and toddlers begin to acquire tentative concepts through their senses simply by exploring their world (hence they are in the sensorimotor stage, per Piaget’s description). Giving an infant a new ball and saying “this is a squishy ball,” or “here is a blue ball,” provides the child with the new terms squishy
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Accommodation and Assimilation Regardless of type, all knowledge ultimately consists of basic concepts, or schema, a term originally coined by psychologist Jean Piaget. Examples of individual schema include concepts about colors, such as the ideas of “blue,” “red,” and “green,” or the idea that a rubber ball is round and smooth and rolls when pushed.
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