Math-ness

At a recent district meeting, we spent quite a bit of time looking at the district's math scores (I know, you're all jealous you weren't there!)

What I took away from that meeting, besides sore eyes from squinting at the little tiny numbers in narrow columns, was that there are a few things we can begin doing with our youngest learners that will contribute toward their proficiency in mathematics.

So here are your end of February provocations dealing with math-ness.

Both third and fifth graders have trouble
(according to standardized test scores) with numeric sense.

For example, how much is 4? Not just counting to 4
but the 1 to 1 correspondence that constitutes 4.

(remember, I'm an English major who got a 6 on her ACT in
math and had to beg her statistics prof to pass her
so I hope this makes sense to you!)

Can your children count to 10 if the prompt is
to begin counting at 3 rather than 1? At 7?

Third graders have some trouble understanding
(of all things) charts and graphs.

They can identify a chart or a graph but they
don't understand WHY you would use a chart or graph.
In other words, they don't get graph-ness or chart-ness.


When you make a chart or a graph, do you
ask the children what the chart or graph tells you?
What it doesn't tell you?
Do they have opportunities to decide THEY want to
chart or graph some information or does it
always come from you?

I really can't wait to hear your responses to this!

It got me thinking about...

Most definitely the highlight of last week for me was being invited into the Yellow Room to participate in the Kids vs. Adults SPACE KNOWLEDGE CHALLENGE.

It is most humbling to be soundly defeated but very rewarding to be soundly defeated by an extremely bright, extraordinarily exhuberant--not to mention really, really smart--group of preschoolers.

One of the hallmarks of Reggio Emilia is the creation of community, involving others in the acquisition and sharing of knowledge. Aren't there many opportunities you see in your classrooms to help create this kind of community?

So here's your provocation for Valentine's Day week:
what are your children interested in knowing more about in your building and who would you include in that learning?
OR
who from your building community--or the greater SLP community--might you invite into your classroom to provide your children a chance to teach what they've learned?

If you haven't had a chance to read the comments to the last post about the cubbies, give yourself a Valentine's Day present and do it right now!

Short and sweet

Here's your provocation for early February...

Take a look at your children's cubbies or lockers or any space in the classroom where they store their things. Probably you labelled the space, chose where it should be. This is a space that your children could take ownership over.

Let the children personalize their cubbies.
"How would you like to change your cubby so that you'll know it's yours?"

Then communicate with the kids using their cubbies.
Just like adults check the mailbox every day, perhaps the children could check in their cubbies for occasional messages from you.
They also could communicate with their friends via the cubbies.

Sort of like getting ready for Valentine's Day!


I would love to hear if any of you try this and what the kids' reactions were. In fact, we all would love to hear it!