Kindergarten Mathematicians

Kindergarten Dice Race Game

Our kindergarten friends have been fully immersed in the world of numbers during the first month of school. Number sense and numeracy are foundational skills that children need to understand beyond rote counting. Number sense is an understanding of what numbers are and what they mean.

High and Low card game

Kindergarten math looks different throughout the day and can be seen in varying contexts- whole group times such as calendar work, individual practice with independent games, working with a partner or two in cooperative games, graphing manipulatives during choice time or favorite foods at snack.

Math is everywhere!

Graphing different color bears

Graphing fruits and vegetables from snack

Creating a cover for a class Dot Book based on Donald Crews book, Ten Black Dots

No Ones Dice Game

Our number sense focus has been intentionally concrete. The use of manipulatives such as playing cards, dominoes, dice, game boards, bear counters, and graphing sheets helps the visual and tactile needs of kindergarten children. Working with a partner aids auditory and language development, and the all important social skills of sharing, negotiating and problem-solving! Classroom books have also been created following the style of Donald Crews in his book, Ten Black Dots. Book-making with math concepts makes a concrete visual of the children's understanding of the topic at hand and is a wonderful and treasured addition to a classroom library!

We hope that your child has shared some of our new math games with you at home. The dice were a big hit and many friends clamored for their own pair to take home! It is so wonderful to see our kindergarten friends so actively engaged in the exploration of numbers. While they are having so much fun and their enthusiasm is boundless, we know that they are simultaneously developing the math skills of:

• number sequence 

  

  Number play at choice time
  

  
  

• numeral recognition
• one-to-one correspondence
• comprehension of "how many?'
• subitizing (being able to look at a group of objects and tell "how many" without actually counting the objects)
• creating graphs and beginning to interpret the information they provide
• comparing number of objects using math vocabulary                                                             (greater than, less than, and equal to)

 Our kindergarten mathematicians will continue to explore numbers throughout the year as we add more layers to our math work together. Next stop- geometry and the shapes all around us!