Teaching Kindergarten and Preschool Math
Teaching kindergarten and preschool math concepts, activities and games is fun for both the children and the teacher.
Understand how young children learn math, what skills they need to learn, and how to use math activities, materials, and games to make math meaningful.
What we believe about how children learn will determine the teaching methods we choose. Young children are great at teaching teachers what works. Rather than sit politely when things don't make sense, they quickly find something else to do!
Kindergarten math- how do young children learn math?
1. Children need concrete objects (real stuff, manipulatives - materials, blocks, counters, popsicle sticks...) in order to make sense of new math concepts or abstract ideas. For detailed how tos read, "Teaching with manipulatives". Only after children have had ample opportunity to learn a new concept with real things are they ready to connect their learning to abstract symbols such as numbers and math symbols (34, 22, +, -).
2. Children need plenty of time to play with math materials before they use them for teacher guided math activities.
3. Children need to link math to their everyday experiences. Math games and activities are good opportunities to build math vocabulary. They need vocabulary to express their mathematical experiences. For more information read, "Helping children build a math vocabulary".
An example - Teaching kindergarten and preschool math: measurement
1. Always give the child a couple of weeks to play with the concrete objects that you are planning to teach with, in this case, wooden blocks. Children need to explore the materials before they are ready to use them in a structured activity.
2. Demonstrate what you would like the child to do. Choose a pile of blocks that are identical and a book. Line the blocks up against the book; then count the blocks.
Say, "My book is 4 blue blocks long". Repeat this process a few times. Point out where the first block starts and the last block ends. (Blocks will not be the exact length of the book)
Talk about why you need to use identical blocks. Have the children choose a book and identical blocks and try to measure their books. At the beginning, the children are just getting used to the idea that things can be measured. Next math period, children pay more attention to accuracy, where their blocks are starting and ending. Use vocabulary such as half a block and middle of the block.
3. Next day model measuring an object and then recording the results with a picture. Teaching kindergarten and preschool math requires lots of modeling.
After the children have recorded their math results as a group on a large paper and they appear to understand the concept of measurement with concrete objects, have them repeat the measurement activity and record their learning.
You can provide them with teacher made worksheets or have them create their own recording sheets.
Now the children begin to connect their concrete learning to abstract symbols, known as the representational, connecting or picture stage.
4. Only after the above connections have been made are children ready to use only abstract symbols. In this case they would have had much more work with units of measurement and standard units like inches or centimeters.
TEACHER TIP Change groups frequently as children learn from each other and gather ideas and vocabulary from each other. When children lose interest, change the materials and tasks slightly. Small groups of ten children work well for kindergarten math structured activities. The other children can be doing unstructured free exploration with other math equipment at this time. You will need to train the children to care for classroom materials during the first month of school and with each new set of objects you add to the class. Don't put all the materials out at once. |
What skills do I teach during kindergarten and preschool
math lessons?
During the year, when teaching kindergarten and preschool math, provide opportunities for building number sets, for working with patterns, for counting, and for solving problems. Introduce students to the operations of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Have students show what they know through words and pictures.
Hopefully, the children will feel good about themselves as young mathematicians and appreciate that there is value in learning math. Although specific requirements vary geographically, generally young children should have lots of math experiences in the following areas:
- Counting, number and number operations (including fractions)
- Sort, order, and classify objects
- Patterns
- Measurement - time, temperature, calendar, area, length
- Geometry 3D Objects and 2-D Shapes
- Graphs and tallies - statistics and probability
- Money - coin vocabulary and simple counting
The skill areas on the specific pages above range from Pre K to grade two. Not all children will be at the same level at the end of preschool or kindergarten.
All math pages:
Teaching kindergarten & preschool math - how to teach kindergarten and preschool math concepts, sample step-by-step teach measurement, activities and games
Teaching with math manipulatives - how to teach with math manipulatives to help children understand math concepts
Best math manipulatives - choose materials that are useful for more than one math concept, work well for problem solving activities and are tough enough to withstand constant play
Teaching math vocabulary - learn how to teach math vocabulary and specific words as you demonstrate math activities and talk to your students about their math experiences.
Attribute blocks - how to use these math manipulatives for different features: shape, color, size and thickness to help promote logical thinking
Graphing 1 - how to teach graphing to preschool and kindergarten children, includes collecting data and organizing it in a variety of ways
Graphing 2 - more graphing ideas for young children
Measurement - how to find measurement to young children, find opportunities for students to order objects by size, color, shape...
Number Activities - how to provide experiences that build number sense
Number Games - how to improve children's number sense with easy games
Number Skills - what number skills do children need to know?
Pattern 1- how to teach children pattern concepts
Pattern 2 - ideas and games to teach children to recognize, create, copy and extend patterns
Pattern 3 - teach patterning skills to early childhood and preschool students
Sorting and classifying- how to teach children the important skills of sorting, comparing and classifying objects
Math & Literature Connections - how to combine math and literature, learn how to promote math skills as you share good literature
Ten Apples Up on Top - open-ended math activity with Dr. Suess
10 Little Rubber Ducks - ideas to promote math with this wonderful Eric Carle story
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo - another great Eric Carle book, practice counting, making number sets, ordinal numbers and more
