Inside SFS

By Dolores Elkin and Vahlee Peters, North Class Preschool/Kindergarten Head Teachers

What does math look like at the Preschool and Kindergarten level? There is so much interesting foundational work we can do with children at this age, and our Foxes (4 to 5 year-olds) and Dolphins (Kindergarteners) are already delving deep into math!

Who would have thought that the number five could hold so much interest? The Foxes are building a marvelous understanding of the concept of “five.” They are seriously exploring how they can combine other digits to make five (0+5, 1+4, 2+3, 3+2, 4+1, 5+0), and how some of the equations are the same - just reversed. This is an early introduction to the Commutative Property or the Commutative Law that’s used later with multiplication, among other applications.

The Foxes learned several math games with cards and dice to make the exploration of five even more exciting. Learning “fiveness” so thoroughly will pave the way to an easier and better grasp of number combinations to ten and beyond.

The Dolphins are building on their previous knowledge by finding combinations of numbers to ten, and exploring the concept of ten. The math racks visually and physically assist in seeing number combinations to ten with the fives shown by color (red and white). They love the game of having a partner guess how many they have hidden with their hand. We love that even our younger students can see that math is fun in so many ways - incorporating learning, exploring, playing, and discovering!

Posted November 27, 2018