PLP # 6: Illustrative Math for Kindergarten

I’ve been focusing a lot on third grade content but today I wanted to look at teaching content to younger students. I took Professor Bromley’s advice and checked out the Illustrative Mathematics Tasks website. I investigated their activities related to K.CC.B.4: Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality. 


Activity 1: The first activity is called counting mat. The teacher gives students the counting mat and many small objects to count with. It’s their job to match the number of objects with the number of circles on the mat:





Activity 2: The second activity is called goody bags. The students are given bags with different amounts counting objects in them. The students count the objects, record the number on the post-it note and stick the post-it note onto the outside of the bag.


Activity 3: The third activity I particularly love because it incorporates reading and comprehension into a math lesson. It’s called The Napping House. The teacher reads The Napping House to the class, stopping each time a person or animal gets into the bed so the students can add a counter to the ten-frame. After each page, stop to ask the children how many are sleeping in the bed after each counter is added to the ten-frame.



Reflection:

Something I kept thinking about during this week’s investigating was how it is so easy to overlook math instruction for younger grades. I know I have sometimes fallen into the trap of thinking, “This is so basic. Teaching it will be so easy.” I know this is not the case, but it is a trap I see myself needing to fight against. These activities are so thoughtfully constructed, and I think it is a good lesson for me as a teacher to remember that kindergarten instruction needs just as much care and attention (if not more) as high school calculus class. Just because the content seems simple to me does not make it simple for my students. 

Comments

  1. Ana J SpencerJune 16, 2021 at 7:30 PM

    Love it! As an early future educator of pre k-2 grade all these activities would teach students subitizing! I truly love your last sentence because its in the roots of their childhood that we nourish them enough to grow a passion for mathematics at a later date. I truly hope that the students that I teach meet teachers as your self. I truly appreciate the professor giving us this website because I truly look forward to using it when I become an educator.

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  2. It All Adds Up With AngelaJune 17, 2021 at 4:37 AM

    Keith this is such a great activity, I really did not know what math in Kindergarten looked like. This mat is such a great addition to counter manipulatives for students, it gives them that dual visual. I also agree with what you said in your reflection, it is so easy to not really focus on math instruction for littles calling it "to easy or basic," but it is true this is where their conceptual understanding begins and we need to give them a strong foundation.

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