Vocabulary
This refer to core concepts or "big ideas" that the national counsel of teachers of mathematics identify as essential for education.
What are Focal Points?
An example of this in the text is, "Three-year-old-Steve takes big handfuls of play dough to make giant hamburgers. He rolls out two large, circular forms, and exclaims, "These buns are still too small" and places the hamburgers inside"
What is understanding amount?
An example of this in the text is, "As Ricky builds a symmetrical design with attribute blocks, he has to figure out what to add to the left side to match the green blocks... he wonders what he will do now..."
What is problem solving?
Teachers find that play-centered ________ provide insight into children's use of mathematical reasoning in situations that are not stressful.
What are assessments?
The two characteristics found in play but not in everyday life are that children can choose their own problems and play is _________.
What is flexible?
The way teachers understand and identify everyday routines, situations, and activities in mathematical terms.
What is mathematize?
An example of this in the textbook is "From my house to the school is as far as"
What is measurement?
An example of this in the text is, "Three-year-old Penelope speaks Spanish and is learning English at a rapid pace since she joined her preschool class. As she counts her crackers..."uno, dos, tres" the children sitting at her table do the same."
What is communicating?
This type of assessment helps record visual, and sometimes auditory, documentation of children in spontaneous play, it also compliments written records.
What are photos and videos?
Provide opportunities for children to make sense of their world and develop mathematical understandings within the context of their own lives.
What are daily life situations?
These are the symbols used to represent a number concept.
What are numerals?
An example of this is "Two feet, one foot, two feet, one foot," says Kristina as she hops on the squares of the hopscotch frame she drew on the asphalt playground with"
What is patterning?
An example of this in our text is, "Four-year-old's Joey and Krista sit across from each other at the snack table joey announces "hey Krista, your shirt has the same stripe pattern as mine, mine is red and white yours is blue and yellow"
This type of assessment is essential in tracking progress of students. It involves monitoring students and keeping notes of what you see.
What are careful observations/ detailed records?
Children combine and extend the experiences they have in their math education program through their spontaneous play.
What is curriculum generated play?
Understandings of the world that individuals construct that relate to geometry, numbers and operations, and measurement.
What are mathematical concepts
An example of this in the textbook is "Three-year-old Tomas uses red and blue pegs to make four horizontal rows of alternating colors across the pegboard. He then constructs a brilliant strip of yellow pegs that runs vertically to the bottom of the pegboard."
What is Geometry?
An example of this in our text is, "Tommy picks up two cube blocks and wants to pretend that they are dice. He throws the blocks, as if they were dice, and pretends to read the number of dots."
What is representing?
A collection of a single student's past projects through photographs, written documentation, or the projects themselves that act as a great tool for self-assessment for the student to see how much they've grown.
What are portfolios?
Teachers watch how their students play and design activities based on what they observe that relate to their programs, expectations, benchmarks, and/or standards
What is play generated curriculum?
This is placing an object in order according to a common property, such as length, size shade of a color, etc.
What is seriation?
An example of this in our textbook is "Craig and Ashton place four horses on top of the four blocks in front of them. They demonstrate one-to-one correspondence by selecting a set of four horses with the same number of objects as their set of four blocks."
What is understanding number concepts?
An example of this in our text is, "Albert and Nelson, both seven, are intent as they play a board game taking turns throwing the dice and moving their pieces. Nelson throws a 2 and a 6 and moves 8 spaces. Albert throws a 4 and a 6 and calls out "That's 2 more so I have 10!".
What is reasoning and proof?
A type of assessment that allows a teacher to monitor a child's progress in a quick, organized manner, filling it out using phrases such as "never, sometimes, often, an always"
What are checklists?
Mathematics in a play-centered curriculum includes _____________ as part of the continuum. Teachers in some programs develop a special area designated for mathematics.
What are teacher planned activities?