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Ideas for engaging families in math?

  • 1.  Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-14-2019 12:19 PM
    What do you do to engage the families of the children in your early childhood classroom around the MATH? What are some of the challenges that you have faced (and overcome)? Have you had any particularly successful activities or events, or used any particularly effective strategies to share?

    We had one mom tell us that she loved our project that used preschool number board games at school and at home. She said that although she knew that she was supposed to read at home, she had not be sure where to start and what to do with respect to math at home. 


    We would love to hear from you!


    There are a number of great resources out there. Global Family Research Partnership has highlighted some of these (see links below):

    Math in the Mail Delivers Fun Foundational Math to Homes of Three-Year-Olds

    Finding Their Way: Family Engagement with Digital Math Activities Helps Children Develop Spatial Skills

    Count on Families! Engaging Families in Math

    Every Child Ready for Math


    Know of others? Please share!

    Thanks!

    From me and the rest of the Early Math Interest Forum facilitators: https://hello.naeyc.org/communities/community-home?CommunityKey=f28daa5b-368c-492b-8cf8-f6f454cc8f3d


    #Preschool
    #Kindergarten
    #Family
    #Math
    #Technology
    #Research
    #EarlyMathInterestForum

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    Alissa Lange, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education
    East Tennessee State University
    Johnson City TN
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  • 2.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-15-2019 08:27 AM
    I have discovered an excellent resource called Math For Love. https://mathforlove.com/
    I discovered them through a Facebook page called Mighty Girls, and they were suggesting resources to keep females engaged in math and science. I bought the game Prime Climb for my 11 year old, and we so astounded at the simplicity, yet fun and engaging play that we bought more for friends! They also have a game called Tiny Polka Dots for Pre-K to 2 age set. Math for Love have excellent lesson plans, a curriculum, and professional development. I have learned so much about how easy it is to teach math through games, which is coincidentally a great way to hook the whole family!

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    Angela Walters
    teacher
    Atlantic City Board of Education
    Egg Harbor Cy NJ
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  • 3.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-15-2019 09:45 AM

    Hello Alyssa!

    Here are some of the activities I've suggested to parents about how to incorporate math into everyday activities.  If you, or anyone reading this post, would like me to send dozens more directly to you, just let me know.  I would be happy to do that.

    • Count toys while putting them away.
    • Sort toys: cars, dolls, animals, etc. Make cards with numbers and have your child label each set.
    • Ask which is larger? Largest? Smaller? Smallest?
    • Look for things with shapes: circles, squares, triangles.
    • Make a "puzzle" on a piece of paper by tracing around shapes of small household items. Then put the items in front of your child so she can put each onto its shape on the paper.
    • Ask, "How many corners on this shape? How many edges?"
    • Match straws to juice cartons for one-to-one correspondence.
    • Sort silverware into sets: forks, knives, spoons.
    • Fold napkins into rectangles and triangles.
    • Line up pots by size: largest to smallest.
    • Find out how many cups it takes to fill a pot.
    • Sort laundry: socks, shirts, pants, towels.
    • Count stairs as you go up.
    • Name places seen from the car in the order in which they were seen. (First we saw , then we saw         .)
    • Find things that come in twos (pairs): feet, eyes, ears, shoes, socks.
    • Find things that come in fives: fingers, toes, gloves.
    • Give choices: "You may have two cookies. Would you like the round ones or the square ones?"

     

    There are so many wonderful ways to introduce little ones to mathematical concepts throughout each day.  Parents and preschool teachers can easily prepare children to excel in math – and to love it!

    Have fun!

    Tara



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    Tara Tuck
    Owner/Author
    The Joy of Language: The Guide to Language and Learning for Parents and Caregivers
    Marco Island FL
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  • 4.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-15-2019 11:09 AM
    Tara, Those are all wonderful ideas and so easy to incorporate into a normal day, at school and at home. My school district does regular parent workshops and I would love to have a list like this.

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    Angela Walters
    teacher
    Atlantic City Board of Education
    Egg Harbor Cy NJ
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  • 5.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-15-2019 02:32 PM
    Love these ideas! Thanks all.

    There are some nice videos from Virtual Pre-K - Ready for Math series. I think they're still housed here:

    http://www.iptv.org/education/story/906/virtual-pre-k-ready-math

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    Alissa Lange
    East Tennessee State University
    Johnson City TN
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  • 6.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-16-2019 07:51 AM
    Hello...as a prek teacher I love your ideas. I am always looking for ways to include math daily. However, this is good information to pass on to my families. Thanks for sharing.

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    Annie Whitehead
    NC Pre-K Teacher
    Care-O-World Learning Center
    Washington NC
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  • 7.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-17-2019 02:25 AM
    ​It was a great information.

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    Eva Arias
    Child Care Aide
    St Joseph Health Care
    Paterson NJ
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  • 8.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-18-2019 08:47 AM
    Thoughts on math and young children was addressed in this fascinating NPR piece!
    ​https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/702521289/masha-gershman-what-can-we-learn-from-the-russian-approach-to-math-education

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    Shari Doherty
    Program Director
    Child Find of America, Inc.
    New Paltz NY
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  • 9.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-19-2019 07:16 AM
    Thank you Shari Doherty for sharing!

    I just finished watching the video you shared,  and it made me realize, how similar my Polish upbringing was to the one described in your shared piece. I needed to see and hear it  today as my level of energy before starting my day as a head teacher and the director of a small preschool, was very low. Now I feel re energized as I realize, how important approach to problem solving is, and how much of a predictor to solving it - it is.  

    I have always enjoyed math  and focused on not being afraid of the unknown , as I have always trusted that solution can come from a calm and slow deliberation, and from trusting my skills and knowledge as well as from not being afraid that the result will come out incorrect. I passed this love of problem solving onto my own two kids, who are studying math and science today. 

    I am also hoping to instill this love for math in my little students!

    Thank you,
    I needed to hear this message today!
    Malgorzata.

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    Malgorzata Duda Baker
    Suffield Cooperative Preschool
    Suffield CT
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  • 10.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-19-2019 07:37 AM
    Malgorzata -  Your reinvigoration about problem solving is fantastic. As a mediator, I can't think of anything more respectful and energizing than creative, out-of-the-box thinking. It's the gift that keeps on giving. (I've got a college kid majoring in Applied Mathematics, too. You may be interested in seeing today's New York Times article about the first woman to just win highest math prize!) Thank you for sharing your excitement. That's the good stuff that grows more good stuff.

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    Shari Doherty
    Program Director
    Child Find of America, Inc.
    New Paltz NY
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  • 11.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-19-2019 10:43 AM
    I watched the TED video about math and it got me very excited. I've been doing some of my own personal professional development around teaching math and the video was very beneficial. However, I also wanted to explain that I will be using the video in a professional development workshop I am giving to my district's kindergarten teachers. It is based on the crosscutting concepts of the NGSS, and her talk fits so very nicely about how we need to teach children how our thinking and skills we learn in one area will greatly benefit us in other areas.

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    Angela Walters
    teacher
    Atlantic City Board of Education
    Egg Harbor Cy NJ
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  • 12.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-18-2019 08:58 AM


    You have some great ideas to integrate math activities into a child's experiences. As a Master Teacher for United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties, I am responsible for training teachers within their classroom over a 20 day time span. At each site, I also have to create a Parent Night/Parent Morning. One of my ideas is a "Math Rocks Night!" I put math activities in each center so that parents can see how math is interwoven in every aspect of our lives. The parents and children rotate through the centers working on math activities together. We want math lessons to be easy and integrated into a child's daily life experiences. This way they can understand the importance of math and learn to love it.

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    Michelle Dean
    United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties
    Leesburg FL
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  • 13.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-19-2019 11:58 AM
    Great thoughts, all.

    Another set of wonderful early math resources has come out of the DREME Network. DREME network is a community consisting of top experts in early math education, development, curriculum, professional development, etc. They are creating and producing free resources on their websites. They have a group working on "Parent and caregiver engagement in math":

    https://dreme.stanford.edu/projects/parent-and-early-caregiver-engagement-math


    Here's one of their math talk blogs:

    https://dreme.stanford.edu/news/making-most-talk-about-numbers


    Here's a link to their professional development in early math page:

    http://prek-math-te.stanford.edu/



    DREME Network's mission:

    "The DREME Network was created in 2014 to advance the field of early mathematics research and improve young children's opportunities to develop math skills. The Network focuses on math from birth through age eight years, with an emphasis on the preschool years. Network members and affiliates collaborate to conduct basic and applied research and develop innovative tools that address high-priority early math topics and inform and motivate other researchers, educators, policymakers and the public."

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    Alissa Lange, PhD
    Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education
    East Tennessee State University
    Johnson City, TN
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  • 14.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-20-2019 08:35 AM
    These are all really great ideas! I also noticed that Iowa's PBS station has a backpack program for STEM (http://www.iptv.org/education/story/31769/stem-backpack-program-iowa-families) that could be used to encourage math at home. They fill a backpack with fun activities related to math (or any other topic) and parents can borrow the backpack for short periods of time. Sounds really fun!

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    Ashley Lewis Presser
    Research Scientist
    Education Development Center
    New York NY
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  • 15.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-21-2019 08:08 AM
    ​Thanks for the question and all the great responses. I checked out the DREME network and believe I will take the modules this summer as professional development. I struggles with math most of my school years so it is a subject that I get easily rattled on. I am looking forward to viewing the modules and always strive to find ways to bring math into the pre-K settings.

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    Sue Miller
    team leader
    Child Development Center
    Hawarden IA
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  • 16.  RE: Ideas for engaging families in math?

    Posted 03-21-2019 02:38 PM

    What a great discussion! All these resources are fabulous.

    I wanted to share two more resources that I don't think have been mentioned yet. NAEYC has a Math at Home Toolkit on their website with lots of great tips, articles, and materials to give to families.

    https://www.naeyc.org/math-at-home

    And, my colleagues and I worked with Head Start programs to develop free, printable, family math mini-books. They are aligned to the classroom games we developed and also support home-school connections and communication about math. All the materials are free on the Young Mathematicians website:

    http://ym.edc.org/math-books/mini-books/

    http://ym.edc.org/

    We are especially excited that as part of our research we found an significant effect on preschooler's mathematics learning with the program! We think that the combination of math at school and math at home really makes a difference for children.



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    Kristen E. Reed
    Senior Project Director
    EDC | US Division
    43 Foundry Avenue
    Waltham, MA 02453
    kreed@edc.org | 617-618-2913
    Web: ym.edc.org | Twitter and Facebook: @EarlyMathEDC
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