Trick-or-Treat Tribune – Week 8 Recap
We wanted to take a moment to highlight key components of our math curriculum. Skills we are focusing on at this point in the year include number recognition, counting, subitizing (i.e., knowing how many objects are in a small group without counting), making predictions, and explaining our thinking.
Games like Uno support many math skills including number recognition and matching.
“Pumpkin Pile Up” is a Halloween/Trick-or-Treat themed version of a classic math game known as “Roll-and-Record.” It supports counting skills, subitizing, and connecting numerals to the quantities they represent. Future versions will allow us to support number writing, data analysis, and even probability!
Taking attendance supports mental math, making predictions, and explaining their thinking. At this point, we focus on using the number of children absent (usually determined via subitizing!) and the total number of children in the class to determine how many are present that day. The children volunteer their predictions and are always encouraged to offer their “why” (i.e., mathematical reasoning and thinking).
Counting the days of school supports number recognition, counting strategies, and understanding place value.
Daily calendar work — both formal and informal — helps the children develop an understanding of the passage of time and their ability to use tools to organize/understand their lives on a larger scale.
