This series of book ideas encourage using stories to infuse the early years with mathematical learning. From the infant years until they are putting together more advanced numeracy concepts in elementary school, books can be a gateway for early math discussions.
Below find all the resources we have placed in our series titled BOOK IDEAS.
November 11, 2020
It’s easy to turn reading books with toddlers into conversations about the math that is all around us. The idea of more and less comes into all kinds of books and finger plays toddlers love—including counting books.
Books are great for babies. Research clearly supports this. What are the best books for babies? We use our Precursor Concepts as a framework for discussing math thinking during the ages of 0-3.
As children start using number words, they don’t always have a sense of what those words really mean. Early on, we guide children to develop a meaningful number sense by focusing on small numbers.
Activities related to counting books can spark a lot of conversation and creativity. These English and Spanish-language activity cards are great for printing and using at home and school.
Books can illustrate kindergarten and preschool shape concepts while introducing foundational Big Ideas of math. These activity cards can help take the learning to the home environment where parents and caregivers can spark such discussion.
These printable activity cards in both English and Spanish invite home explorations with sets and sorting using the books and activities related to them. The books can encourage conversations about attributes while also inspiring questions about what is happening from page to page.
To encourage and develop children’s counting knowledge, here are eight books (with an accompanying download) that are common to preschool classrooms.
Children look for ways to organize and make sense of their world through play at school and home, as well as at clean-up time. Sorting items into groups by specific attributes gives children the opportunity to define sets according to a rule of what does and does not belong together.
Cumulative tales and rhymes illustrate growing patterns, typically an increase or decrease by one on each page. As the growing pattern is revealed through the story, children get excited because they can figure out "what comes next."
It’s up to us to find, share, and talk about a variety of shapes with children in ways that expand their understanding and build connections between the shapes drawn on paper and the concrete objects in our world.