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Preschool teachers can create an environment in which children are eager to explore and learn about math. They can provide developmentally appropriate materials and opportunities to help preschoolers understand the topic. Math can be a part of daily routines, activities, and interactions in preschool.
The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) are written to ensure students will leave school ready for work and college. In the CCSSM, two critical areas make up kindergarten content. The first is representing, relating, and operating on whole numbers with sets of objects. The second is describing shapes and space (NGA Center & CCSSO 2010). By the end of kindergarten, children need to demonstrate understanding by analyzing, comparing, creating, and composing these shapes. Preschool teachers have numerous opportunities to help children begin to develop their understanding of shapes and space.
Recognize and compare twoand three-dimensional shapes
In preschool, children can learn to identify and name circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and ovals. By using materials such as posters, blocks, books, and games, teachers expose children to various shapes and help them analyze twoand three-dimensional shapes in various sizes and orientations.
The following strategies and activities can help preschoolers learn to recognize and compare shapes.
* Identify shapes. Introduce children to different kinds of triangles, such as equilateral, isosceles, scalene, and right. After finding them in the classroom or outdoors, children can outline the triangles with colored tape. For example, they might make right triangles red and scalene triangles blue.
* Introduce math words. Create a math word wall or incorporate mathematical words into the existing word wall-color-code the math words to make it easier for children to notice them. Be sure to write math words in English and in children's home languages. Teachers can use real objects, photos, and black line drawings to define the words.
* Compare shapes. Ask children to identify different sizes of the same shape. For example, in the classroom they could search for rectangles, such as windows, doors, books, shelves, cabinets, computer screens, tabletops, and cubbies. Next, help children think as they compare the sizes of rectangles. The door is bigger than the cubbies. The cubbies are bigger than the book, but they are all rectangles. Encourage children to do the same with triangles,...