Kindergarten Math

Kindergarten Students Are Engaged In Their Learning

This summer our Kindergarten teachers, along with some 5th grade teachers, attended professional development surrounding increasing student engagement in the math classroom. This professional development was centered around the book titled Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl. The big ideas involve students working in groups of 2 or 3 that are randomly formed, on vertical surfaces that are non permanent (such as a dry erase board), with only one dry erase marker to record the work being done. Not only does it require academic discussion and engagement surrounding the math concept but it increases student SEL skills through sharing, communication, turn taking, how to handle disagreements, etc. We have seen such wonderful success with this model of learning in our Kindergarten classrooms that are implementing it and can’t wait to see it spread throughout the building.

In the pictures below, students in Mrs. Gervino’s Kindergarten classroom were given cards with numbers 1 – 10 represented in various ways. The students were asked to name the number represented on the card, order them from least to greatest, and then write the numeral on the board underneath the cards. When they finished that task they had to draw all the ways they knew to represent the number 9. When they were done, the teacher asked the students to rate their success with sharing of the marker during the activity.