Playing with Numbers

Expect your five year old to get a hands-on introduction to basic math concepts.

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The primary way kids learn math in today’s kindergarten classrooms isn’t that different from how it was taught years ago — children are introduced to basic math concepts through play. These days, however, your child is apt to be taught her 1, 2, 3’s in a more structured, though still highly kid-friendly way. The trend in math education is for kids to follow the same topical areas throughout their school years, beginning in kindergarten. As a result, you can expect your child to be introduced, in very broad strokes, to these subject areas:

• Number sense
• Algebra
• Measurement and geometry
• Statistics, data analysis, and probability
• Mathematical reasoning

It may sound like curriculum better suited to a big kid than a small fry, but not to worry. A visitor to a kindergarten math session today would never mistake the lively, interactive, and tactile experience for a hard-core math lesson. Kindergarten teachers use what’s called manipulatives — toys and other objects that kids can pick up and play with — in an unending variety of creative ways to bring math concepts to life and to reinforce understanding. “Experiencing math is more beneficial than straight learning,” says Cathy Seeley, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Reston, Virginia. “It stays with kids longer.” Manipulatives are also practical — they may be the only way to capture the interest of squirmy five year olds — and they work beautifully for representing quantities and patterns that are the basis of mathematics.
 
This is not to say that pencil, paper, and workbooks are a thing of the past. Kindergarten math usually starts with a review of number formation. Although most kids learn their numbers in preschool, they may still need help with correct formation and keeping their 6’s and 9’s straight. My son’s kindergarten teacher taught her students poems to help them write each number correctly: “Around a tree, Around a tree, That’s the way we make a three.” Many teachers also give homework — usually short worksheets — to practice writing numbers and to reinforce lessons.
 
Learning the Basics
Picturing Math Ideas
 
Learning the Basics
The first math subject area, number sense, includes being able to count, represent, name, write, and order objects up to 30. Kindergarteners learn to recognize which numbers are missing from a list, and identify more, less, or equal to. Your child may be asked to compare groups of 10 or fewer blocks, and recognize that there are more triangular blocks than square ones. She may practice counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s as well as by one’s.
 
Estimation, a facet of number sense that educators increasingly recognize as vital for math prowess, is introduced in kindergarten. A popular activity is the estimation jar, which kids take turns bringing home, filling with small objects, and returning to school, where classmates try to guess the correct number. “The estimation jar is great for improving students’ number sense,” says Barbara Zager, a kindergarten teacher at Brookdale Avenue School in Verona, New Jersey. “We talk about which guesses are larger, which are smaller, which ones are probably the closest, and why.”
 
Also under number sense, the concept of simple single-digit addition and subtraction is introduced. The emphasis is on using groups of objects, not columns of numbers yet, to help kids grasp the idea of adding and taking away. Small candies, blocks, dice, and dominoes are great both for number recognition and illustrating the mechanics of adding and subtracting.
 
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Picturing Math Ideas
Algebra in kindergarten is simply learning to identify, sort, and classify objects by their characteristics, and to recognize patterns. Teachers may give students a strip of paper with a “code” — for example, abb abb abb. Kids are asked to use objects or picture-cards to fit the pattern, such as frog, bear, bear, frog, bear, bear, frog, bear, bear.
 
Geometry and measurement are equally kindergarten-friendly. In addition to recognizing different shapes, teachers strive to show that objects have properties such as length and weight, and that you can measure and compare these properties. (Which container is holding more water?) Rulers are not yet required; the teacher may simply ask “how many cubes tall” the block tower is.
 
The concept of measuring time is also introduced — with terms such as morning, afternoon, yesterday — as well as the tools that measure time, such as clocks and calendars. Most kindergarten teachers start the day with “calendar time,” identifying the year, month, day of the week, date, season, and time of day. Your child, however, will only be expected to recognize the time of day to the nearest hour (for example, lunch starts at 12:00). Many teachers also use coins to make the lessons more tactile and meaningful. At calendar time, coins may be used to represent the date — for instance, 2 dimes and 3 pennies for the 23rd. The class may set up a pretend store by putting prices on toys. When students are allocated some coins to “spend,” they can figure out if they have enough to “buy”something.
 
The last topics — statistics, data analysis and probability, and mathematical reasoning — include learning to collect math information, set up problems, and explain how a problem was solved. These higher concepts run throughout kindergarten math lessons. Graphs are another favorite tool for helping kindergarteners learn to collect and organize data. Teachers graph subjects near and dear to a five year old’s heart, such as Valentine’s Day candy, family size, eye color, and number of teeth lost.
 
In fact, math lessons in kindergarten often reinforce several topics at once. When my children were in kindergarten, a favorite event was “Pumpkin Day,” which followed a field trip to a farm at harvest time. At various centers around the classroom, students guessed at the circumference, weight, and number of seeds of various pumpkins. In addition to providing hands-on lessons in estimating, measurement, counting, number sense, and data collection, the kids had a ball. The fact that they could have so much fun while using math may have been the most important thing they learned all year!
 
Julia Martin Langan, a freelance writer and the mother of three school-age children, lives in Verona, New Jersey.

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