creating early math games that work - for penn foster pd fair

CreatingEarly Math Games

That Work!

Teresa Gonczy

Wednesday, Oct 22nd

9-10am Eastern

Who are you?

* Teacher, Admin, Student

What ages do you work with?

* Infant/Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten

What early math gamesdo you already usein your classroom?

Image and activities from http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/6415/early-math-activities-2.

Image and activities from http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/6415/early-math-activities-2.

Think about...

* what specific math skills are being developed?

* what non-math skills are being developed?

Math Skills

Math Skills

Research shows that early math skills are just as predictive, and possibly more predictive, of later academic success than early literacy skills.

And yet most preschool classrooms devote much more time to literacy

than to math.

Duncan, G.J., Dowsett, C.J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A.C., Klebanov, P., Pagani, L.S., Feinstein, L., Engel, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Sexton, H., Duckworth, K., and Japel, C. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6).

Why early math games?

Early math isn't about worksheetsor flashcards.

Games are effective and fun!

Researchers found that the more board games children played, the better they performed on various

early math tasks.

What types of math games?

Ramani GB and Siegler RS. 2008. Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children’s numerical knowledge through playing with number board games. Child Development 79(2):375-394 - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/preschool-board-game-math.html#sthash.xvbOeAdk.dpuf

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

0 10

A B C D

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

The Great Race Game

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

The Great Race Game

Picture from the research article - http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/RamaniSiegHitti-12JEP.pdf.

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

The Great Race Game

Specifics... * number, not color based* straight, not circular track

Siegler, R. S. & Ramani, G. B. (2009). Playing linear number board games but not circular ones improves low-income preschoolers’ numerical understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 545-560.

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

The Great Race Game

More Specifics... * How you count matters.* Make sure to 'count on'

Laski EV and Siegler RS. 2014. Learning from number board games: You learn what you encode. Dev Psychol. 50(3):853-64. - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/preschool-math-games.html#sthash.G1eVH9KD.dpuf

Moving from logarithmicto linear thinking.

The Great Race Game

You can create in your classroom -* Individualize for each student

and their interests* Choose topic based on

curriculum theme

Laski EV and Siegler RS. 2014. Learning from number board games: You learn what you encode. Dev Psychol. 50(3):853-64. - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/preschool-math-games.html#sthash.G1eVH9KD.dpuf

Subitizing & the Approximate Number System

Daniel C. Hyde, Saeeda Khanum, Elizabeth S. Spelke. Brief non-symbolic, approximate number practice enhances subsequent exact symbolic arithmetic in children. Cognition, 2014; 131 (1): 92 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.007

Subitizing & the Approximate Number System

Daniel C. Hyde, Saeeda Khanum, Elizabeth S. Spelke. Brief non-symbolic, approximate number practice enhances subsequent exact symbolic arithmetic in children. Cognition, 2014; 131 (1): 92 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.007

Subitizing & the Approximate Number System

* saying how manyafter a quick showing

* comparing two quantities(Without Counting!)

Daniel C. Hyde, Saeeda Khanum, Elizabeth S. Spelke. Brief non-symbolic, approximate number practice enhances subsequent exact symbolic arithmetic in children. Cognition, 2014; 131 (1): 92 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.12.007

Subitizing & the Approximate Number System

In the classroom...* dots on paper plates

* objects hidden by cloth

Try it yourself...http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/

2008/09/15/science/20080915_NUMBER_SENSE_GRAP

HIC.html

Spatial Training

Yi Ling Cheng, Kelly S. Mix. Spatial Training Improves Children's Mathematics Ability. Journal of Cognition and Development, 2012; 120919075341007 DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.725186

Spatial Training

Blocks andTangram Shapes

Pictures from and online tangram game available at http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/tanagram-game/

Spatial Training

Blocks andTangram Shapes

* Mental rotation* Fitting blocks into shapes

* Playing with puzzles

Yi Ling Cheng, Kelly S. Mix. Spatial Training Improves Children's Mathematics Ability. Journal of Cognition and Development, 2012; 120919075341007 DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.725186

Spatial Training

Using spatial language(in, on, above, etc)

is also very important!

Pruden SM, Levine SC and Huttenlocher J. 2011. Children's spatial thinking: Does talk about the aptial world matter? Developmental Science (14): 1417-1430. - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/spatial-intelligence.html#sthash.8R3JvZfG.dpuf

Let's Create!

How can you use these ideasin your classroom this week?

How can kids bring the gameshome to play with parents?

Let's Create!

* Think about a theme(curriculum topic,

student interest, etc)

* Choose a type of game(linear race game, subitizing & ANS,spatial training, or your own idea!)

Let's Create!

* Share your ideas! :-)

Conclusion

* I used to think... Now I think...

* What new idea or activityare you going to use

in your classroom next week?

More Resources

* PBS Kids - http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/math/games/preschool-kindergarten/

* Math at Play -http://blog.mathatplay.org/tag/board-game/

* NCTM Math Games Book -http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?ID=14615

Contact:

Teresa Gonczyteresaeg@gmail.comTwitter @earlymath

Slides will be availableon my blog at

www.teresaeg.com/blog