Mathematics in the Kindergarten Classroom

 

There was wonderful mathematics happening in the Kindergarten classroom today. This morning a group of students worked very hard to connect the links together. At first they were using the links to make leashes and attached them around the waist of some of their peers to pretend they were dogs on a leash. This was okay because they were actually reinforcing what they knew happened in the real world and putting it into their play. But I wanted them to enhance their learning and connect it with some of the learning in mathematics. So I challenged the group to make it as long as they desired and then use it to measure something in the classroom. They decided to measure the width of the classroom. Here are two pictures to show the evidence of the learning.

 

 Five students worked on this finished product and they each placed it down carefully on the floor to show how wide the classroom is.
Next I challenged them further by asking them if they thought the link chain would be long enough to measure the length of the classroom. They were in agreement that it would not be long enough. One of the little girls added: "we would have to add lots more links because the long ways of the classroom is longer than the width". Wonderful mathematical learning in the classroom.

The afternoon students were challenged to use a balance scale. There were a variety of items: stone, marker, key and lock, small car, scissors and a ball. It was at the centre and the students were to place one item on the one side of scale and then find out how many cubes it took on the other side of the scale to balance the scale. The students really enjoyed this.

The JK students used cubes on both sides of the scale and kept adding or taking away from the one bucket in order to balance the scale. Many of the JK students who did not have a turn with the balance scale asked to have a turn tomorrow. This was a great learning centre.