Math is a creative endeavor

Fifth graders design and sew quilt squares to demonstrate tessellation.

Can all kids love math?  I think so.

For students in the past, math was considered something you were naturally good or bad at. But, thank goodness, it's different now.  Along with a base of mathematical concepts and facts built through games, objects, and some good old memorization, math learning  can move into a realm that is highly interesting to children.  Kids can "make math"  - and they love it.

In Teaching Math to People Who Think They Hate It the author talks about a Cornell professor who wants to teach math so that students "get the pleasure of thinking, the pleasure of wrestling with a problem that fascinates."

That's what I see on students' faces when I walk into math classes at Parker - math that is both an intellectual discipline and a creative endeavor.

Building  and programming a robotic trebuchet or catapult to throw a ball the farthest builds skills in measurement, geometry, calculating distance, speed and acceleration, predicting proportional relationships and measuring angles,  Boolean logic...need I go on?!

Calculating proportional relationships and ratios with liquids: "Which juice is the juiciest?"

The secret to math education in preschool

Here's an interesting article about math in preschool, Why Math Might be the Secret to School Success.  It refers to a recent study showing that math knowledge at the beginning of elementary school is the single most powerful predictor determining whether a student will graduate from high school and attend college.  That's a new one!  We usually hear about reading skills and the ability to delay gratification (The Marshmallow Test) as top indicators.

Perhaps it is actually a richness of experience while they are little that gives children an edge.  Math is an important component.  Math that is intentionally incorporated into activities like cooking, gathering, sorting, building and making patterns is crucial for developing brains as a base for deeper understanding.  You can read Pre K 3 teacher, JoAnn Bennett's blog  This Week! (scroll down to the Looking Deeper section) to learn about the math activities involved in block building, for example. 

Engaging, exciting and loud are the key elements with math for preschoolers.  “We want kids running around the classroom and bumping into mathematics at every turn.” says Doug Clements from U. Denver.  That sounds like fun!  And a lot like our Pre K 3's and 4's at Parker.