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Kindergarten math curriculum should essentially incorporate activities and practical experiences that nurture the child’s logical sense rather than mere rote knowledge. Actually, teaching math to kindergarten attending kids means giving them a comprehensive understanding of basic concepts of math so that the children develop a positive attitude towards mathematics from the very early stages of life.
Children learn best while at play; hence, math curriculum for kids should essentially be fun. Involve the children in play and day-to-day activities instead of having them work with math worksheets and the like only.
Kindergarten math is as much about vocabulary as about numerals. Start with counting and help the children recognize numbers and understand what the numbers actually mean. Thus, have the kids count themselves in the class, count body parts or chairs and desks in the classroom, etc. Such activities will give them good practice in counting.
As the kids grow familiar with the numerals and their meaning (that zero means ‘nothing’, 2 means collection of two objects, etc.), plan some worksheet-based activities like writing down numerals up to 20. While teaching two-digit numbers, you can also introduce the children to the elementary math concepts like ‘face value’ and ‘place value’.
Geometry lessons will revolve round teaching shapes to the kids. Draw out different shapes on the board and have the children match each with its corresponding shape. You can make use of pattern blocks. Have children hunt for shapes in magazines and paste them in their worksheets. You can come up with numerous other activities as a teacher.
Measurement activities such as the number of steps one needs to reach a mark, drawing a line of a certain length with the help of the ruler and other such linear measurements form excellent activities for kindergarten kids. Comparisons of length, weight or thickness also give practical experience as part of kindergarten math curriculum.
Concepts of time and money also need to be incorporated in the kindergarten math program. Thus, introduce your students to such concepts as morning, afternoon, day, noon and night and let the children identify coins and have some conception of their values.
Follow it up by planning lessons on grouping and comparison. Have the kindergarteners sort and classify objects according to shapes, sizes or colors. Introduce the children to comparison terms like ‘less than’, ‘more than’, taller, shorter, bigger, etc. With the children showing better comprehension in these, you can broaden your kindergarten math curriculum and have enhanced data analysis methods like the representation of information included in it.
Use of manipulative materials like building blocks, color cubes, geoblocks, polydrons, etc. can also make the math learning process more interesting. Games such as Dominoes, Electronic Numbers, Counting Toys, printable Shape-softwares, and similar recent inventions, used judiciously, can help you plan unparalleled activities for teaching kindergarten math to kids.
Teaching Kindergarten Math is indeed a challenge every inch but if a teacher successfully implants the math basics into the budding minds, the children grow up to become sensible individuals solving math problems and dealing with life situations with equal ease.