What child doesn’t love snacks? But did you know? Children have an innate interest about numbers and shapes too. This curiosity can be catalyzed to cultivate of love of math learning.
My preschooler loves apples! And shapes!
She always asks me to cut them in squares or triangles. We have small cookie cutters to cut snacks in shapes of stars, hearts, and animals.
Today, she stacked her apple squares onto a tower. “Mommy, look at the tall tower!”
And it gave me an idea to take her interest a step further. Several steps, actually.
We started building a small staircase with our apple squares.
I said, “Look! It’s a staircase! Can you help me put one more on the top?”
Catalyzing her curiosity, I asked further questions as we explored.
“How many pieces are there on our staircase?”
“Do you think I can add one more piece without making it fall?”
“How many pieces do you think will make the staircase fall over?”
The last two questions prompt her mind to do some estimation. My daughter might be too young to perform reasonable estimations, but these are the kinds of questions that help develop mathematical thinking.
We perform estimations in our daily lives. When we do shopping, we are estimating the total price of our purchase. When we are thinking about replacing a piece of furniture with another one, we are making estimations about their measurements. When we cook, we are estimating amounts with our ingredients.
Young learners need to develop their estimation skills too. In math, making estimations would help us find a solution within a reasonable range. Making estimations exercises our number sense and understanding of patterns.
So whether it is during snack time or formal learning time, keep an eye out for your children’s sparks of curiosities. Take advantage of these moments and jump start an extension activity, ask further questions, encourage meaningful guesses, and prompt deeper thinking.
Written by Mandy Lam
Comments