Michelle Belanger

SEI 513
Spring 2014
Competency area #3: Curriculum

Week #1: March 3, 2014
From the baseline assessment I had a pretty good idea where I needed to start to
improve the math knowledge. The areas I recognized that the children needed more
focus on were: recognizing numerals, recognizing basic 2-dimensional geometric
shapes and sorting objects by attributes. For this first week I decided to focus on
the skill of sorting by attributes. For small group this week I introduced the math
activity called Attribute Match with the objective to lay the groundwork for
sorting through an activity that involves matching and describing attributes. For
this activity I wanted to focus on the childrens vocabulary they had to be able to
visually sort different things. I had bear counters of different sizes and colors and
had the children describe the different attributes of the counters, what made them
different, what made them the same. For the most part it went pretty good. There
was some difficulty with the English language learners. However my thought was
that I would at least expose them to the various vocabularies. Since it was more
like a discussion and direct teaching moment, it didnt hold the childrens interest
very long. To follow up on this activity, I put different color bear counters and
plates on the manipulative table for children to be able to work on during center
time. Several children went over and used the center and I did observe that the
children were using the vocabulary that was introduced at small group. These
words included bigger, longer, taller, smaller, and shorter.
Week #2 March 10, 2014
This week I choose to focus on the skill recognizing numerals. The activity I choose
for small group time was, the Match Up game. This game has a set of cards with the
numerals 1-6 on them and a set of cards that have dots with 1-6 on each of them. I
shuffled both decks and placed the dot cards in a row and the numeral cards in
another row. The children then took turns turning over a card from each row in an
attempt to match the numeral card with the dot card. For this activity 2 of the
groups did great and were able to make matches. For the third group, recognizing
they needed more help, I left the numeral cards face up and then the children
needed to match the dot card they picked to the numeral card that was face up.
As a follow up activity, during our outside time we went on a number walk
through downtown. This is where we walked and pointed out numbers we found on
buildings, busses, or anywhere we could find them. I also introduced the game of
High and Low with a deck of playing cards for a 2-person center in the classroom.
I found that the children were helping each other identify which numbers were
higher than others and it was great exposure to numeral recognition as well as turn
taking and games with rules.
Week #3 March 17, 2014
For this week I focused on basic shape identification. For small group I had the
children roll play dough in basic shapes. These shapes were circle, triangle, square,
and rectangle. For the 2 groups who were more advances I added diamond and
hexagon. For any of the kids who needed extra support I printed out shapes on
paper and the children could trace the shapes with the play dough.
To follow up on this activity, I left the cards out with the play dough at the art
table for the children to use for center time. This let them explore the shapes, some
children started making 3-D shapes (cones, cylinders and spheres). By keeping the
materials available to the children they were able to explore more with it and have
more time than we did at a small group.
An additional activity that I did 3 times this week was the Shape Hokey
Pokey. I cut out basic shapes for each child (circle, triangle, square and rectangle). I
gave each child a set of shapes and we played the hokey pokey by putting our circles
in, our circles out and continuing on through all the shapes. This is a good way that
the children can learn by watching others or myself until they are comfortable with
knowing the shapes.
Week #4 March 24, 2014
This week I really focused on keeping some of the activities during center time. I
kept out the high low card game and the play dough shapes. I also put the counting
bears into the sand table so the children could sort them as they found them buried
in the sand. We went for another number walk and played shape hokey pokey twice
this week. I really worked at incorporating math into several different aspects of
the childrens daily life. This week I also re-administered the math assessment. I
did this mostly by observing the children in small group and at center time. I feel
that the children made great improvements and felt good. It was exciting to be able
to use an assessment to teach to the children where they needed help. It was also
great to see the improvements they children made just by being intentional in the
materials I set out and the activities I did with the children.