pre-primary math and science Flashcards
what is project based learning?
an instructional approach that builds on a student’s knowledge and skills of what they have learned by creating some type of product that shows what they have learned.
can be done as a group of students working to achieve a common goal or can be done individually.
performance is assessed individually and takes into account the quality of the product produced and the content depth of understanding.
final product should be a high quality product or presentation.
hands-on
effective for all subjects and all grade levels.
helps students learn, apply, and retain the information that is taught.
requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
list and explain an example of project based learning that can be used with young children for math.
pumpkin pie plate activity:
-each student gets a paper plate
- the teacher puts some orange paint on each plate and then adds some cinnamon to each plate.
- students use a paintbrush to mix the cinnamon and the orange paint together and spread the mixture to cover the whole plate.
- once the paint is dry, the student use a black marker to draw lines on the plate, dividing it up to look like 6 or more slices.
- then the students each choose a fraction and they have to cute out the slices of pie to represent the fraction so if a student chooses the fraction 2/6 then they would cut out 2 of the 6 slices from their plate to show how many slices were eaten.
list and explain an example of project based learning that can be used with young children for science.
color cookie activity:
-The teacher will provide cookies, food coloring, white frosting, mixing spoons, and small plastic bowls.
- Then the teacher will review the primary colors with the students and will put some frosting in 3 bowls and will put red food coloring in one bowl, blue food coloring in another bowl, and yellow food coloring in another bowl.
- Then the teacher will provide each student with their own bowl of white frosting and will have each student mix 2 of the primary colors to see what new color they made.
- Then the students will have to share with the class what colors they mixed together and what color they created and then they can use their new colored frosting to decorate their cookie.
what is STEM?
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
what is STEAM?
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math
list some characteristics of STEM/STEAM.
- both are educational approaches that build creative and problem-solving into projects.
- both encourage critical thinking and inquiry-based learning.
- both are hands on
- both often have ambiguous goals.
- the main goal of both stem and steam is to embrace the process of learning and discovery.
list and explain one STEM/STEAM activity that can be used in math when working with young children
building with paper blocks activity:
- students will receive thick strips of colored paper from the teacher.
- students will fold the strips of paper into shapes like triangles or squares.
- students will use the paper shapes that they made to build a colorful structure using different colored paper triangle blocks and then the students will be given objects like a cookie, a cotton ball, a popsicle stick, etc., and will trying putting these objects, one at a time, on top of the structure that they built, in order to see how sturdy their structure is.
list and explain one STEM/STEAM activity that can be used in science when working with young children
rainbow spin mixing:
-teacher will have students complete this activity one at a time with the teacher.
- the teacher will have the student place 2 coffee filters layered on top of each other, inside a salad spinner.
- the teacher will give the student 3 paint bottles (each bottle will be a primary color).
- the teacher will have the student squeeze a little bit of each primary color into the center of the coffee filter.
- the teacher will put the lid on the salad spinner and will have the student press the button to start making it spin.
- after a minute of spinning, the teacher will have the student stop pressing the button and wait for the salad spinner to stop spinning. then the student will take shelled off the salad spinner and see their coffee filter with the colors all mixed and spread out and the teacher will take the coffee filter out to dry and will have another student come over to do the activity.
- teaches about centrifugal force because the paint colors start out in the center of the coffee filter and when the salad spinner rotates, the colors from the center are pulled out from the center of the filter, causing the colors to mix.
discuss what should be known about teaching math to young children.
- teachers need to start teaching basic math skills to children in early childhood because that sets the building blocks for learning basic math skills in the future.
- teacher should use curriculum and teaching practices that strengthen children’s problem solving and reasoning processes as well as representing, communicating, and connecting mathematical ideas.
- teacher should integrate math with other activities.
- math concepts, methods, and language should be introduced through a range of appropriate experiences and teaching strategies.
- teachers should introduce basic terminology to young children because this makes it easier for the children to understand basic math concepts in the future.
- number sense is the first vital skill that young children need to learn before kindergarten. they need to learn to count forwards and backwards to learn about the relationships between numbers in the future.
- children should also learn numbers through representation or pictures. children are naturally visual and can build relationships between numbers and a represented item. pictures of manipulatives should be used when teaching math to young children to help them learn numbers through some form of representation. this also allows children to make connections between the real world and the skills that they are learning.
- adding and subtracting need to be learned before elementary school. basic skills like adding and subtracting can be taught through normal childhood interactions like sharing cookies by subtracting the original number to ensure that all children have the same number of cookies.
- by focusing on basic skills like adding and subtracting, teachers can provide a strong foundation in math skills for the future.
the teacher should base the math curriculum and teaching practices on the knowledge of young children’s:
- ______________
- _____________
- _____________
- _____________
cognitive
linguistic
physical
social-emotional development
discuss the characteristics of teaching science to young children.
- children learn best through doing.
- concepts will more likely be retained by children if presented in a variety of ways and if they are expanded over a period of time.
- children are also more likely to retain concepts that are integrated with other subject areas.
- teachers should ask open-ended questions to develop science concepts that require higher-order thinking skills in their students. question-asking also helps kids make connections in their minds between different things that they have experienced. questions can lead to activities that encourage students to explore, discover, and draw conclusions.
- science lessons should be focused around things that the students can see because its hard for young children to understand concepts that are so abstract especially since they mainly learn about the world around them through the use of their 5 senses.
- students should be provided with plenty of hands-on experiences, in order to encourage and increase their curiosity.
- teachers should take students outside so that they can have real world experiences.
- teachers should also provide the students with graphs and charts that they can fill out individually or in groups. when the students are finished filling in the graphs or charts the teacher should invite the students to discuss what the information on the graphs and charts means.
