Marie Corriveau - PK Assignment 1

Assignment #1: Observing Early Childhood MELS Math Benchmarks Name: Marie Corriveau Date of UM LAB Visit: September 12, 2023 Standard 4.10: Number Sense and Operations Children develop the ability to think and work with numbers to understand their uses, and describe numerical relationships through structured and everyday experiences. Benchmark Coding and Wording Indicator Observed (State behavior observed, or words student used that indicate student met the benchmark or struggled with benchmark) Source used (Video name or UM LAB) Give background information on the activity/center or materials used, and note any other details of importance a. Understand the concept of “more” in reference to food and play. The student verbally asked for more food. At lunch, a student asked me if she could have more fruit (the fruit was canned pears). I then put a couple of spoonfuls of the pears on her plate. b. Use simple numerical concepts in everyday experiences. A student verbally said “There can only be two people here.” at a learning center. At a center where students can play with dried beans in a large tub, only two students can be there at a time. While two students were already at the center, another one started to play with the beans. One student told the third student “There can only be two people here.” while pointing to the sign on the wall that tells students how many people can be at each center at a time. c. Use names of a few numbers. A student verbally told me that she is four years old. While pushing a student on a swing outside, the student told me that she is four years old, but will be turning five in November. d. Use correct terms to describe simple mathematical concepts. A student recognized that someone else had more of a particular food item than them on their plate. At lunchtime, one of the things that students were eating was chicken nuggets. One student at the table I was sitting at took five nuggets and another

student said “Hey he has three more than me”. Naturally, this child was not very happy about this, but I liked how they were able to see and say how many more someone else had than them. f. Count objects demonstrating one-to-one correspondenc e and meaning The children accurately counted the number of students that were in class. During circle time, one of the teachers asked the children how many students were in class that day. The children and the teacher counted out loud together and got 17 students as each student corresponded to one number. Regardless of where everyone was sitting on the carpet, the children were able to demonstrate one-to-one correspondence. Standard 4.11: Children develop skills in using measurement instruments to explore and discover measurement relationships and characteristics, such as length, quality, volume, distance, weight, area, and time. Benchmark Coding and Wording Indicator Observed (State behavior observed, or words student used that indicate student met the benchmark or struggled with benchmark) Source used (Video name or UM LAB) Give background information on the activity/center or materials used, and note any other details of importance b. Make simple comparisons. A student recognized that one block was bigger than the other. While playing with magnetic tiles, a student asked me to help them build a garage for their cars to go into. I handed them a tile and they said: “That’s too big, I need the smaller one”. f. Recognize time as a sequence of events that relates to the routines of daily life. A student had asked when were we going to go outside. Every day, the class I observed follows the same routine. One of the things that the children get to do is play outside for a half-hour. About 10 minutes before going outside a child asked me “When do we get to go outside” as they probably

Comment on LAB visit (required): During this visit, I was surprised at how much mathematical concepts can be integrated at such a young age. At the Pre-K age, mathematical concepts are those basic skills that will lay the foundation for future learning in math. For example, a child made a cause-and-effect prediction as they knew when they hit someone else’s block tower, it would fall over. This does not seem “mathematical” at first, but I soon realized that learning math requires good observation skills, which children develop from birth as they explore and play. Overall, it was interesting to observe the students interact with their peers in the environment they were in, even though it can seem a little chaotic at times.