Developing positive math identities for young children
How can we help kids experience math in a more positive way?
I had always grown up hating math.
It was only later, as an adult,, that I realized it wasn’t the subject itself, but how it had been presented to me.Looking back, I wonder how my education could have turned out differently if I had just seen math differently.
The ways we view and talk about math impacts our kids’ relationship with math. Some research even shows that when kids enter school behind in math, it is hard to close that gap. It’s important to nurture interest in mathematics and to build identities as capable mathematicians during early childhood. Early math exposure and achievement is highly predictive of later school success in both mathematics AND reading (Source)
Developing these skills can start early. Kids love hearing stories, and stories can also become the catalyst for engaging in rich math discussions.
Many parents think you can only use books about math, but really, you can use any book that explores mathematical possibilities.
Technicolor Treasure Hunt By Hvass and Hannibal
The Story
Technicolor Treasure Hunt was created by a design studio, based in Copenhagen, that uses color to teach our youngest learners vocabulary and counting skills. Each page focuses on a different color including a variety of animals, fruits, flowers, and plants featured in groupings ranging from 1-10. Kids can use the groupings of animals and plants to recognize more than and less than, count verbally, and begin an understanding of one-to-one correspondence.
Why we like it
This has been one of our favorite books to gift to our friends with babies because it’s a beautiful book that grows with the children. Young children can start using it as a color and first words book. As they grow, kids can continue to use the book to practice more specific vocabulary and counting skills, seeing groupings of everything from avocados to peacocks to cherry blossoms, and supporting their emerging identities in foundational math.
Stack the Cats
The Story
This book uses fun illustrations of cute cats, that go beyond a simple counting book, by organizing cats in different formations to show simple addition, multiplication, and patterns. When they stack upon one another, “Six cats prefer two stacks of three cats” (3+3=6) “Nine agree to three, three, and three” (3+3+3=9) children to count stacks of cats.
Why we like it
This is a picture book that inspires action. Seeing the cats stack, and the different formations, gets kids excited about stacking and counting their own things.
Feast for 10
This fun counting book follows a family as they go to the store, prepare dinner, and sit down together to enjoy a feast with their 10 family members. It walks through the process with all of the children, even the baby, helping out to prepare the feast. The children collect 5 kinds of beans, even jelly beans, and the baby helps out by carrying 6 bunches of greens.
Why we like it
This was a book our own child asked to read over and over. It shows kids the familiarity of going to the store and working together, while seamlessly incorporating counting. Each page includes a large bold number, and as it followed the counting sequence, our son was able to predict and recognize the numbers up to 10.
Baby Goes to Market
This book captures the vibrancy and community of a southwest Nigerian marketplace while incorporating early subtraction and counting skills. Mama, with Baby strapped to her back, travels through the bustling outdoor market: looking for flip-flops, shopping for homemade palm oil, and comparing the colorful chili peppers. While Mama is busy shopping, she doesn’t realize the vendors from each of the stalls are giving Baby treats: six bananas, five juicy oranges, four chin-chin biscuits, three ears of sweet corn and two pieces of coconut. Baby eats one and puts the rest in the basket on top of Mama’s head.
Why we like it
We love that this wouldn’t be considered a “math book” but kids can recognize how numbers and counting are interwoven into our everyday lives. Kids begin seeing early subtraction as baby takes one, but puts the rest back in the basket.
Absolutely One Thing: Featuring Charlie and Lola
Charlie has a little sister Lola, and she is very funny. The story is told through the eyes of Charlie and Lola as they get ready to go to the store. When mom says they must be ready in TEN minutes, Charlie realizes “It takes me THREE minutes to brush my teeth. ONE minute to remember that I have forgotten to eat breakfast. FOUR minutes to eat my puffa pops, THREE minutes to brush my teeth again, and EIGHT minutes to find Lola’s left shoe”. This means: 3+1+4+3+8=19. Which makes them NINE minutes late: 19-10=9 minutes late.
The story weaves numbers throughout: Lola trying to count the numbers on her dress and realizing she’s not sure what comes after twelve, a discussion of how many leaves might be on a tree “A hundred,” says Lola, “nearly at least.”, and negotiating to get stickers at the story.
Why we like it
The story is told through the children’s eyes showing how young children interact and talk about numbers and math in a natural and playful way. The adults are largely absent, unable to correct or make judgements. The most important part is there are no right or wrong answers. When Lola sees a grouping of ladybugs, she estimates “There are at least FIFTY or twenty-seventeen” . They are able to explore, and joyfully interact with numbers without a focus on being right or wrong.
Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! The Cookie Fiasco
