Curriculum Environments Chapter 8

Positional Words

Words that describe place. (Ex. Left and right, in and out, over and under, top and bottom)

Sequence Words

Words that help children develop a sense of order. Ex. Beginning, middle, end, before and after, next to, etc.

Bloom's Levels of Thinking

1. Knowledge : Remembering basic information 2. Comprehension : Understanding the basic info and being able to phrase it in one's own words. 3. Application : Using the information in a concrete way to solve a problem or complete a task 4. Analysis: Breaking apart the information, sorting out facts, and drawing conclusions 5. Synthesis: putting together knowledge in novel, creative ways 6. Evaluation: Judging content based on standards.

Name it, Say it, Touch it, Move it

A play strategy that supports the development of one-to-one correspondence. this approach promotes counting by using fingers, voice and toys.

Pattern

A regular arrangement of objects, numbers and shapes. Growing patterns are patterns that change from one value to another in a predictable manner.

Science

A system for acquiring scientific concepts or "big ideas" that involves processes, content and concepts.

Classification

A way of comparing that refers to putting things together and naming the group.

The Scientific Method for Young Children

Children engage in systematic and logical processes by: 1. Observing 2. Classifying 3. Wondering, predicting and hypothesizing 4. Experimenting, testing and exploring 5. Drawing conclusions 6. Communicating ideas.

Four Stages of Math and Science Concepts

Concrete (part of a child's immediate world and must be real. Ex. Plastic fruit), semi-concrete (Drawings of the fruit), semi-abstract (the fruit would be replaced by a symbol such as a square), and abstract (no visual support).

Bruner's Stages of Knowledge Representation

Concrete, pictorial/transitional and Symbolic

Hawkin's Room for Messing About with Materials and Ideas

Created as an adult studio and think tank, where adults experiment with materials to gain an understanding of children's learning.

Number Words

Describes our number system. Ex. more, less, the same, many, few, etc.

Comparison

In order to be able to pattern, sequence and seriate, a child must be able to compare

Structured Learning

Experiences are pre-planned.

Naturalistic (or Spontaneous) Experiences

Experiences that are initiated by children themselves. When adults provide assistance to the children involved in naturalistic experiences, they are initiating informal learning (not pre-planned)

Shape Words

Help children to categorize and identify everyday objects. Ex. "Round" to describe a clock.

Ordinality

Infant's intuitive sense of approximate magnitude (how much there is).

Life Science

Involves children observing and formulating questions about the characteristics of things that are living.

Purposeful Play

Involves interaction between the ELP and the children. The goal of interaction is to (a) scaffold learning and (b) engage in an assessment of/for learning.

Rote Counting

Involves the memorization of numbers

Mathematics

Is about number concepts - conceptual and procedural knowledge.

Abstraction

Means that any set of items can be counted.

Order Irrelevance

Means that items can be counted in any order (ex. counting from right to left, left to right, or in no particular sequence results in the same total number of items).

One-to-One Correspondence

One and only one number word can be assigned to each counted object in a set. Ex. When each child has a cookie at snack, there is one cookie per child. This is one-to-one correspondence because they understand that for snack, each child will have 1.

Piaget's Three Types of Knowledge

Physical Knowledge, Logical-Mathematical Knowledge and Social (or conventional) knowledge.

Cardinality

Refers to the act that the value of the last number word used when counting indicates the quantity of items in the set. Ex. Counting 1,2,3,4 means there are four items in the set.

Physical Science

Relates to physical knowledge and involves hands-on exploration of materials to investigate the properties of objects.

Geometry and Measurement

Second most important area of mathematical learning, and is important because of their real-world connections (shapes).

Sequence

Sequence refers to the organization and order of successive events and experiences.

Counting Procedures

Stable order, one-to-one correspondence, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Rational Counting

Tells children "how many there are"

Teachable Moment

That point in a learner's development at which time it is appropriate for an adult to intervene and in some way build on the learning that is occurring

Numerosity

The ability to discriminate arrays of objects based on quantity of presented items. ex. Knowing that the bowl of fruit with 2 apples is less than the one with 5.

Seriation

The arrangement of objects: Lining up blocks in order of largest to smallest is seriation.

Stable Order

The fact that number words are always used in the same order.

Directional Words

if a child is pulling a wagon, they may describe it as pulling the object "forward". This is a directional word.