Essential Math Skills Every Kindergartener Needs ~ Ep. 66

You can get so much information just from watching kids count.

– Zeba McGibbon from The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast ~ Ep. 66

Episode Summary

Teaching math in Kindergarten is no easy feat. You are beginning the foundation of all other math skills yet to come. In this episode, I explain essential math instruction for kindergarten teachers, focusing on building a solid “number sense” foundation. We explore four key areas: subitizing, number recognition and writing, one-to-one correspondence, and cardinality. I discuss effective teaching progressions, the importance of hands-on learning, and strategies for supporting struggling learners. Future episodes will cover additional topics like home support and math fluency, while emphasizing the significance of patience and fostering a love for math in our young students. So make sure to follow for more!

In this episode, I share:

• Teaching Foundational Math Skills
• Number Sense Foundation
• Number Recognition
• Importance of Hands-on Learning
• Strategies for Supporting Struggling Learners

Previous Episodes:

• Exploring Counting Math Centers in Kindergarten Classrooms ~ Ep. 8
• Math Intervention for Kindergarten – Ep. 18

Resources Mentioned:

• Kindergarten Math for the WHOLE YEAR | Math Games, Centers, and Small Groups
• Workshop: Literacy, Math, and Centers… Oh My!

Learn More With a Free Math Workshop

Connect with Zeba:

• Instagram – @kindergartencafe
• Facebook – @kindergartencafe
• Website – www.kindergartencafe.org
• Tik Tok – @kindergartencafe

Read the Transcript

[0:00] Hey teacher friends, today we are jumping into a little kind of mini-series on math in kindergarten for the next couple weeks. I’m going to focus all about helping you be the best math teacher for your kindergarten students. So today I want to focus on what are those essential math skills that kindergartners should know and how do we teach them. Kind of a big topic, but we’re going to dive in and I can’t wait to help you.

[0:24] Music. You’re listening to the kindergarten cafe podcast where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away I’m Zeba creator and founder of kindergarten cafe and i help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone. Ready to start saving time and reducing your stress all while using effective. And purposeful lessons that students love? Let’s get started.

[1:07] Music. All right, so what are those foundational math skills that we’re going to be talking about? The big overarching category for these skills would be number sense. Kids have to learn number sense in kindergarten. And under that sort of umbrella, I break it down into a couple different parts. Subitizing. Can they see groups of numbers without having to count one by one? That’s really important. So if they roll a dice, they know it’s five by looking at the five dots without having to go one, two, three, four, five. So that’s really important. We want to be able for them to be able to subitize basically 10. And then you may be using a 10 frame later on to be able to subitize teen numbers higher than that, usually if they’re using a 10 frame to help them. Numbers is another category under this umbrella of number sense. So basically, rote counting, like, do they know the number order? Do they know which orders numbers come first, which numbers come after? And can they recognize numbers? And also, can they write numbers? That’s a big one. But if you show the number 14, do they know that that is the number 14? That’s really important.

[2:25] One-to-one correspondence is our third category under the umbrella of number sense. So that means that each object that they’re counting gets one number. Each object gets one number. So if they’re counting a group of counters, like little colored bears, they tap one and slide it over. They say one number. They don’t tap one bear and say one, two, and then go to another bear. Each bear gets one number. And then our fourth and final category under number sense would be cardinality and comparing. So are they able to answer how many did they count when they count? Are they able to compare that amount to other amounts and talk about how they can make that number bigger or smaller in comparing those groups of objects? So I would say those are the key parts under the umbrella of number sense that is so important in foundational math that we as kindergarten teachers need to make sure that kids have a solid foundation in.

[3:26] Really, if I’m thinking about like the progression in kindergarten of learning math, I start with that subitizing and recognizing numbers. So I’ll start with doing some tell me fast. So I’ll show them like groups of dots and have them tell me how many they see and how they see them. Well, do they see them in a line? Do they see smaller groups like I see two and then one and I know that’s three? Do they see them that look like the dice? All things like that. Then we’ll be moving on to, or at the same time really, working on counting, the foundational counting skills, the one-to-one correspondence, the cardinality, and comparing the groups, things like that. And that is connected and leading the way into our next focus, which would be number order. So when they’re counting, it’s a little easier for them to do the number order because they’re doing the rote counting. They’re counting objects. They’re starting at one and going all the way higher. When I say number order, though, the next step would be if you say 10.

[4:34] They’re able to then say the next number would be 11, one more, or one less would be nine without counting from one. Obviously, some kids need that, but that means they’re not quite ready for that yet. So that number order piece would be taking away the counting progression, the rote counting, and see if they can just know the number order, know what comes after the number that you’re saying or before.

[4:59] Number decomposition would be after all of that, which is where they’re breaking apart numbers into smaller groups. And you’re doing a little bit of that with the subitizing. So you’re kind of working on it all along.

[5:10] But it gets a little bit more, it gets less concrete because you’re maybe doing things with like less with objects right in front of them and more just thinking about, okay, if you have four and I only see two, then I know there must be two hiding. I do a lot of hiding things and we’ll talk more about that in a future episode. But it gets to be a little bit more abstract because they’re not seeing the objects in front of them versus the subitizing where you’re talking about seeing groups they’re seeing all the parts right in front of them so it gets a little bit more abstract after that the number decomposition really lends itself nicely for talking about addition and subtraction foundational parts of addition subtraction so we’re not really doing you know really high numbers it’s more just do they understand the concept of adding and subtracting with numbers less than 10. But the number decomposition works really well to help them understand that concept.

[6:04] And then at the very end of kindergarten, we’ll work on some very basic place value understanding, specifically looking at the teen numbers and breaking apart teen numbers into 10 and some more, which again, number decomposition really lends itself nicely to that. So that’s why you work on that before introducing place value and before introducing addition and subtraction. Other topics you can sprinkle in throughout the year. They don’t really have to be in a certain order. I don’t think sorting, shapes, measurement, graphing data, you can do that throughout the whole year. But that’s sort of the order of the math progression, those foundational skills in kindergarten.

[6:42] So how do we teach these foundational skills for our students? Well, I think the most important way is with hands-on learning, playful learning. Some examples of those hands-on learning could be counting collections where the kids are counting different objects. You could even have them sorting the objects and then counting them. Lots of math games that involve rolling dice. They’re working on the subitizing and counting out that many, however many they rolled, like rolling cover or counting out that many spaces on a board game.

[7:15] All great ways to practice lots of foundational skills. These are also all play-based. So having those games and different activities, they’re really playful learning. That’s a good way for kids to practice, as we talked about in some previous podcast episodes. And as kids are working on these hands-on learning, playful games, you’re observing them, you’re watching how they count. You could even pull them aside to do a counting assessment one-on-one and just watch them count, you can get so much information just from watching kids count. And then you sort of know which area of this foundational skill do you need to target. So if you’re watching them count, and we have a whole podcast episode on counting, so I’ll link that below. And in that podcast episode, I get into what the different mistakes in counting and how to support them with that. You know, I get into all that there. But for example, if you’re watching them count, and they’re missing a number, then you know they need to work on number order. If you’re watching them count and they’re being messy with it, you know they need to work on one-to-one correspondence.

[8:19] So watching them count can really help you understand where they are within these foundational skills. And as you’re watching them doing the hands-on activities in the games, if you’re noticing that they’re counting each dot on the dice, they need to do more work with subitizing. If they can’t find the number five that they’re looking for to write down the number five for the roll and write you know you need to work on number id with them so observing them can really help us understand where they are within these different key foundational skill areas if they don’t have a strong foundation in those areas they are going to struggle in future areas that’s why i don’t even touch on the addition subtraction place value until they have a strong foundation in those foundational skills of counting, subitizing, number order, one-to-one correspondence, comparing groups more or less, all of that. If I notice that kids are struggling in a certain skill area, I will pull them to do some small group with me or some interventions, and we’ll just practice that skill that they’re struggling with over and over and over again with different counters or with different amounts, making it more challenging each time or taking away my support each time. But they need that repeated practice. And again, that episode on counting has a lot of good examples for interventions you can do for kids who struggle with counting.

[9:41] So just to recap those like key areas, those foundational skills that kids need to have before you can really move on in math, fall under the umbrella of number sense. So subitizing, one-to-one correspondence, numbers as in row counting, number recognition, and then cardinality and comparing. So comparing the amount that they counted of making it smaller or bigger, and then knowing how many they counted. Knowing that the number, the final number they said was the amount that they counted. And understanding that progression of math skills to help us understand where kids are and how best to support them and not pushing them ahead before they’re ready, not jumping right to addition and subtraction before they’ve really understood and having a solid understanding of counting and number order and number decomposition.

[10:28] So like I said, we’ll be doing like a little math miniseries. So coming up, we’re going to be talking about helping kids at home who are struggling. And then later on this month, we’ll get into supporting kids with number relationships, that number order, and then math fluency as well. So that number decomposition piece. So we’ll get into all of that. And stay tuned if you’re looking for more support with math, because I am going to be offering a free workshop. So stay tuned for that. And if you enjoyed this episode, and you’re looking forward to more math tips, Send me a DM on Instagram, code word math, and let me know that you’ve been listening. Let me know what you’re excited to learn more about.

[11:09] And our quote of the day is, I was asked a question by a student and I responded in a typical teacher way of, well, what do you think? And the six-year-old girl said, we’re just children. Come on. So just children. They don’t always know the answers. We need to make sure they have those foundational skills in place before we can push them to moving on into other areas of math. Have a great day.

[11:34] Music.

[11:40] Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources, or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies. If you liked this episode, the best ways to show your support are to subscribe, leave a review, or send it to a friend. I’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips. See you then.