Foundations for Understanding Mathematics: Grades K-2

What are the issues that commonly cause students’ natural abilities and love for mathematics to fade to difficulty and dislike? This course will examine the skills and concepts forming the foundation for understanding mathematics.

 

Take a look at the elements of instructions that have been found to nurture young students’ innate mathematical curiosity, confidence and ability.

 

A primary cause of students’ dislike or difficulty with math is that they see little relationship between skills too frequently taught in isolation and the fast-pace, high-interest lives they plug into. Even at this early age, students need to experience math as important, fun and a natural part of their explorations. Topics in geometry, measurement, data analysis and real-world problem solving are integrated for this reason.

 

• Counting—Build on a child’s innate ability to distinguish quantities and to reach when the number of objects in a small collection has increased or decreased.

• Operations of Addition and Subtraction—As students grow in their knowledge of place value and to manipulate larger numbers, they use these skills to measure, analyze and display data, and to solve problems that bring relevance to their studies.

• The Foundations of Problem Solving—Focus on the application of these skills and how to help them explore how to make sense of their world.