SCARBORO DAY CARE CENTER

MATH CENTER

Rationale and Description:
Every young child is aware of and has used certain mathematical ideas before entering school. As the concepts the child already understands are detremined, various activities for concept development and reinforcement can be planned for the math center. Such activities should involve manipulation of objects with opportunities for the children to verbalize discoveries and understandings.

Skills Developed in the Math Center:

• Ability to count objects and people
• Ability to recognize, identify and compare sets
• Ability to identify positional relations
• Ability to make comparisons through measurement
• Ability to classify geometric shapes
• Ability to associate number concepts with labels
• Ability to use ordinal numbers correctly

Equipment and Materials - Measurement Materials:

• Scales
• Yardsticks
• Foot rulers
• Tape measures
• Thermometers
• Containers of verious sizes
• Various measuring materials(beans, water, sand,corn meal, etc.)
• Flannel board
• Counting objects for flannel board

Equipment and Materials - Manipulative Materials:

• Concrete objects for counting, sorting, classifying, and building number sets
• Commercial math games
• Teacher-made math games

Implementation Procedures:

• Place math center near a bulletin board.
• Use teacher-made and commercial materials for activities.
• Set up activities that will reinforce ideas presented.
• Set up interest topics, such as grocery store and post office, in math center.
• Limit number of children in the center dependent on activities and space available.
• Change materials in the center often. Some activities, such as calendars and number buildres, may be set up permanently.
• Teach children to return materials to proper places after using.