On Friday, the TNNS preschool and Trailblazer teams joined with the Rompers team from Thompson Community Association to partake in a workshop on early years math and curriculum development. We were so fortunate to have Janice Novakowski, a Richmond School District’s teacher consultant, facilitate this workshop for us. Janice is passionate, vastly knowledgeable and wildly intelligent!

Janice shared an amazing amount of information in our short time together- everything from the key math and literacy (they are very tied together) concepts children learn from K-7, as well as hands-on practical ideas to implement math and numeracy in our programs. Her work will inspire us to look deeper into the opportunities we offer children to develop and support learning in math and science areas.

Some of Janice’s work can be found here on the district website- it is a great site to go down rabbit holes so have fun!

Here is a glimpse of some of the research:

In Kindergarten through grade 2, the focus is on developing young children’s number sense. Numeracy development occurs with opportunities to connect, apply and transfer this number sense to contextual situations or problems.

Foundational concepts/skills connected to the development of number sense:

• Counting including one-to-one, cardinality and conservation
• Symbolic and Visual Magnitude
• Subitizing
• Linking sets to numerals
• Decomposition of quantitiesSpatial ReasoningIt is important to note that spatial reasoning is foundational to overall mathematics development. When considering developing an understanding of number, concrete and visual materials and tools such as ten frames and dot patterns utilize spatial reasoning and understanding to support and enhance number sense. Concepts assessed in the included tasks such as comparing quantities and subitizing involve spatial reasoning.What are indicators of numeracy development?
• Understanding of number (number sense, fluency, flexibility)
• Application and transfer of mathematical understanding tocontextual situations (e.g. stories, problems, play, investigations)
• Making connections (math to self, math to world, math to math)
• Development of mathematical vocabulary and language (e.g.comparative language such as more/less, before/after, greater than/less than)

A few snapshots of our afternoon: