Math and Science in a Preschool Classroom

ByMelissa Satin

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Description of Classroom

O This is a Head Start classroom where the children are 3 to 5 years old. The children in these photos are from the morning session. Many of these children are either 3 or young 4.

O The standards used are from the Connecticut Preschool Assessment Framework

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Table of ContentsO Exploring Puffy Paint

(slides 4-8)• Description with Standards• Photos • Theories and ImplicationsO Mixing Colors (slides 9-

11)• Description with Standards• Photos • Theories and ImplicationsO Clean Mud (slides 12-16)• Description with Standards• Photos • Theories and Implications

O Sorting Box (slides 17-19)

• Description with Standards• Photos • Theories and ImplicationsO Patterning (slides 20-

22)• Description with Standards• Photos • Theories and ImplicationsO Conclusion (slide 23)O References (slide 24)

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Exploring Puffy PaintO Description and StandardsThis activity addresses Performance Standard Cognitive 1 in the Preschool Assessment Framework: Engages in Scientific Inquiry. On this day, it was snowing all morning, and the children were very interested in it, so we as a class read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, then we made our own “snowy day” pictures. Unfortunately we could not go out and actually play in the snow because not everyone had appropriate clothing to do so. To do this the children mixed shaving cream, glue, and glitter (or sprinkles as the children called it) and painted pictures. Some got right into it with their hands, others had to ease into it by starting with a paintbrush. Throughout the activity I asked them how it feels and how it smells. In The Snowy Day Peter makes tracks in the snow, so we talked about making our own tracks in our puffy paint snow. Children discovered they could make something then “mess it up” to erase it. They enjoyed doing this and did it throughout the activity. Many times the children would say, “Look what I made Miss Satin”, I would look then they would say, “Okay now I’m gonna mess it up”. The children in these photos were exploring what happens when they wrote in the paint, then erased it. They were also constantly rubbing their hands together very quickly and slowly and observing what happens. Many tried to clap, and found that it produced no sound when they did,. They also took handfuls and squished it between their fingers so that it would ooze out. In addition we talked about our “snow” that we made, and how it compares to the snow in the story and the real snow outside out windows.

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There is a lot to be learned from exploring with puffy paint. For many children it is a new sensory experience, but it is also good for scientific inquiry. In this case, children mixed the ingredients together themselves, and observed whether or not it changed the substance; which it did not unless they used extreme amounts of glue or shaving cream, which they did not. They also had the opportunity to explore drawing different things in it like the letters in their name, or making tracks like Peter did in the story. Throughout the activity we talked about how our “snow” compared to the snow outside. Most of the children talked about the snow outside as being “cold” and “wet”, and the snow we made was “soft” and “not hot” but also “not really cold”.

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In this photo, S. had been playing with the puffy paint for a few minutes. She was squishing it between her fingers and making tracks in it on her paper. She kept saying it was “Gooey gooey gooey. Gooey and sticky.” Just before this picture was snapped she was saying, “Hey! Where did my hands go?” Then she was trying to clap her hands, and realized that when she did that, it did not make any sound, but instead sent puffy paint flying everywhere. She tried clapping loud, soft, hard, and gentle all to no avail!

“Hey, I can’t clap!”

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In this photo, T. and J. had been playing with the puffy paint for almost ten minutes. They had started off using a paintbrush, then moved on to their hands. At first they just used both their hands in a “wax on, wax off” motion, but then it turned more purposeful. T. and J. are exploring making tracks with their fingers and hands then erasing them. T. said, “Look! I makin’ tracks like in the snowy book. [Erased them.] Now I messed them up. I’m gonna do it again.”

When J. noticed what T. was doing, and listened to what he said about the connection to the story, she said, “Hey. I’m gonna make tracks too!” She proceeded to do so, and also made many and erased them many times. They stayed at this activity for over ten minutes after this photo was taken.

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• Theories and ImplicationsThis activity allows for exploration, as discussed in the text Inquiry into Math, Science, and Technology for Teaching Young Children (2005) by A. Prairie. It gives children the opportunity to use a new material as it relates to something in their world, like snow. Children can make comparisons to the puffy paint and snow based on their understandings of both. To enhance this kind of exploration, it is the job of the teacher to provide the necessary vocabulary, and to scaffold children’s thinking to help them make connections to their own lives and experiences. In this case we were talking about their prior knowledge about snow, and relating it to the properties of our puffy paint. One of the things we talked about was how in the snowy day story, Peter’s snowball melted in his pocket when he went inside, and yet our snow was not melting and we were inside. Children throughout this activity all tried to clap their hands while they were covered in puffy paint, and it did not make any sound (other than a very low thud once in a while). This seemed to baffle the children at first, as if they could not comprehend why their action was not producing the noise they were expecting. Eventually, the children started wiping off some of the big gobs of puffy paint and trying again, leading to more acceptable sounds by them. While the children did not vocalize a hypothesis, it seemed as if they thought about one- if they removed some of the paint, their hands would be able to make noise when clapped together. As teachers, we need to be able to pick up on those kinds of moments. While that was not the intent in this project, it was an observation the children themselves made, so I as their teacher commented on it, and talked about it with them.

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Mixing ColorsO Description and StandardsThis activity addresses Performance Standard Cognitive 1 in the Preschool Assessment Framework: Engages in Scientific Inquiry. This activity started by reading Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni as a class. After, we made our own little blue and little yellow pictures by marble painting. The children each put a circle of paint on their paper, then tipped the tray with the marbles in it back and forth and swirled it around and talked about what was happening. This is great because the child determines how much mixing is going on. They also see right before their eyes that mixing blue and yellow make green. For a few of the children, once they started realizing they were the ones creating the green, they shook the tray back and forth even faster to make more green. The children also had to figure out what speed and angle was best for the mixing they wanted to do, but kept the marbles from jumping out of the tray.

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In this first picture, T. looked up at me and said, “Hey, it’s getting green in here.” I asked how that was possible since we did not use green paint. He responded, “Um, I don’t know. Wait! It’s like from the story. Yellow and blue make green. I’m gonna make some more green!” He then proceeded to shake the tray faster to mix more yellow and blue. When he did this though, he realized that the marbles kept falling out of the tray. For the next couple of minutes he tried shaking it at various speeds and at different angles until he found a speed and angle that he was satisfied with, and did not make the marbles jump out of the tray. He very animatedly spoke to his peers about what was happening in his tray. He was also explaining to them that he had to go slow so the marbles wouldn’t fall out.

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• Theories and ImplicationsIn this activity, reading a book about mixing colors helped to give children some background knowledge to help them make the connection that blue and yellow mixed together makes green. This activity also involves a bit of physics in that children had to figure out how fast they could roll the marbles back and forth, and the angle which they could tilt the tray so that the marbles did not fall out. As children were putting the blobs of yellow and blue paint on their paper, and saw the marbles, I asked them what they thought might happen too the paint if the marbles ran through it back and forth- this was asking them to make a hypothesis. Once children started the process and observed that they had green paint in the tray, I would ask them how it got there, since we did not use green paint. By thinking about what was happening, and using knowledge from the story, children were able to make the generalization that yellow and blue mixed together makes green. I have asked children since this activity what happens when blue and yellow mix together, and because of the constructivist nature of the activity, they were able to tell me “green”. Something to keep in mind as a teacher however, is the cause and effect relationship. We mixed paint using the marbles, so some children could think that the marbles made the green paint, and in fact a couple children did tell me that. For that instance, it would be important to do a different activity that mixes yellow and blue (without marbles) so that those children can see that yellow and blue make green together in another way.

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Clean MudO Description and StandardsThis activity addresses Performance Standard Cognitive 1 in the Preschool Assessment Framework: Engages in Scientific Inquiry. In this activity, children make “clean mud”. They do so by combining shaved soap, ripped up toilet paper, and water. The soap is shaved with a vegetable peeler, so that is doe by a teacher, but the children rip up the toilet paper and add the water. After all the ingredients are combined, children mix it up, then are able to play with it and mold it like they do with play dough. In the process of making this, children talk about the ingredients that go into it, how it smells, and what it feels like. We also talk about what would happen with less toilet paper, or too much water. This is a great activity for scientific inquiry. Children can make predictions about what they think might happen with too much or too little of one of the ingredients, and then it can be tried, and children can see the results right away. It leads to great discussions about what happens when we use too much water- how do we get rid of it? Do we just dump it out, or can we add more toilet paper to help absorb the excess water?

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At this point, I have shaved the soap and the children have ripped up the toilet paper and are adding it to the bin. They were mixing it around. I asked them if they thought we were all done making the Clean Mud. T. said, “No because it’s not wet, and mud is wet.” I asked what we should do, and he said to add water, so, we added water. I asked how much we should add, and the children replied with “just a little bit”. We all walked to the sink and turned the water on. I put it on slowly, and the children decided when to turn it off. We went back to the table to mix all the ingredients together.

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Here the children are mixing the ingredients. I asked them if they noticed anything, and one child said, “The toilet paper got smaller”. Another said, “There’s too much water.” I asked them what they thought we could do because there is too much water. One said “We can just dump it out”. I agreed that yes, we could do that, and I asked if there was anything we could add to it that might help get rid of the water. That did not elicit any responses, so I asked them what we did if we spill milk or water on the table or floor. They all responded with “Get a paper towel”. I talked about how we use the paper towel because it absorbs, or “soaks up” the milk or water. I asked if any of the ingredients we used could be like a paper towel…

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… T. said, “Hey, how ‘bout, we can use the toilet paper.” I said that we should try it out, so in this picture I am handing them more toilet paper to rip up and add to the bucket; some are adding and some are still mixing.

Here, they have finished adding extra toilet paper. T. said, “Hey it worked! The water is all gone!” After this picture was taken, they started taking it out of the bin and playing with it like play dough.

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• Theories and ImplicationsThis activity goes through several of the scientific inquiry processes discussed in the Prairie text. Children are exploring not only by feeling the clean mud and making creations with it, but by being part of the process of making it. They ripped up the toilet paper, they saw me shave the soap, and they added water to it. When we put too much water in, I was asking children to hypothesize what might help make the water “go away”, and I guided them to a generalization about absorbent materials. This activity is really nice too because children could see immediate changes when we added the water, and when we added more toilet paper. This activity also provided an opportunity to co-construct knowledge. The children know that when they spill, they get a paper towel, and the spill is gone, so they have some prior knowledge about absorbency, even though they do not know that term. Adding toilet paper to soak up excess water adds to their thoughts about absorption. Listening to the discussion during this activity helped me to learn where some of my children are at in different areas, which will help me guide them up to the next step.

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Sorting BoxO Description and StandardsThis activity addresses Performance Standard Cognitive 3: Sorts objects; and Cognitive 5: Compares and orders objects and events. This activity was done using a factory-made sorting box. The box contains three cards that are small, medium, and large, and they are labeled as such. Inside the box are several different objects to sort by size such as straw hats, bells, miniature horses and lizards, and dice- just to name a few. This is an activity that is popular in the classroom when it is taken out; when I took it out this time around, I had several children at the table within a minute. This is more direct instruction, and it is effective. Children not only discuss things with the teachers and ask them questions, peers help each other out sorting the objects and talking about which ones are “bigger, smaller, or in the middle.”

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At this point, you can see these children had been at the activity for several minutes, and had already sorted hats and dice. In this picture, the child in the pink wanted to sort the lizards, and had placed them randomly on the cards. T. saw what she was doing and said, “No you have to sort them. This one is big [placed on large card], this one is small [placed on small card] and this one is medium [in the process of placing the medium lizard in this photo]”. He continued

to discuss with his peers and I about the objects in the box. He occasionally held up two items and stated which was bigger than the other, or smaller than the other, and placed them on the appropriate cards.

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• Theories and ImplicationsSorting requires children to use basic math skills such as classifying, comparing, and contrasting. Children can sort many different ways, and how they choose is dependent on any number f criteria such as size, shape, or color. In this activity, children were comparing objects the large, medium, and small sizes within the size. They also compared all of one particular item; like all of the lizards were compared against each other to determine which was the largest, medium size, and smallest size. The children also helped each other sort the objects, which is an example of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (as presented in Prairie, 2005). One a child put an object on the wrong card, the peers would correct it; or if a child was not sure where something went, they would ask a peer for assistance. This activity helps me to learn about the children in my classroom. It can help me determine who to pair up for activities, and it also helps me to understand where the children are in this area of math, so that I know what kinds of activities to do with them to help them master their current level, and reach the next one.

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PatterningO Description and StandardsThis activity addresses Performance Standard Cognitive 4: Recognizes and makes patterns. For this activity, children were using sorting bears to make the patterns that were on the sorting bear cards. Most of the children did not follow the actual pictures on the cards; rather they just placed the bears on the cards. Some however, did follow the picture down to the color, size, and look (sitting, standing, arms up or down) of the bear on the card. One child was creating his own pattern. This is a good activity for children to be introduced to patterning, or for children who have grasped the concept. For those just learning, the cards provide some guidance and examples of patterns. Some of the cards also have a blank box at the end of it for the child to fill in, and extend the pattern. For those that are more advanced, the sorting bears can be used for them to create their own patterns. Satin ECE 510

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These pictures show A. using one of the sorting bear cards to complete a pattern, and then extend it. As he was putting the bears on the cards he was saying the colors. At first he was just matching the bears with the color on the card. I stepped in and talked about how I noticed he was making a pattern. We went through the pattern together. After he matched all the bearson the card, we went through the pattern together: yellow, red, yellow, red… and so on. Once we went through

the pattern on the card, I asked him what would come next, without having the pictures as a guide anymore. He was able to answer correctly each time. Each time he put down another one, we went through the pattern again. We added four more bears after these pictures were taken.

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• Theories and ImplicationsPrairie (2005) talks about patterns being all around in a child’s world, and they will eventually use their knowledge of patterns to recognize patterns in the number system (page 241). This activity was child directed, and I sat down to observe and scaffold learning. Many of the children I observed were in the beginning stages of patterning; they could not generate their own patterns, but they could talk about one laid out for them, and make a prediction about what would be next in a simple ab pattern. This activity demonstrates Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory as described by Prairie (2005). Children who are more advanced in patterning, can help their peers work through patterns, and encourage them. Peers will also point out when someone wears a pattern to school, and they talk about what the pattern is. During this activity I discovered that one of my students is right at the cusp of being able to generate his own pattern, so I need to provide ample opportunities for him to do that, to get him to the next level of extending abc patterns.

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Conclusion O All these activities support a constructivist approach to learning

because in every one, while there may have been scaffolding my myself or peers, children were doing hands-on activities, and manipulating the world around them. This is the way children learn!

O Teachers need to provide ample opportunities and materials for children to explore and be able to come up with their own hypotheses, generalizations, and promote critical thinking about their world

O In all activities, it is important to remember intersubjectivity. Educators of young children need to be able to clearly communicate the ideas they have so that children can understand, and communicate back to them.

O Teachers need to have good observational skills to be able to see where the children are on all levels developmentally, and be able to help guide them to their next step.

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References O Prairie, A.P. (2005). Inquiry into Math,

Science, and Technology for Teaching Young Children. Belmont, CA: Delmar Cengage Learning.