Overcome the Math Blahs to Reinvigorate Joyful Math Play and Learning

Looking for some professional development to help you refresh your math program using play and exploration? My next workshop is just for you! Join me with Early Childhood Investigation Webinars on April 16 at 2 pm Eastern Time. 

 Workshop description:

Do you feel less confident or enthusiastic about incorporating math experiences into your early childhood program? If so, you’re not alone! Many early educators feel more comfortable teaching language and literacy than math. This hesitation may stem from your own experiences as a young learner.

If you’re looking for inspiration to bring joyful math moments into children’s play and make this learning visible to families, this webinar is for you! Young children are curious about Math-related concepts and Math connects to every aspect of a developmentally appropriate practice in early learning. In this idea-filled session presented by experienced educator, researcher, and writer Deanna Pecaski McLennan, we’ll reimagine what math looks like in early childhood. You will explore ways to reinvigorate your practice with hands-on, integrated activities that excite and engage young learners based on Deanna’s real-life examples from her kindergarten classroom.

Discover how to create invitations for young children to explore math through art, literacy, and outdoor play. We’ll focus on designing learning spaces where children see themselves as mathematical thinkers, valuing their ideas in meaningful and authentic ways. Drawing from her extensive experience and her books, Deanna will inspire you to approach math with curiosity, take risks, experiment with new strategies, observe deeply, and collaborate with children as co-learners. Let’s transform the way we think about early math together!

In this workshop you will:

• reflect upon your definition of math and where it can be found in the early childhood classroom
• explore stories, vignettes, and photos illustrating how educators can develop learning environments that foster curiosity and wonder in mathematics
• gather practical and easy to implement suggestions for how to invite children to engage in mathematical play throughout the day
• learn ways to document children’s experiences to make math learning visible to families and the greater community

Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate

On Thursday, February 9 I had the pleasure of being invited along with Jocelyne Brent to present "Emergent Learning in the Early Years: Digital and Deliberate" for TVO. In this webinar I shared the many ways we purposefully use technology to support, extend, document, and share the inquiries happening in our classroom. For those of you interested, you can view the webinar here:

https://youtu.be/SkwumPSkG3w

For easy location here are some links to the top technologies that I use in our classroom to support play, inquiry, communication and documentation. Click on the title to access links to various blog posts that further describe the technology and how we use it in our classroom.

1.  Children documenting their own learning using iPads.

2.  Using time lapse photography as a documentation tool.

3.  Creating digital documentation panels using iMovie.

4.  Encouraging digital community and voice using Padlet.

5.  The versatility of QR codes to inspire, research, document and share.

6.  Unplugged coding!

7.  Going old school with overhead projectors.

8.  Why Blog?

9.  Technology Buddies and Wordles

10. The Power of Twitter in the Classroom

Documenting Spring Digitally

It was a beautiful spring day around here today and I was eager for the children to explore the changes happening in our yard. After taking a walk around and looking for 'signs of spring' I encouraged them to use the ipad to document what they saw. They noticed many interesting things like...

...a blooming crocus

...not wearing coats

...growing plants

I was recently introduced to an app called My Story, that allows children to create their own digital books. They can draw their own illustrations, use pictures from their photo library, type text, and record audio. We imported the photos that were taken outside into a digital book that the kids named "Spring". I helped them type the words and they recorded the audio.

It was a great way to infuse literacy into our experience exploring the arrival of spring-like weather! I see great implications for this app in the classroom! Children can become authors and illustrators and share their own books. Documentation from an experience (e.g., field trip) or inquiry can be created and shared using this very easy app!

Check out our finished spring book here! http://msty.me/YUFkFe