#mathstart

The morning I walked into CCDC, a preschool in Lincolnwood, IL, I was bowled over. I looked up and saw all the characters from my books! From children’s construction paper cut-outs on bulletin boards to schoolroom doorways decorated to look like the “houses” of the I See I Learn kids: Camille, Percy, Ajay, Freda, Emma and Carlos. In fact, the entire hallway was arranged as a town. It was incredible! It was like See and Learn City came to life! 

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do many school visits any more. (Over the years, I have been to more than 500 schools in 47 states and six foreign countries!) Knowing that I would already be in Chicago, CCDC director Susan Fahey—with whom I have presented twice at the National Head Start Association’s annual conference—asked if I could stop by. I had already digitally visited the school via Skype, but there is nothing quite like being actually in the room with young children reading stories together!

When I pulled out puppets modeled on the characters (prototypes), the children greeted them like old friends: “Good morning, Ajay!” “Good Morning, Freda!” 

I also had the opportunity to read some of my MathStart stories, each of which focuses on a different mathematical skill. That was great fun! The first 21 of the 63 books in the series are for Pre-K and K. Taken separately, they would rank among the largest early math series available. 

There is some interesting overlap between MathStart stories and I See I Learn books. Good social and emotional skills make it easier to learn everything, including math! 

So you see, it all kind of flows together. MathStart. I See I Learn. Young children. And learning. It’s great!

I hope you enjoy the video below as much as I enjoyed my visit to CCDC! 

— Stuart J. Murphy  

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* Teachers / Adminstrators: Find out more about I See I Learn at School!

People don’t often talk about creativity and math in the same sentence, yet the arts and creativity are critical to the study of mathematics, especially in the early years.

This is at the foundation of the STEM to STEAM movement. Although Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics can open the doors to all sorts of wonderful 21st century careers, our kids need the Arts to help them apply STEM skills creatively.

Our students need to be fully engaged in mathematics. They need to be:

creating math models
 writing math stories
 doodling and sketching about math
 and using multiple representations of mathematical ideas to express their thoughts There are lots of things we can do, both at home and at school, to be creative about teaching mathematics. In the short video embedded at the top of this post, there are several ideas, including some inspired by my MathStart stories. There is also a brilliant classroom activity involving some remarkably talented hamsters (!) courtesy of my good friend, fourth grade teacher Cathy Kuhns.

Those clever kids from Maple Street School’s Save-the-Planet Club! Have you heard what they did? No? Well, when they cleaned up Gilroy Park, they took all the cans they found to the local recycling center. They also held a collection drive for more cans at school. They collected so many cans, they grouped them in bags of 10, 100  and even 1,000 cans. Can you imagine? Not only did they clean up the park and learn about place value, but they also made enough money to buy flowers to plant! Win, win, win! You can read all about it in my MathStart story, Earth Day—Hooray!

Do you collect cans and recycle paper and plastic bags at your school?  

••••••••••••••••••••••••

Some Facts About Aluminum Cans: 

Recyclers pay $800,000,000 for cans to recycle each year, but nearly a billion dollars-worth still end up in landfills. 

Recycling aluminum takes just 5% of the energy needed to refine aluminum from ore.  Aluminum can be recycled over and over, too!

Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

More than 100,000 aluminum cans are recycled in the US every minute.

It takes 60 days for a can to go from store to home to recycler to a new can!

Let’s all do our part and make every day Earth Day. Hooray!

I met Dr. Donna Housman, a clinical psychologist and founder of Beginnings School in Weston, Massachusetts, at a public hearing regarding the state adoption of Preschool and Kindergarten standards for Social and Emotional Development and Approaches to Play and Learning. We each gave testimony at the hearing and soon realized that we had many common interests! Afterwards,  we began talking and Donna invited me to visit her school. 

From the moment I walked in the door, it was evident that Beginnings lives up to its motto: “A Child’s Place for Discovery.” The school serves children ages three months through Kindergarten, providing a warm and inviting environment for learning. 

I presented to two classrooms. The children were very good listeners! They loved Seaweed Soup, my Mathstart story about matching sets—and the smelliest, tastiest soup ever! We also read Camille’s Team together, an I See I Learn story about cooperation. They had lots of questions for me, which was delightful!

Donna and I had a chance to visit again after the readings. My visit to Beginnings is clearly the beginning of a wonderful friendship. 

Thank you Beginnings!

— Stuart J. Murphy

Pi Day comes but once a year on March 14, which is almost Pi-perfect since a year is defined as the time it takes for one nearly-circular orbit of our not-quite spherical Earth around the giant globe of the Sun. Circles—or almost circles—everywhere you look!

Pi, of course, is the symbol for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter: 3.14159…. The number is often rounded to 3.14, which is why Pi-Day is on March 14: 3 /14. This year is even more Pi-ful than usual because it works to the fourth decimal point: 3/14/15.

For your Pi Day pleasure, download and have fun!

Here is to circles big and small—Pi applies to them all!

"Studies find that the mathematics knowledge acquired in early childhood and early elementary grades is a critical foundation for long-term student success. A child’s math ability when he or she enters school has proved a better predictor of academic achievement, high school graduation, and college attendance than any other early childhood skill. Early mathematics competency even predicts later reading achievement better than early literacy skills. Finally, high-quality early mathematics instruction supports later learning of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills U.S. employers are demanding..."

— Unlocking Young Children’s Potential: Governors’ Role in Strengthening Early Mathematics Learning / National Governors Association / October 2014

It is, of course, vital to keep up the good work throughout primary, middle and high school in order to reap the benefits, but a solid foundation in mathematical concepts laid down during the preschool years can make all the difference, providing both competence and confidence. 

Children who grow up thinking that they can master a concept, whether it is math or reading or science, usually can. It may time some time and work, but they will keep at it. That's half the battle. 

Young children are typically pretty good at math. They are accomplished visual learners from the moment they open their eyes. By the time they are toddlers, they have figured the basics of "more" and "less" and "bigger" and "smaller." By preschool, they are ready for counting, matching sets, ordinals  and simple subtraction. There are 21 preschool (Level 1) books in the MathStart series, each focused on a different skill that these budding mathematicians are eager to master. 

The National Governor's Association report makes a good point about STEM careers, but math is also important for everyday activities, whether that is figuring out how much pizza to order for a party or counting change...or votes!

Numeracy—the ability to understand and work with numbers—can also serve as a stepping stone to literacy by providing an example of a symbolic language: 1 + 2 = 3 tells the story of what happens when 1 and 2 are added together, becoming 3. MathStart books take this natural link between math and stories, which children love, and adds visual learning strategies designed to play to the strengths of how young children take in information. 

Early Math is a integral part of a good early childhood education. So do the math! Early and often!

— J. A. Ginsburg

RELATED: 

Mission Readiness: Military Leaders for Kids ( nonpartisan national security organization of over 500 retired admirals, generals, and other retired senior military leaders) 

Turning 3-Year-Olds Into Scientists by Alexandra Ossola / The Atlantic

Studies: Math skills can be predicted, improved early on / USA Today

Math Boring? Not at All! The New York Times Editorial, MathStart and the Importance of Early Childhood Education by Stuart J. Murphy / vizlearning

San Francisco's universal preschool could prove a model for SoCal cities by Deepa Fernandes / KPCC

Long Beach looking to extend its push for college to preschools by Deepa Fernandes / KPCC

Early Math Matters: A Guide for Parents of Preschoolers / Get Ready to Read

Q&A with Deborah Stipek: Building Early Math Skills / Too Small to Fail

The early childhood solution for Colorado's economy by Greg Anton and Burnie Zercher / The Denver Post

Early Math Initiative / The Ounce of Prevention Fund

Early Math / The Robert R. McCormick Foundation

 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: November 6-7, 2014

I am feeling very much like Camille when she goes to the beach with her mother in Camille's Team. It's sunny and warm here and I enjoyed a nice long walk in the sand at the end of a busy day yesterday. I am attending the South Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics (SCCTM) annual meeting, where I gave a keynote address yesterday. My topic, "Reading and Math Together: An Equation for Success!", fit in perfectly with the overall conference theme, "Math: Good to the Core." I demonstrated ways in which using stories to teach math reinforces the goals of the Mathematical Practices of the Common Core State Standards and other state and national guidelines.

Inspired by the fact that we have just come through a busy election season, I read my book The Grizzly Gazette to the audience of over 300 educators. The story is about a camp election and includes polls and election strategies as three candidates run for the position of Camp Mascot. In the process, readers learn about percentage and the representation of data. The story ends with a rousing cheer, performed admirably by the entire audience.

Today, I am giving a talk at the closing luncheon event. As it's just a short presentation, I have decided to read a book from my I See I Learn series, Good Job, Ajay! The story has to do with building confidence. When people ask what this has to do with math, my response is, "Everything!" Research shows that social/emotional skills such as confidence building, cooperation and self-regulation are the most reliable predictors of school—and math—success.

The conference is going very well and I am honored to be here.

"Good Job, South Carolina!"...and a big thank you to Joan Stevenson of Turn Kids On! for the book signings!

Last March, my wife Nancy and I visited A.M. Pate Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. It was such an extraordinary visit that I decided to use it for some Back-to-School inspiration. 

As we walked up the sidewalk to the entrance, a man on a ladder was placing the last letters on a huge welcome sign. I was a wonderful welcome, but barely prepared me for what lay in store...

This trip was about a year in the making. It began when I met Fort Worth Elementary Math Network Specialist Brian Sinclair at the CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching) in San Antonio.  Brian told me about a school in his district that had been struggling but that was beginning to show improvement in mathematics: A. M. Pate. He wondered whether I might be able to come visit. One of the teachers at the school, it turns outs, is “my biggest fan in all of Texas.” Wow!

It wasn’t long before Pre-K math instructor Wilma Mathews wrote a lovely letter encouraging my visit: 

 “Our school is a diverse Title 1 school. Our diversity is an asset, but it is also a real challenge because we have a number of students with a variety of different languages, including Somali...Your books assist in making a natural link between literacy and the math skills we are trying to help our children develop.”

I decided to contact the Texas marketing team at Pearson Education. I am one the authors on their enVisionMATH program, which is used at A. M. Pate. Together we put together a plan and voilà, there I was walking into the school being greeted by Brian and Principal Rochelle Horton.

As Nancy and I started to walk down the first corridor, we saw that the classroom doors were decorated. We got a little closer and realized that the decorations were based on the covers of my books! Then we saw that this continued all the way down the long corridor. Every classroom door in the entire school had been decorated on the theme of one of my 63 MathStart books! Next to the doors, the students displayed math projects they had created in relation to the math topic being taught in the book. This had all been done in time for a Family Math Night that was held a week earlier.  Imagine! It was an incredible sight! It astounded me! I had tears in my eyes as I made my way from door to door. 

Students got a chance to vote for their favorite door. I was informed that the Let's Fly a Kite door took first place. I would have had a hard time selecting which was my favorite. They were all truly extraordinary!

We had a full day of assemblies and I had a chance to present to every student in the school.  The audiences were attentive and responsive, and they were well prepared with questions. 

Ms. Mathews had arranged a special lunch for us in the library. The tables were set with placemats that were created by her sister, Linda Miller.  They included a picture of me at the center and an array of my MathStart books around the edge. Every placemat was different and, again, all 63 books were represented. After a nice healthy lunch, out came the cake—a true extravaganza!

After lunch, we went to Ms. Mathews’ classroom, where her students performed The Bug Dance. I think you can guess which book displayed was on her door!

I was so moved to see that every door at A.M. Pate leads to math! I hope it is true at your school, too!

Have a Great New School Year Everybody!

— Stuart J. Murphy

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