Creating a Numeric Environment for Effective Learning for Children - Essay Example

?Running Head: LITERATURE AND LEARNING Environment and Environments and Numbers Environments and Numbers Numbers and how they are added and subtracted often seem a very abstract concept to young children. Through the use of books that are about the environment and environments that both people and animals live in, numbers can begin to make sense as they are both recognized through lessons and then put into context through seeing more and less of different objects. The idea of addition and subtraction will begin to emerge as children interact with the teacher through projects, visual, and auditory messages that provide the child with reinforcement on the lessons that are created. Looking at different environments allows the teacher to explore differences and commonalities with the children between those environments. Counting the number of ways things are different or the same creates a sense of how to put numbers together to form meaning. In creating a sense of the environment, children can see how numbers relate to the real world, negating a common belief that numbers are not relevant to real life. In providing for different forms of ideas about the world, children will see how the world is related to one another and be able to count through observing within the world. In creating a foundation for learning about adding and subtracting, children in Kindergarten will begin to see how numbers relate to one another. Where fingers are often the first way in which numbers begin to have meaning, through creative projects that support visual and auditory learning, they will begin to see how things can be added and subtracted to have more and less. In using a game, a sound lesson, and an art lesson, the interest in numbers will emerge as application of the concept of numbers is made upon real world ideas. In combining the lesson with environments, the information includes a secondary opportunity for learning as different environments are explored. Lesson 1 The Ocean Anderson, S. (2011). What can live in the ocean?. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications. This book is an informative, non-fiction book that provides information about the ocean and how animals survive in a water environment. Through the information in the book, children are taught about gills and blowholes, as well as the types of defenses that animals in the ocean have such as claws and teeth. The book explores the ocean environment in such a way as to provide an overview of the ocean and how the ecology of a water living space affects the needs of ocean life. The book has the advantage of listing things that are relevent to the topic, thus creating an opportunity to discuss numbers. If possible, a fish tank with aquatic life would help to emphasize the message of the lesson in relationship to the environment. The discussion of numbers would be based upon the premise of 'how many'. Children would be asked the question of how many animals they learned about, how many ways animals breath, and how many differences can be seen between those animals living in the water and those animals living on land. Each time a number is found, the teacher will write it on the board so that it can be seen by the students. Through counting how many, the students will begin to grasp the concept of quantifying what they learn. Children can use the tangible objects within the book to advance their understanding of quantity and counting 'how many'. Quantity is an important part of understanding both addition and subtraction. This lesson would provide a precursor to the lessons that will follow which will discuss the ideas of adding and subtracting objects from one another. Through this lesson, children will gain the first step towards beginning their journey into understanding quantity as it relates to numbers. Learning the numbers is a vital first step in beginning their education in mathematics as they begin to explore the world in relationship to the numbers that they know. Lesson 2 - The Desert Wadsworth, G., & Carrozza, J. (1997). Desert discoveries. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. Lesson three once again explores the idea of how many. Through an examination of the desert environment, Wadsworth and Carozza (1997) provide an overview of thirteen animals that live in the desert. The book provides information on what they eat, how they live, and what is important for them within their life in the desert. In order to create an understanding of the desert, the lesson would involve a discussion of what other animals the children know of that live in the desert. The discussion would also take on the aspects of the previously learned concepts as comparisons between the ocean and the desert life would create context for understanding the idea of different living environments. If possible, a terrarium with a lizard and landscaping that was desert like would add to the overall lesson especially if placed next to the aquarium. If it is possible to include an animal component to the development of the lesson, it would be a beneficial element in relating the literature to the concepts that are introduced in relationship to the environment. One of the first lessons in relationship to numbers that can be taught would be to count the ways in which the desert is different to the ocean. As children begin to explore the differences in the environment, the relationship between the two begins to offer the children an opportunity to understand how numbers are relevant to investigations about planet life. Numbering the differences and the similarities will provide the children with a way to use numbers in a meaninful way. One of the ways to increase this knowledge would be to have the children create a story about one aquatic animal and one desert living animal and how the two become friends. In the story, the children allow the animals to do the comparisons that they had discussed during the second part of the lesson. Lesson 3 The Shoemaker and the Elves - The Village Tiersch - Allen, D. (2007). Shoemaker and Elves-Numbers: Learning with Literature. New York: EdCon Publishing Group. This book is an interactive work in which the story of The Shoemaker and the Elves is told which then leads to a series of coloring pages through which the use of numbers in conjuntion with the book create exercises that help to learn numbers. The story is told in a version of the fairytale which is simplified a bit and appropriate for children who would be of an age to qualify for this program. The book can be used to tell the story and to allow childrne to work with numbers through an art experience. While the book can be used without interaction with the teacher, creating an art experience while working with the book would benefit the learning experience. One of the important factors in including this book into the theme of environment and numbers is to establish that the shoemaker lives in a village or town through discussing what it means to be someone who works in a shop. The initial portion of the experience would be to have the teacher read the story to the children. The environment that is discussed is the idea of a village or town. The students note the differences between living in a city and living in the ocean or the desert. The book could be taken apart and different numbers given into groups for the children. As they work with the pictures, artworks that could include a variety of materials could be encouraged, each telling a portion of the story in relationship to the numbers that have been given to the individual groups. As an example, there are two elves in the story. Children could be encouraged to use their page as an example of creating a work of art that shows two elves and highlighting the number two. An important aspect of the learning experience would be to have pre-made numbers cut of construction paper that can be used by the children. Lesson 4 - The Sky Ewing, S., & Zerbetz, E. (2005). Ten rowdy ravens. Portland, Or.: Alaska Northwest Books. This final lesson will focus on subtraction. The book Ten Rowdy Ravens is about the decrease of one as the poetry of the work shows that as each event occurs, one raven is subtracted from the group. The book continues through the events of that take away each individual raven, allowing the audience of the book to see the effect of subtraction. The teacher can use a visual reference that shows the importance of how the absence of something is a valuable concept. The book has a very nice poem that tells the story, allowing for rhythm to be used to teach the information that is being discussed. Because it is a rhythmic lesson, it might be useful to use a drum to balance out the recitation of the story. The use of sound can be used to emphasize the numbers, using less sound as fewer ravens remain. This can be used as a beat, as a counting of the strikes on the drum, or simply as a method of creating a background for the poem. Providing a musical componenet to the lesson will help the children to remember what they have learned through meaningful referencing. If a song can be created from the poem that too would add to the overall experience of learning about subtraction as one is subtracted repeatedly until there are none. Using a secondary reference to show less would provide for a longer memory of the lesson. In addition, ravens cut from black construction paper could be hung across a string by clothes clips and as each raven disappears, the raven could be pulled to leave less. This type of visual reference will allow the children to count the number of ravens left, giving the teacher a moment to create a system in which they can count how many are gone and how many remain. This will create a system of subtraction that has the auditory and visual reinforcement that is needed to hold information like this over time. Lesson 5 - The Rainforest Davis, R. F. (2007). More or less: A rain forest counting book. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press. Lesson four is about the animals in a rainforest. The book that is chosen for this lesson begins the discussion about adding and subtracting using the concept of more and less. The book is designed to read about these particular aspects of math, allowing for pictures of different quantities of animals to become counted as to whether there are a higher number of one type of animal in comparison to the other. The book provides for a number of different concepts to emerge as the animals in the forest are explored, the environment of the forest, and the idea of which pictures have more animals than the other. Through real life pictures of animals, the children can begin to recognize these animals and their surroundings in a real world application. As they count which ones represent more and which represent less, they begin to see how number relates to living examples. After going through the book and teaching about which is more and which is less, an interactive game can be played so that children can begin to count which is more and which is less, showing how when some are added to a pile, it begins to have more, where when taken away it has less. The teacher can craft some simple butterflies out of construction paper and put them in a box. Randomly making piles of these butterflies allows for groups of children to count them, determining which group has more than the other. Trading the butterflies to other groups, perhaps through the toss of a die, can provide for showing how increases and decreases will make a difference in whether a group has more or less. As the children begin to trade butterflies, creating different quantities and understanding which piles are bigger and which are smaller, elements of addition and subtraction can be introduced. As the teacher asks what happens when three are added to a pile of six, as an example, they can count out that there are now nine. References Anderson, S. (2011). What can live in the ocean?. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications. Davis, R. F. (2007). More or less: A rain forest counting book. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press. Ewing, S., & Zerbetz, E. (2005). Ten rowdy ravens. Portland, Or.: Alaska Northwest Books. Tiersch - Allen, D. (2007). Shoemaker and Elves-Numbers: Learning with Literature. New York: EdCon Publishing Group. Wadsworth, G., & Carrozza, J. (1997). Desert discoveries. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. Read More