Using video resources to engage early childhood educators can be a powerful way to support attention to the details of children’s mathematical thinking. This also creates discussions on how to craft learning experiences that support children’s math learning.
View these newly collected videos recently added to the DREME Teacher Educator website, featuring examples from Transitional Kindergarten classrooms and classrooms where children participate in both English and Spanish. We hope that teacher educators find these videos useful to use in a variety of teacher learning settings. Stay tuned for more videos to be added later this fall.
Note: The list is organized by the math content most highlighted in the video. The video, however, may feature other kinds of math content as children often engage with a variety of math ideas within one interaction.
Overview
- Storytime with the Three Little Pigs Let’s watch a video from a preschool classroom where children are consistently invited to draw upon their variety of linguistic resources. On this day, a guest teacher is leading a discussion of a popular story these children know well about a wolf, pigs, and a house made of bricks. How might this video highlight important ideas about supporting multilingual children? This video comes in both Spanish and English.
Counting
- Gustavo Counts and Organizes by Color Preschooler Gustavo counts a collection of colorful blocks. What do you notice about Gustavo’s choices about counting and organizing? This video comes in both Spanish and English.
- Knox and Nora Count and Represent Knox and Nora are children in a classroom regularly engaged in Counting Collections. Here is a short video clip highlighting the work that Knox and Nora are doing as they count and represent their collections at a table together, without an adult present.
- Ms. Rawcliffe supports a Counting Collections “Strategy Share” After children have counted and represented their collections, one common practice is for teachers to facilitate a “strategy share” so that children may share their work and engage with others’ ideas. In the following clip, you will see Ms. Rawcliffe support Sophia to share her counting representation and the whole class to engage in her process of counting and representing.
- Ella Represents her collection on Paper Ella has counted a collection of pom-poms and is now representing the collection on a piece of paper. What do you notice about how Ella represents her collection?
- Using representations to support reflection and assessment Ms. Alvarez’s 4- and 5- year olds regularly engage in counting and representing their collections on paper. In this video, Ms. Alvarez sits down with Ella and chats with her about the recording she completed moments earlier, as well as some of her previously completed representations. This conversation highlights a variety of important ideas that can emerge as teachers purposefully follow-up on children’s counting and representing.
Spatial Relations
- Communicating spatial relationships with objects, words, and gestures In this clip, we see a group of four children building a home with wooden blocks. As children build, they negotiate ways to share the blocks and communicate with each other as they play. Ella, in particular, perseveres to communicate her plan to rebuild the roof.
Operations
- Preschooler Gustavo Counts and Shares Galletas Preschool student Gustavo counts a collection of 17 cubes and shares the cubes with teacher Karen. They pretend the cubes are galletas (cookies). This video is entirely in Spanish.
- Debbie & Brayton Set Up a Garden Party Finding opportunities to enrich and extend the mathematics from children’s play is an intentional focus for Ms. Franchi, who teaches 4- and 5-year olds. Watch as she engages Debbie and Brayton, who have been playfully setting up a backyard garden party next to the dollhouse. This video comes in both Spanish and English.
- Leveraging a Data Context to Support Operations Ms. Torres has facilitated a data activity where her preschoolers choose which insect they prefer. Butterfly and praying mantis each received 10 votes! Later during the same activity, Ruby has changed her mind from praying mantis to butterfly;others also want to move themselves! Watch as Ms. Torres invites children to engage with the changing quantities in each category.
Measurement & Data
- A Data Activity about Insects Ms. Torres engages her 3- and 4-year old preschoolers in a data activity where children respond to the question “Which insect do you prefer?” and choose between a butterfly and praying mantis. Watch as children add their names to the representation, wonder about others’ choices, and engage with each other in comparing the groups of responses.
