Math

Language and science seem to come naturally to me, but I often filled in my math column last when doing lesson plans. It also seems to be my least intuitive area when I just let learning flow throughout the day (with my new approach of gently guiding towards large goals using certain materials but no preplanned activities). This surprises me a little since I enjoyed it in school (up until my junior year of high school when I felt like I never really got the concepts, despite my decent grades).

I discovered today that I'm not doing so bad after all when I read this post on math goals for kindergarten. We're nowhere near counting to 100, but Raccoon is familiar with many of the ideas on the list (red are the least familiar to him). What a relief.

Curious?

This is the list:

count 1-100, by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s
count backwards 10-1
use and understand a number line, hundred chart, ten frame {identify numbers before & after}
estimate number of objects {20 or less}
sorting by multiple attributes {color, shape, size, etc}
patterns
basic addition and subtraction {understand +, -, and = symbols}
basic story problems
plane shapes ~ square, circle, oval, triangle, rectangle, octagon, hexagon {and more}
3D shapes ~sphere, rectangular prism, cylinder, cone {and more}
basic understanding of fractions {half, quarter, third}
basic understanding of symmetry
identify penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar
order by size, length, weight, amount
ordinal numbers to 1st-10th
graphing up to 10 {analyzing graph}
write numbers up to 20
read number words up to ten
positional words
basic understanding of telling time to the hour
understands time of day {morning, afternoon, evening, etc}
basic calendar skills {days, months}
basic understanding of temperature