Professional Learning Goals

• We developed lessons that taught our students a deeper understanding of the relationship between decomposing shapes and numbers
• We valued the importance of teaching students mathematical language and reminding ourselves with visuals, the language the students need to hear frequently
• We collaborated with kindergarten teams from three different schools, as well as our own teaching partners in our schools
• We have improved specific learning resources, learned what to do with available resources and purchased materials to further our own learning as well as the students

Activities and Resources

• Professional reading (purchased reading materials)
• Met three half-days as a team
• Used some of the findings to create math kits for each school
• Pre-assessment and discussion to determine prior knowledge among three classes in three different schools
• Discussed results, moderated to assess and analyze student understanding or misconceptions
• Used data to devise three-part math lessons and provocations
• Learned through play- (provocations, invitations) and small group-focused instruction

Unexpected Challenges

We know that time was our biggest challenge. We needed time to meet together and to read, research and plan.  We met with an elementary mathematics facilitator from our board who helped us with our next challenge of where to begin.

Other challenges:

• Researching resources, resource suppliers and the most economical way to spend our money
• Adapting our plan and schedules to make this work out best for all the members of the team
• Realizing our money would be well-spent on much needed resources and that meeting times would be after school and on weekends
• Realizing that this project would be best fit into the two-year kindergarten program, rather than during one school year

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

We predict that focused, specific instruction in spatial sense will enhance student knowledge and understanding of the part/whole understanding in numeracy. We also expect that this knowledge may translate into better problem-solving as their understanding of both number sense and spatial sense is expanded. By using the math terminology and having students being able to name their learning and to explain their thinking, they will then be better able to visualize their learning, look at numbers in different ways, and be able to solve equations using a variety of tools (10 frames, pictures, number representations: dice, dominoes, etc.).

Sharing

Our target audience is the kindergarten teaching staff at our own schools. We have shared our project with the staff during half-day math workshops, staff meetings and informal grade partner meetings after school. We have presented and shared our findings, lessons and hands-on activities.

Project Evaluation

We feel that we have been very successful with our project. We have realized that this project is not yet complete.  We have concluded this year by looking at our post-project interview scores with our 10 selected students. We have seen growth in students’ abilities to decompose and recompose numbers and name their own learning through play- and small group-focused instruction. We hear students talking about the learning more specifically using language related to geometry: subitizing, line of symmetry, using shape names, and direction words.

We have increased professional conversations about the importance and pervasiveness of geometry in the kindergarten program. We have an increased understanding of the importance of using specific language.