Math (MATH)
The MATH domain assesses children’s development of knowledge and skill in mathematics. This includes areas such as spatial thinking, classification, number and counting, number operations, and measurement.
Meet Elliot Sage,
Ambassador for Math!
Elliot Sage began walking to the stage, focused and ready to talk about his favorite subject – math, when he suddenly turned around and headed in the opposite direction! Everyone gasped. Was he lost? Was he nervous? Was he sick?
Elliot was the kind of person who walked with purpose, as he always had a lot on his mind – like how many puzzle pieces are in a box or how many banana slices are on top of his cereal, or how many kids can be on the slide at the same time. The answer is one! Only one kid at a time on the slide!
“Elliot, the microphone is the other way!” said Emery in her loud whisper voice that wasn’t a whisper at all. “It’s normal to be nervous, but everyone is so excited and you’re going to do great!”
Elliot nodded, “I’m fine! I have an idea! I mean, I am the Ambassador for Math, so let’s do some math!”
Elliot started back at the curtain and faced the audience, and in the most surprising, commanding voice, posed the question, “How many steps to the microphone? Let’s shout it and count it!”
The crowd went wild! One classmate yelled out, “100 gazillion steps!” and everyone laughed, because that was an overestimate, not an educated guess based on spatial thinking and measurement.
Then his teacher stood up, smiled kindly, and asked a very simple, but smart question. “Elliot, may we get an idea of how big your steps will be? On your way to the microphone, will you take tiny steps or giant steps or something in between?
Elliot beamed a proud smile. She was a very smart teacher. “That is the right first question. I will take giant steps like this!” Elliot took one giant step to demonstrate and then the kids were shouting all kinds of guesses.
“Count and shout!”
Elliot took the first step, and they all joined in for the counting. “One, two, three, four…” As it turned out, it was 20 Elliot-sized giant steps to the microphone from the curtain. The Shout and Count idea was a good one and Elliot was very proud.
When Elliot reached the microphone he said, “Hello, I’m Elliot Sage, Ambassador for Math. Math is my favorite subject! Some of my friends say they don’t like math, but how can you say that because math is in everything we do!"
“Math is in the 20 steps across this stage, or 5 small bites to finish a cookie – or 2 bites if you’re my dad, or 10 boxes in a game of hopscotch, or how much bigger my dad’s shoes are on my small feet. Math is in how many pancakes to make for breakfast if we all want 2 pancakes each, or how many crayons are in a box or how many stars are in the sky! Math is everything and everywhere!”
Then Elliot stood up very straight, making himself just a tiny bit taller, looked at the clock and whispered in the mic, “And math…is in the 8 minutes left until…RECESS!”
The cheers were so loud, Elliot had to cover his ears as he took a bow.
Math is everything, everywhere!
The End.
(Or rather, infinite, in mathematical terms of something that is continuous, boundless, and limitless, like these stories.)
Math Progression
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Infant-Toddler |
Preschool |
School-Age |
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Spacial Thinking |
Elliot stacks and moves large foam blocks around himself, crawling around the spaces he creates. |
Elliot turns and rotates different puzzle pieces while trying to fit them into the puzzle board. After moving one piece around several times, he places it correctly. |
Elliot and his classmates use graph paper to plan a model playground with ramps, slides, and walkways. As they are planning Elliot, tells his classmates, “The slide has to go here so there’s enough space for the swing.” |
|
Numbers & Counting |
During snack time, Elliot points to the banana slices on his plate as his teacher counts aloud, “One, two, three.” Elliot repeats, “Two!” while picking up another piece. |
Elliot counts the blocks from 1-10 while building a city during small group time. |
Elliot skip-counts by 5s and 10s, all the way to 100 during his math lesson. |
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Measurement |
Elliot picks up a large stick and then a smaller stick. He holds them next to each other and shows his teacher. |
Elliot helps make muffins by using a measuring cup to pour ingredients into a bowl. When the teacher asks if they need more flour, Elliot looks at the measuring cup and says, “It has to go to the top line first.” |
Elliot uses measuring cups to follow a recipe for pancakes. After accidentally adding too much milk to the batter, he notices it becomes runny and adds more flour to make it thicker. |
