What is Everyday Mathematics”?

 

veryday Mathematics is the elementary component of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, which is a long-term project designed to improve mathematics at all grade levels. Reports from international studies show U.S. students are learning much less mathematics than students in many other countries.  For too many years we have ignored the actual capabilities of our children. We have not taken advantage of children’s rich store of mathematical understanding, information, and creativity. Everyday Mathematics will give your child a wide range of mathematical experiences and ideas.

 

Some Key Components of Everyday Math are:

  

·         It is a spiraling curriculum. This means that specific concepts is taught five times in two years, giving your child many opportunities to grasps the idea when developmentally ready to do so. For example, multiplication concepts are introduced in Kindergarten and First grade with skip counting.  In second grade, through building arrays, and focused in depth in third grade. Your child has many exposures to the concepts before mastery is expected.

 

·         Children are involved in sharing ideas through discussions. Children gain important mathematical insights by building discoveries. This promotes good listening habits and a receptive attitude toward the ideas of others. Children are constantly talking about how they solved a problem and what they are thinking mathematically. By discussing their thoughts, they are clarifying their learning.

 

·         Children work cooperatively with classmates. They learn to work as a team, which emphasizes cooperation rather than competition. They solve problems based on real-life situations.

 

·         Children will be learning much more than arithmetic skills. Children are involved in activities focusing on numeration, counting, operations, relations, problem solving, mental arithmetic, data collection and analysis, geometry, measures and reference frames, money and rules, and patterns.

 

Kindergarten Goals

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• Counting 20 or more objects
• Interrupted verbal counting beyond 100
• Counting backward from beyond 22
• County by 2s beyond 30
• Counting by 5s beyond 110
• Counting by 10s beyond 110
• Reading any number, 100 or less
• Writing any number, 100 or less
• Understanding the meaning of addition and subtraction
• Understanding the meaning of division, at least as equal sharing
• Understanding equivalence (6 as 2+4, 5+1, 7-1)
• Estimation
• Performing simple data collection and graphing
• Using basic geometry concepts (naming basic figures, plane and solid)
• Using calculators (counting with repeat key, making and reading larger numbers)