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Play and the Common Core
It all adds up
learning early math through play and games
Common Core
Playing and learning
mathematics do not have to be
mutually exclusive, especially in
kindergarten classrooms.
By geetha B. Ramani and Sarah H. Eason
A recent study has found that a quarter of teachers surveyed reported
that there is no time for free play in their kindergarten classrooms (Miller
& Almon, 2009). This sentiment is likely linked to increasing pressure
for young children to have a strong foundation in literacy and mathematics in kindergarten and 1st grade, particularly with the implementation
of the Common Core State Standards. Consequently, playtime has decreased and has been replaced with academically focused activities and
lessons. For instance, one report indicated that for every 30 minutes
of free play, many kindergartners are engaged in two to three hours
of lessons and test prep (Miller & Almon, 2009). However, time spent
learning foundational skills, especially in mathematics, and time spent
playing don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Play and games can give
young children opportunities to learn and develop foundational math
skills that are aligned with Common Core standards.
Play to promote foundational math skills
The time children spend playing with peers, toys, and games can be
time to learn new skills, practice their existing abilities, and build their
interests, especially in mathematics. The Common Core emphasizes
that kindergarten math lessons should focus on two areas: representing, relating, and operating on whole numbers, and describing shapes
and space. These areas will lay a strong foundation for 1st through 3rd
grade when children perform operations with numbers, discuss place
values, and reason about geometric shapes. While many of these mathgEETHA B. RAMANI ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and
Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, where SARAH H. EASON is a doctoral candidate in
human development.
Photo: Thinkstock/iStock
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kappanmagazine.org 27
ematics skills need to be explicitly taught, including
playful activities and games in the early education
curriculum can give children opportunities to practice their numeracy and spatial skills. For example,
children can practice counting skills when playing
with pretend money, spatial skills when putting together a puzzle, and geometry when building with
blocks.
Figure 1.
The number and color linear board
games.
Number board game
Children can practice counting skills
when playing with pretend money,
spatial skills when putting together a
puzzle, and geometry when building
Color board game
with blocks.
*
Deepen your
understanding of
this article with
questions and
activities in this
month’s Kappan
Professional
Development
Discussion Guide
by Lois Brown
Easton. Download
a PDF of the
guide at kappan
magazine.org.
28 Kappan
Our own research provides support for the benefits
of play for children’s early development in each of
these areas. In the area of numeracy, we examined
whether playing a linear number-based board game,
similar to the bottom row of Chutes and Ladders,
could improve the numerical knowledge of preschool children (Ramani & Siegler, 2008; Siegler
& Ramani, 2008). The design of this game is ideal
because it provides multiple cues to both the order
of numbers and numbers’ magnitudes or how big
and small numbers are in relation to one another.
(See Figure 1.)
In our studies, preschoolers from Head Start classrooms either played the linear numerical board game
with squares numbered from 1 to 10 or a color board
game that was identical, except for the squares varying in colors rather than numbers. Children were
told to say the number (color) on each space as they
moved. For example, children who were on 3 and
spun a 2 would say, “4, 5” as they moved their token. Children played one of the two games one-onone with an experimenter for four 15- to 20-minute
sessions distributed over a two-week period. After
playing the number board game, children showed
improvements in their numerical knowledge of
the numbers from 1-10, specifically in their verbal
counting skills, identification of Arabic numerals,
and their understanding of numerical magnitudes.
These improvements were stable over time: After
nine weeks of not having played the board game, improvements on all four tasks remained stable. Children who played the identical color version of the
game did not show comparable improvements. We
have found similar results when the game is played
May 2015
with younger preschool children from middle-income backgrounds (Ramani & Siegler, 2011).
Board game activities can be easily used in classroom settings because they’re ideal for math centers or small-group activities. Based on this idea, we
trained paraprofessionals (teacher’s assistants) from
Head Start children’s classrooms to play the linear
number game with small groups of children. During a one-hour training session, paraprofessionals
were shown the board game materials, given a booklet with the rules for the games and scripts for how
to explain the games, and watched a demonstration
video of children playing the board games.
Playing the number board game in a small group
supervised by a paraprofessional from the classroom
improved children’s numerical knowledge. Observations of the game sessions revealed that board games
could be a way for teachers to scaffold and assist
children’s learning about numbers. For example,
paraprofessionals adapted the feedback they provided to the children based on children’s numerical
knowledge (Ramani, Siegler, & Hitti, 2012). Thus,
the linear number board game can be used to promote the numerical knowledge of children from a
range of knowledge and skill levels and can be used
effectively in preschool classrooms.
An ideal play activity for promoting early geometric and spatial sense is block building. Playing with
blocks, a popular activity found in most early child-
hood classrooms, can contribute to children’s spatial
reasoning, knowledge of geometric shapes, numerical knowledge, and problem-solving skills (Kamii,
Miyakawa, & Kato, 2004; Ness & Faranga, 2007;
Reifel & Greenfield, 1982). Building with blocks not
only engages individual students but also groups of
students, especially when block building takes the
form of guided play — fun activities structured to
provide opportunities for exploration and learning (Weisberg, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2013).
Guided play can be used in early childhood classrooms to engage children in play activities that can
connect to the curriculum and promote learning.
Studies have found that teaching children through
guided play can be more effective than didactic instruction because it encourages children to take on
an active role in their exploration (Alfieri, Brooks,
Aldrich, & Tenenbaum, 2011; Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek,
Newcombe, & Golinkoff, 2013).
In a recent study, we examined 4- and 5-year-old
same-age, same-sex pairs of children during a guided
play block building activity (Ramani, Zippert, Schweitzer, & Pan, 2014). Children were instructed to
build a house with large colorful blocks that included
features of a house, such as a door and rooms, but
the children were given no specific directions about
how to complete it. Children’s communication and
building behaviors during the interactions were examined, as well as the role of their coordinated behavior in the structures they built. We found that
peers engaged in discussion with one another about
the design of the structure, symbolic meanings of
the blocks, and the spatial relations of the blocks’
placements. Additionally, children’s spatial talk was
associated with the features of a house included in
structures. This suggests that encouraging guided,
cooperative block play activities in early childhood
classrooms gives children opportunities to practice
and expand their language, math, and spatial skills.
Playing with blocks can contribute to
children’s spatial reasoning, knowledge
of geometric shapes, numerical
knowledge, and problem-solving skills.
Incorporating math play
Despite the benefits of incorporating play in math
lessons, teachers can find this difficult to do because
of the numerous concepts and skills they feel pressured to cover during the short time allocated for
mathematics. One strategy that can help increase
the amount of play incorporated into early childhood math classes is to educate preservice teachers
on the merits of using games that align with Common Core standards as a way for children to build
their foundational math skills. In the Department of
Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland, College Park, our
undergraduate major certifies students to teach in
early childhood classrooms (K-3). During the program’s course on mathematics learning and instrucV96 N8
kappanmagazine.org 29
tion, we emphasize how teachers can use games as
supplements for math lessons and as interventions
for struggling students (Taylor-Cox, 2009). Every
week, we discuss activities and games that could be
used for instruction in different areas of mathematics, such as counting, place value, geometry, and
fractions.
One assignment for the course requires preservice
teachers to develop a game that would help students
gain math knowledge and then implement the game
in their internship classrooms. The assignment requires that preservice teachers include specific connections to the Common Core, directions for the
games, the name of the game, and the necessary
materials for students to play the game in a small
group or at a math center. The preservice teachers
designed creative, attractive, and engaging games for
students to practice a range of skills from counting, identifying numerals, and arithmetic, as well
Figure 2.
Place Value Detectives
as building conceptual understanding in areas such
as place value and numerical magnitude comparisons (i.e., greater than and less than comparisons).
For example, in Place Value Detectives (Figure 2),
2nd-grade students were read “clues” about numbers and their values, such as numbers written in
their expanded forms (e.g., I have two hundreds, zero
tens, and seven ones). Students were then required
to cover the corresponding numeral on a mat and
shout, “Case solved!” when they had covered all of
their numbers.
Many preservice teachers built in ways to differentiate the game for students. In Playground Math
(Figure 3), kindergartners practiced their one-toone correspondence counting skills and their numeral identification skills by drawing cards that had
varied numbers of items on them (e.g., 5 ladybugs).
Students would then move their piece to the next
corresponding space with that numeral. For more
advanced students, separate cards depicted arithmetic problems with pictures of items (4 flowers +
3 flowers). These students would move their game
piece to the corresponding spot that had the answer
to the arithmetic problem.
Discussing how to use games and play in class is
not only beneficial for young students but also beneficial for many of the preservice teachers. Preservice
teachers were required to discuss how each game
aligned with a Common Core math standard, reflect
on the success of the implementation of the game in
a classroom, and discuss which aspects of the game
they would change when they use them again. Further, demonstrating to preservice teachers that math
can include engaging games and activities may reduce their anxiety and get them excited to teach the
subject. In general, many of the preservice teachers
began the semester feeling very anxious about teaching math to students because of their own previous
negative experiences with math. At the end of the
semester, one preservice teacher said, “I don’t feel
like it [math] is a scary subject to teach anymore. The
word math means creativity, fun, and exploration!”
Recommendations for teachers
Place Value Detectives is a board game designed for
2nd graders. Students identify a number on the mat
based on a clue (e.g., “I have two hundreds, zero
tens, and seven ones” or “I am greater than 120 but
less than 170.”). This game helps students meet the
Common Core math standards in counting, number
identification, arithmetic, concepts of place value,
and magnitude comparisons.
—Margarita Guerrero
30 Kappan
May 2015
How can teachers bring more playful math activities into their classrooms? We outline five suggestions:
#1. Seek out playful curricula.
In addition to incorporating individual play activities
in the classroom, more comprehensive curricula for
improving preschoolers’ and kindergartners’ mathematical knowledge that include play have also shown
positive effects. Many of these programs integrate
informal learning activities and play with direct classroom instruction. One such curriculum is Building
Figure 3.
Playground Math
Playground Math is designed for kindergarten students. Students draw a card, move a game piece to a number
spot on a board that matches the quantity of objects on a card. Cards for beginner students depict one group
of objects; advanced cards show arithmetic problems (see above, right). This game helps students meet the
Common Core math standard on one-to-one correspondence counting and number identification.
—Katrina Wetzel
Blocks (Clements & Sarama, 2008), which includes
classroom activities, small group activities, and computer games. Research suggests that preschoolers
given the Building Blocks curriculum made much
greater progress than a control group in numeracy,
geometry, measurement, and recognition of patterns. Other playful curricula to consider are Number Worlds (Griffin, 2004) and Big Math Little Kids
(Greenes, Ginsburg, & Balfanz, 2004).
#2. Think outside the (game) box.
As described above, games provide excellent opportunities for children to practice their newly acquired
or developing math skills. While some teachers may
easily find some creative inspiration for developing
their own games, it is not necessary to reinvent the
wheel. Many existing board games and card games
have the potential to tie into math concepts. We encourage teachers to think about how they can adapt
familiar games to emphasize the Common Core
math standards. For example, when playing the
popular game Candyland, children could use dice,
instead of the colored cards typically used, to move
their token around the board. Using dice can help
children practice their counting skills and build their
understanding of the relations between numbers and
quantities.
#3. What happens in math class . . . doesn’t have
to stay in math class.
While there may be a time in the school day carved
out to focus on math, there is no reason math activities have to end there. Teachers can encourage math
talk and mathematical thinking during play as well as
during lessons in other domains. Children are more
likely to want to participate in math activities when
they see that it’s meaningful for what they are engaged in (Sarama & Clements, 2008). Set up some
centers during free play to elicit math and number
talk. One possibility could be to add extra materials to existing activities and centers during free play
to elicit math and number talk. For instance, when
setting up a pretend grocery store, go beyond just
having a cash register and pretend food, and include
items such as a balance scale and price tags to put on
the food. Teachers also can integrate mathematics
into language arts class by discussing and building
on the math content in many children’s books. For
example, the popular book Caps for Sale by Esphyr
Slobodkina could be extended to a math lesson on
money that involves discussing the values of the hats
or a lesson about sorting and creating graphs based
on the characteristics of the hats.
#4. Peers are a valuable resource.
During games or free play, children also have opportunities to be exposed to math through their classmates. Teachers can help enable this by identifying
cooperative activities where there is motivation for
children to think and talk about math, such as asking
students to figure out how to equally allocate supplies for an art project among all children at a table.
Teachers also can be mindful about pairing students:
If you observe some children who tend to engage in
more math talk or demonstrate more advanced math
skills, pairing them with children who are less advanced in their mathematical understanding gives a
less-advanced child an opportunity to learn through
observations and interactions with a more advanced
partner (Tudge, Winterhoff, & Hogan, 1996).
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kappanmagazine.org 31
#5. Engage parents, and make connections
between the classroom and home.
The home numeracy environment is a significant
contributor to children’s early math skills (Niklas &
Schneider, 2014), and teachers can help parents find
ways to engage children in playful math activities
that complement the classroom curriculum. Teachers could include parents in a family game night at
school and provide guidance for how parents can talk
about math while playing games. Another possibility
would be to send children home with a mathematical
scavenger hunt to complete with a family member,
based on everyday applications of topics being covered in math at school, such as comparing the cost
of items at the grocery store or measuring the length
of different pieces of furniture at home. K
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