Early Childhood Education and Care Mathematical Tasks Report

This report focuses on mathematical tasks in early childhood education and care, emphasizing the significance of early numeracy development. It explores various processes and activities suitable for teaching mathematics to children aged five and under, highlighting the importance of making learning attractive through games and engaging activities. The report includes a detailed numeracy learning plan designed for a group of five children, outlining objectives, materials, and effective teaching strategies such as cooperative learning, hands-on approaches, and play-based methods. The conclusion underscores the vital role of early childhood education in fostering critical thinking and calculation skills, emphasizing the need for educators to employ engaging methods to facilitate effective learning. References include research on developing numeracy skills, educator roles, and the impact of early childhood education.

Early Childhood Education and Care
Mathematical tasks
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Part A..........................................................................................................................................................2
Part B...........................................................................................................................................................3
Numeracy learning plan...........................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
Early childhood education and care play the vital role in the development of children. The
primary purpose of the paper is to understand the various process and activities that are essential
for providing mathematics teaching to the children of 5 years and below of age. The paper will
also provide the numeracy learning plan for the children to develop their knowledge in term of
mathematics.
Part A
Education in the early childhood is highly effective within the children to build their knowledge
and their activity in the field. The reading from chapter 2 provides the view on the way to
understand the number as well as the counting process. The very first step in the mathematical
learning is to understand the numbers along with the counting process. It is one of the most
effective practices for the children in their early days (Aizikovitsh-Udi, & Cheng, 2015). Being a
teacher the most crucial activity is to make the education especially the mathematics education
suitable and attractive for the children of five years is quite challenging. Making the children
aware of the numbers is a tough job but this can be efficiently done with the help of game and
other activities. Further, in the process of child education, chapter 4 provides the valuable
knowledge regarding the number and even for using the number (Tucker, 2014). It helps to make
the children aware of the number and even make it accessible for the children. Before providing
education to the children it is essential to growing their natural interest in the mathematics.
Mathematics is one of the interesting subject that could be easily learned with some techniques
and activity. Educating the children under 5 years require patient and skill of performing
numerous activity to attract the children.
The reading from MacDonald (2018) shows the chapter 6 which provides the view on educator
roles in the mathematics education. It shows that the educator has an effective role within the
process of teaching to the children because a small child is unable to learn things on their own
and for that, they required a suitable teacher. Mathematics is the subject which has the core basic
as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These four are the core principle of
mathematics and for the entire life and in every action these are highly required. Teaching this
concept to the children of 5 years or below is quite challenging (Ma, Shen, Krenn, Hu, & Yuan,
2016). This is due to the fact that children cannot learn these symbol or number or their activity
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on their own and for that, some fun game, storytelling process and other activities are required to
make them understand about mathematics (Developing early numeracy skills, 2018). For
example; once I was teaching a small kid of 4 years old about the numbers and the addition
symbol. In this, I have demonstrated the kid with a live example regarding addition and numbers
to make them understand the process. When it comes to kids that also a child of 3-5 years the
most vital thing is to have patience and understand their learning capacity. Most of the children
can easily capture everything they saw or hear but there are also some children who required to
demonstrate the activities in mathematics with the help of practical demonstration and the
process of storytelling.
Part B
Numeracy learning plan
Age group: birth to 5 years of children
Number of children: 5 children
Rationale: mathematics is the process which helps to make sense of the information that the
experience along with the idea by engaging the student to think creatively, effectively as well as
logically. Numeracy learning allows the student to make their base strong for the future
development and also help them to calculate and find anything that is deep down in mathematics.
EYLF learning outcome: the children will have the strong sense of identity then they will be
connected to the world and also contribute their learning to the world (EYLF Learning
Outcomes, 2015). Then the other learning outcome are; children have the confidence and get
involved with the learners, children also became effective communicators.
Objectives: The objectives of numeracy learnings are;
 To make the children aware of the numbers and the numeric terms
 To educate the children for better future
 To make the base of the children strong regarding mathematics which will help them to
think critically and connect to the world
Materials or equipment: The major equipment or the material for the pre-school math learning
activity are as follows;
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 Select the place for providing the learning education to the children of 5 years and below
 Select the furniture that will effectively provide comfortable learning process for the
children (Elango, García, Heckman, & Hojman, 2015)
 Counting toys, number boards, number game, dice, abacus, and counters are essential for
the children of 5 years and below to make them learn maths and numeric values
 Manipulative set, then pegboards, lacing beads and puzzles will be required
 Measuring tape then pocket calendars, dressing boards and other products that will make
the student happy and keep them attractive to achieve their attention
Learning experience process and teaching strategies: Teaching strategy is the most essential
part while dealing with the children below 5 years of age. Some of the teaching strategies that
could be utilised by the teachers are; cooperative learning, then hands-on approach and the play
method learning (Sullivan, & Bers, 2016). The process of play method learning is the most
effective as children get easily attracted towards the playing activity and they feel connected with
the activity and education that has been provided within the classroom. Furthermore, the teachers
can perform drama to their students and practically demonstrate them the numerical value and
the process of addition, subtraction, and multiplication and division practice to the children.
Conclusion
The paper concludes the fact that early childhood education is essential for the develop net of
children future and also their skill in term of critical thinking and calculation. The paper also
provides the fact that teachers need to use the effective and attractive process to deal with the
children and provide them with suitable learning skill.
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References
Aizikovitsh-Udi, E., & Cheng, D. (2015). Developing critical thinking skills from dispositions to
abilities: Mathematics education from early childhood to high school. Creative
Education, 6(04), 455.
Developing early numeracy skills. (2018). Raising Children Network. Retrieved 29 September
2018, from https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/play-learning/learning-ideas/early-
numeracy
Elango, S., García, J. L., Heckman, J. J., & Hojman, A. (2015). Early childhood education (No.
w21766). National Bureau of Economic Research.
EYLF Learning Outcomes - Aussie Childcare Network. (2015). Aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au.
Retrieved 29 September 2018, from
https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-programming/eylf-learning-
outcomes
Ma, X., Shen, J., Krenn, H. Y., Hu, S., & Yuan, J. (2016). A meta-analysis of the relationship
between learning outcomes and parental involvement during early childhood education
and early elementary education. Educational Psychology Review, 28(4), 771-801.
Macdonald, A. (2018). Mathematics In Early Childhood Education. Oxford University Press.
Sullivan, A., & Bers, M. U. (2016). Robotics in the early childhood classroom: learning
outcomes from an 8-week robotics curriculum in pre-kindergarten through second
grade. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 26(1), 3-20.
Tucker, K. (2014). Mathematics through play in the early years. Sage.
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