Creating Children’s Books and Learning Mathematics

Abstract

The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) describes a guide for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning. The mathematical knowledge that early-grade teachers need to possess; while not sophisticated mathematics, must be meaningful, flexible, and secure. Early childhood teachers need to be able to present mathematical ideas in a variety of contexts and to ask questions about the imbedded mathematics. To develop these capabilities and provide evidence of their mathematical knowledge, I had preservice teachers (PSTs) write letters, create children’s books with accompanying “Notes to the Reader” and share their books with first-grade pen pals. This paper lays out the expectations of the instructor for the PSTs, the relationship developed between the pen pal pairs, examples of book pages as well as material written for the reader or teacher to use to enhance the learning experience for children, and the kinds of learning the PSTs took away from the experience.