Transcript

Text on screen: Coaching Cycle: Apply (24–36 months).

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.

On screen: A coach and an educator sit next to each other at a table inside.

Coach: One thing that I wrote down that I kind of encourage you to think about as you’re doing these activities comes in with the math language piece of it. We model number words really well and it seems like when you and the other children are modeling the number words that the other children kind of want to do that same thing. I would encourage you to try and think of all the different ways that you could number model for children. When I was in the classroom, we did a lot of ASL.

Educator: Mm-hmm.

Coach: So, I kind of modeled numbers by doing the hand symbol for them. I mean, even just other symbolic ways of representing numbers when you are doing counting or different ways that you could separate out.

One really good one was watching you use the cardboard egg cartons -

On screen: An egg carton is filled with balls. The educator points to the first ball in a row, then the second, and the third. A child is sitting next to the carton and reaches out to point to a ball.

Educator: Oh, yeah.

Coach: - to count each individual thing or transferring things from one basket to another basket.

On screen: A child kneels behind two plastic baskets. The basket on the left has more items in it than the basket on the right. The child reaches into the basket on the left and pulls out a ball in each hand.

Coach: Think about, “What are other ways that I could present the same idea to the children in the classroom? Can I put smaller cups out there that they have to fill,” like only one ball will fit in each cup or things like that, that could present those ideas to them in some unique ways. Things that maybe will activate one child’s thought about counting that didn’t activate before.

Educator: Yeah. I have at home a little, it’s like a jewelry sorter, but it’s like an ice tray that just has one little thing and doing that and even attaching in the bottom, do a dot or a number or something for each thing and giving them pom poms maybe to put into it, something like that.

Coach: Yeah. They have the Styrofoam plates or the paper plates that have different sections where some of the sections are smaller and there’s a bigger one.

Educator: Mm-hmm.

Coach: Even associating that size with quantity, right? You can put one dot in the smaller sections and two in the bigger.

Educator: Yeah.

Coach: Or a smaller quantity in those smaller sections and a larger quantity in those bigger sections for them to associate the visualization of “in the smaller section is a smaller amount and then this bigger section is a bigger amount.”

Educator: I can even speak of the separating of food like that. I can talk about that at lunchtime because we do do a lot of math at lunch and at snack, “You want more? How full is your cup? Is it halfway full? How many goldfish do you have?”

Coach: Yeah.

Educator: That comes up a lot.

Coach: Yeah. Everyone wants to have more goldfish, right?

Educator: Yes.

Coach: Exactly. No, that’s a great idea. That’s a great way to extend it. You know your classroom best and you know your children and their developmental level best. Now, I want you to take this information and look at it and say, “How do I want to build this for my students and my kids?”

Educator: Yeah.

Text on screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of the Cuesta College Children’s Center, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.