Is your child heading to primary one soon?
As this big milestone approaches, many parents worry about their child having the skills to cope with our local primary one maths curriculum. In this article, we will share with you the skills that your child should have to handle primary one maths.
First, let us share why maths is important in preschool.
Mathematics teaches logic and order and provides an effective way to build mental discipline and critical thinking. Studies show that preschool not only influences cognitive abilities but also behavioural, social skills, and self-esteem. By using math-related exercises now, you can help lay the foundation for problem-solving, logic, and even determination.
Building math skills at a young age helps to develop strong brain muscles and contributes to our brain health. In addition, solving math problems allows us to think logically, sort through data and think through every angle of a problem.
Mathematics is also a foundation skill for higher education and occupation in finance, medicine, engineering, architecture, computer science, culinary art and the food industry. Hence it pays to arm your child with a positive impression of mathematics.
To help your toddler develop a strong foundation for mathematical studies, preschools in Singapore impart the following math skills: number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, comparing differences and identifying patterns.
Many childcare centres and playgroups in Singapore introduce children to numbers recognition as the first step to Primary one maths. This helps them understand the value and see the numbers represented in different ways.
In the concept of one-to-one correspondence, children learn how math relates to scenarios from everyday life. A good example is “one for you, one for me”, or through food, where they learn to relate fractions or ratios.
Through lessons at childcare centres, our young children learn to distinguish differences in value, height, weight, and shape to promote critical thinking, and spatial awareness. They also learn about patterns that help them use reasoning to solve problems, make predictions and link logical connections.
At Little Footprints Preschool, numeracy concepts are introduced to your child in a progressive manner, from simple and complex and concrete to abstract. Through developmentally appropriate resources and interactive activities, your child will make meaning of his/her learning and develop the foundation for more complex mathematical concepts as he/she moves on to primary school.
Key Math Skills to Prepare for Primary One
Your child uses early math skills throughout his/her daily routines and activities. Here are the key math skills your child should have before entering primary one. You can help your child reinforce this math skill at home by doing the following:
1. Ability to Count, Read and Write Numbers from 1 to 50
Help your child acquire number sense and see the relationship between numbers and everyday things
What you can do: Have fun counting the numbers forwards, then backwards, and help your child understand mathematical representation.
Play Pass it around - Ask for your child’s help in distributing items like snacks or in laying napkins out on the dinner table. Help him give one cracker to each child. When distributing items, emphasise the number concept: “One for you, one for me” or, “We are putting on our shoes: One, two.”
2. Measurement and Estimation
Other than using units like inches, feet/centimetres or kilogrammes to find the length, height, and weight of an object, and the measurement of time, this segment also includes comparison of quantities and numbers with the help of words like more, less, bigger, smaller, more than, and less than.
What you can do: Go for a walk with your child and find opportunities to compare (which stone is bigger?), assess (how many shells did we find?), note similarities and differences (does the dog have fur like the bunny does?) and categorise (see if you can find some brown leaves) etc.
Play Graphing games where your child puts a sticker each time it rains or each time it is sunny. At the end of a week, you can estimate together which column has more or less stickers and count how many to be sure.
3. Identify, Name and Sort Basic Shapes (Patterns)
Patterns help children learn to make predictions, understand what comes next, make logical connections, and use reasoning skills.
What you can do: Play with shape-sorters or count and sort. Gather a basket of small toys, shells, pebbles or buttons. Count them with your child. Sort them based on size, shapes or colour, and discuss each shape and how it should be sorted.
You can also get them to help with household chores like sorting the laundry and get them to find the patterns of sizes and types of laundry.
4. Problem-Solving
Mathematics helps your child recognise there is more than one path to the answer. It means using past knowledge and logical thinking skills to find an answer.
What you can do: Baking is an easy way to help our children understand and exercise their problem-solving capabilities. Similarly, recognising the route to the playground or the time/distance it takes to get there, and back home is another great exercise to engage their logical thinking skills.
5. Working with Money & Telling Time
Your child needs to learn how to buy his meals at recess or know the schedule to get to school and lesson plans.
What you can do: Play Shop with your child to simulate real-life shopping with fake money. You can also play Picture Time with your child to develop a sense of time and to understand that some things take longer than others.
Use an hourglass, stopwatch, or timer to time short (1–3 minute) activities. Another activity to play is Tunnel time – which helps children understand where their body is in space and in relation to other objects.
Book a Tour with Us!
At Little Footprints Preschool, our Early Numeracy programme develops the foundation for more complex mathematical concepts to prepare your child for primary school. Come check us out at your preferred Little Footprints Preschool centre.
We have centres island-wide. Book a tour today at the centre most convenient for you and let us be a part of your child’s early childhood education journey.
Follow us on social media to stay updated on our latest updates and happenings:
