Teaching Philosophy Statement

I am currently a lead teacher in a head start/preschool classroom. I teach children from three to five years old. I am currently working with the preschool curriculum High Scope. As a teacher, I would like to increase my best practice in mathematics. When I plan for my lesson as a teacher, I find it easiest to plan for language, literacy and science. The hardest part of planning my lessons comes with figuring out math activities for my student’s that is beyond the basic mathematic concepts such as, counting and shapes. I would like to create fun math activities that will keep the children’s focus and interests. My goal as an educator is to help each child meet their individual goals for the school year. The goals are set by the parents and

I would also like to use math materials that could be used throughout the classroom, counting bears, variety of shapes, shape patterns, measurement materials- links, cubes, and scales. Providing a wide variety materials in the classroom setting will expand the children’s thinking process, when children learn through play, they create ways to make their own discoveries. The teacher will listen and be open to the children interests throughout the day to ensure age appropriate activities and materials for small group activity’s. Eg: During outside time the children will notice different colored cars in the parking lot on the way to the playground. As the teacher I would give each child ten different color cars to expand math skills by using the cars for a variety of activities such as; counting, measurements, and patterns. According to Ann S. Epstein, calling attention to the environmental print, teacher surrounding children with numbers on toys, tools, books, and message boards. (Ann S. Epstein,

Below I have included different ways to implement math throughout the day while using the daily routine as your guide in the classroom, all children need time and space to explore math concepts through play. Throughout the day, as a teacher, I want children to engage in math activities through play while using parts of the routine to support their decisions. Some activities that are age appropriate are as follows: counting zoo animals, sorting zoo animals, and to create patterns with zoo animals these activities can be done during work time when teacher are to support each child's interests. During small group time teachers usually direct in a smaller group setting. Data analysis at work time the teacher may hear the children discussing the ice cream truck that came by their house. During large group time the teacher will draw a chart with different flavors of ice creams and gather the children data based on their favorite ice cream. Children can explore shapes outside when exploring the playground. The teacher can ask the children about the different type of shapes they see on the playground or turn the shape activity into games such as “I spy” or shape hunt. (Gainsley,