Supporting Early Mathematics with Creative Investigations Based on Best Practice, by Angela Eckhoff

Sponsored by Connect4Learning (C4L)

Many early childhood teachers struggle with feeling comfortable and confident teaching mathematics. Administrators can do many things to help support early childhood educators build classroom practices that support young children's mathematics learning through creative play. This webinar is designed to promote lesson ideas that support young children's development of mathematics understanding and inquiry-driven, creative thinking skills. Rather than teaching mathematics in a linear, fact-based fashion, this session stresses the importance of encouraging minds-on learning experiences in the early childhood classroom. Young children build early mathematics understandings through guided and independent investigations where they are actively involved in meaningful ways. This session highlights role of the early childhood educator, acting as guide and facilitator, in the planning, implementation, and assessment of creative mathematics experiences.

The lesson ideas and classroom vignettes that will be presented in this session incorporate opportunities to help children understand the concepts of numeracy, classification, comparing, sequencing, shape, structure, location, motion, and transformation. The lessons include critical elements of inquiry and creative thinking—open-ended tasks, activities involving social interaction, and opportunities for children's reflection and elaboration. This webinar will support participants' abilities to create and support creative mathematics learning experiences for young children. In particular, participants will:

• Identify the links between mathematics content and inquiry-based learning in order to develop cooperative mathematics lessons that will engage all children in their classrooms

• Recognize and appreciate children's mathematics thinking in order to build upon their current understandings

• Document and evaluate children's knowledge development with rich, meaningful classroom work samples

All sessions are 1.5 hours long, and include a brief announcement from our sponsor. 2:oo PM – 3:30 PM Eastern Time. To ensure you receive confirmation and reminder emails, add [email protected] to your contacts list. If you do not receive your email confirmation, check your Spam or Junk mail folders in your email system. Can’t participate in our webinars at the appointed time? Never fear! All of the webinars are recorded. To view the recording, simply register now and you will receive an email with a link to the recording when it is ready to be viewed. You can still download the certificate by watching the recording to the end when the certificate link is announced and displayed on the screen.

Only 1,000 people at one time can attend our webinars, but registration often tops 4,000. Only the first 1,000 people to click the link to attend the webinar will be able to get in. We start the webinars 30 minutes in advance of the start time. Arrive early to make sure you get in.

Please be advised that you will only be eligible for the great door prizes if you participate in the live session. You can earn .2 CEUs for each webinar. The cost is $15 paid to University of Oklahoma online when you apply. Learn more here: Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from University of Oklahoma See the schedule of upcoming webinars.