DWilson

Chapter 9 dealt with early fraction concepts.  Although students K-2 have little exposure to fractions, they are able to understand dividing a quantity so that it can be shared equally with others.  Story problems that involve "sharing tasks" give children the opportunity to use different strategies to decide how to equally distribute items.

Chapter 10 focused on algebraic reasoning.  Patterning is an important part of algebraic thinking.  K-1 students should be given many opportunities to identify and extend patterns using a variety of materials such as connecting cubes, color bears, buttons, and blocks.  Several activities were suggested, as well as the idea of using symbols such as alphabet letters to represent the structure of a pattern.  Many of my K students have been able to identify repeated patterns such as AB, ABC, ABB, or AABB.  

Information for helping students use data was covered in chapter 11.  The author stated that young children should be given many opportunities to categorize things, and several attribute activities were suggested.  I have used an activity similar to "Guess My Rule" with my kindergarten students, and they enjoy trying to figure out the classification.  I plan to use the blackline woozle cards and some of the loop activities with my students. 

Probability concepts were discussed in chapter 12.  Several interesting activities were suggested to help K-3 students build a foundation about probability.  The use of spinners, coins for tossing, and dice, are some ways to help young children with probability predictions.  I plan to use the activity "six chips" with my students.  I think it will be interesting to watch them determine where to place their chips on the gameboard, and to hear their reasoning after they have had several opportunities to play.