The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Manager, Voice of the Customer, Hayley Browning.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Nurturing Young Mathematical Minds with Jill Rosenblum
Remember when math was just a worksheet filled with problems to solve? For our youngest learners, mathematics can—and should—be so much more. In this enlightening conversation with Jill Rosenblum, Product Manager at Curriculum Associates, we dive into the transformative power of early mathematical exposure for pre-kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students.
What makes this approach so powerful is how it builds confidence from the very beginning. When children see math as "part of the world" rather than something separate that's "hard for some and easy for others," they develop positive relationships with mathematical thinking. This early confidence serves as a foundation that can prevent the math anxiety many adults experience. Jill emphasizes the importance of open-ended questions—asking children what they notice or observe about patterns, quantities, or shapes—rather than focusing exclusively on right or wrong answers. This approach celebrates mathematical thinking as a natural part of exploring and understanding the world.
Whether you're a pre-K teacher looking for practical strategies to incorporate more mathematics into your classroom or a parent wanting to nurture mathematical thinking at home, this episode offers valuable insights into making math approachable, engaging, and joyful for our youngest learners.
Curriculum Associates, an education technology company, and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary and we are here to support you. Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Today we are joined by the wonderful Jill Rosenblum. Jill is a product manager at Curriculum Associates and she joins us today to talk through the power of early math, especially in regards to the pre-kindergarten, transitional kindergarten age groups. On today's episode, jill talks through the benefits of developing some of these early math skills, as well as some practical strategies that teachers and parents even can use to expose their children to this wonderful world of math and show them that math is part of their world. So with that, we hope you really enjoy today's episode with Jill.
Speaker 1:Hi, Jill, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Hi, haley, I'm glad to be here, so glad to have you, and really excited about today's topic. You wrote an incredible blog that we'll be sure to link in the show notes for everybody about the power of early math, especially looking at transitional kindergarten and pre-k, and how we can really prioritize that and why it's so important. And so, jill, I have a couple of questions for you today and I want to hear more about this topic. But to kick things off, why do you think it's so important to introduce math and these mathematical concepts at an early age to these students?
Speaker 2:Well, we know that young children are just sponges. So it's an opportune time and their whole life is about making sense of the world and we want them to be making sense of the world mathematically as well as every other way. So, you know, the sooner the better to give them some support in thinking about number and thinking about pattern and thinking about shapes, and just thinking about math and the world around them.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Yeah, Children really are sponges, especially at that age, but overall, there's so much potential there that we could really tap into and so, thinking strategically. As you know, teachers are listening to this podcast. We want to give them some practical takeaways that they can apply with their students, and so, Jill, I'm curious thinking about some practical strategies or they can apply with their students. Jill, I'm curious thinking about some practical strategies or what they could do in their classroom. What would you recommend for teachers to make this approachable for their pre-K students?
Speaker 2:Well, again, I think the more that it's just embedded in everyday activity, the better.
Speaker 2:We talk about and I mentioned this quote that I love, which is play is the work of childhood, and so all the time that kids are playing, that's an opportunity for them to be learning and just to be thinking about that. As children are playing, as they're playing with quantities of things, as they're moving things around, as they're talking about their play, those are all opportunities for learning about math concepts in the real world. So just that idea of embedding it in play and it's not really necessarily something you have to say now we're going to do this it's seeing it and hearing it and helping kids see it and hear it. The same thing with, like, we're always singing and rhyming with kids and there are plenty of songs that have mathematics in them. I think I mentioned in the blog five little ducks or 10 in a bed and just those kinds of things again are in child world and we're just raising our own awareness so that we can support kids in that important learning that's going on.
Speaker 1:I love that, Jill. So it's not only about exposure with the children and making sure that they're aware of all of these numbers in their day to day, but it to me it's sounding like it's also kind of a shift in our mindsets, and teachers' mindsets, of recognizing that there are numbers everywhere and we just need to make them known to these students. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yep, there's quantity everywhere, there's shape everywhere, there's position everywhere, there's pattern everywhere. All these things are math, and it's one of the things I think it's important is to remember that math isn't just number and it isn't just counting. It is all these other things, but again, it's the tools that we all use to make sense of the world or to describe what we see in the world, or to find what we need in the world.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. Yeah, helping us understand the world and helping our students understand the world, that is so, so powerful, okay. Well, jill, I have a couple more questions for you. Thinking about this early exposure to mathematical language specifically, how does that help our students? How is it helping their cognitive growth, their development? Thinking about how we can support that, do you have any insight?
Speaker 2:there. All young children are language learners because that's, you know, part of what they're doing is developing their vocabulary, developing their syntax, developing all things. Language and so it does go hand in hand with cognitive development. And having the terminology to talk about new ideas, new things that they're noticing or becoming aware of or exploring, just gives them tools to support their logical thinking and their problem solving and their sequencing, because they'll know that it's something and then they can try doing it. Or they've done it and now they know what to call it, or they see it and now they know what to call it. So it's a sort of symbiotic relationship, a mutual relationship between the mathematical concepts and the language development.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's so, so powerful and so important. Thinking about how we really are giving them these tools to support their learning, and whether that be you know one-off mentions of something, as you know you're walking through the grocery store like, oh, that's a wonderful price, let's talk about that. Or you know something much more strategic and thinking about, for example, the songs that you had mentioned, like that's a really wonderful way to again bring up that, that math terminology. Thank you, jill, that's really wonderful. I have one more question for you. You had mentioned in your blog how exposure at an early age can support and potentially even mitigate and address this potential math anxiety in children. Teachers who are listening to make sure that we are fostering this supportive environment and not having not building up this potential math anxiety. Would it be more related to this, this math exposure, early math exposure or something of that nature or something I think it's just that it's.
Speaker 2:It's part of everyday activity, it's part of everyday conversation. We see it in the books that we're reading with our kids, or we see it when we're walking and we're counting our steps, or when we're looking for different colors in the field around us, or whatever it is, so that kids get that sense that math is part of the world and it's something that I know about and it's not something that's separate and hard for some and easy for others. It's just part of what they're learning about the world as they learn everything else. And if they have those early successes and it is so exciting for kids to know oh, that's the word for that, or that's how describe that, or that's how I do that they get that confidence about their math ability and then it's a good foundation to build on in terms of as they move into more formal mathematics. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Really helping build up that confidence is so powerful and I love how you said math is part of the world you know, that is something to instill in the younger generation and and especially thinking about pre-k and transitional kindergarten. There's so much potential there. Um, and I, I just love that. That. It's a standout, standout piece. For me, math is part of the world. So with that, thank you, jill, for your time today.
Speaker 2:I I would just say one more time wherever we can ask kids to do things that are not right or wrong because, for instance, counting from 1 to 10, you can make a mistake, which is fine, and we do count from 1 to 10 but also, just what do you see, or what do you know, or what do you think where Things that they observe about mathematical concepts, whether it's a pattern, or whether it's a number of things, or whether it building?
Speaker 1:nobody intends to do that, but if we just think about that really open way of of talking with kids, yeah, yeah, keeping things open-ended, keeping things approachable and not making it just so xyz, and celebrating those, those more small wins, and and making things more observable in their day-to-day, as opposed to. You know this has to be. You sit down, write a worksheet. This has to be exactly what it is. Yeah, that's really, really powerful and a great way to think about how we can build up that confidence and celebrate those pieces of their day-to-day which again would help foster and support those mathematical exposures as they're growing up. Thank you so much for your time today, jill. I loved this and I think it's such a powerful topic. So, thank you, thanks for having me. It was fun.
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