MARYSVILLE — Kyle Kinoshita asked a group of parents to repeat after him as he counted in Japanese.
The executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Marysville School District, finished counting to 10 and asked for the Japanese word for “six.”
Kinoshita then showed the Jap
anese characters for the numbers and repeated the word, “roku” as he pointed out the number six.
“We need lots of different cues to learn that number,” he said.
The same theory applies to children ages 2 to 5 who are learning math concepts, Kinoshita said. Parents who have their child take part in the district’s new Early Childhood Mathematics Program can expect to see them learn math concepts through songs, games, stories and craft projects.
About 25 parents learned about the new program during a meeting Tuesday at Marshall Elementary School. The program is scheduled to begin today from 9 to 10 a.m. in the school gym.
Children who will be enrolled in the Marysville School District are eligible for the free program organized by district math coaches. Sessions are also planned from 9 to 10 a.m. on April 30, May 21 and June 18 at the school located at 4407 116th St. NE.
The idea for the program came from Marysville parent Stephanie Price, who attended the district’s annual kindergarten registration and information fair in January. Her 2-year-old son, Noah, ran over to where math coaches were teaching math games during the event, Price said.
“He got excited because they had math games out and I thought, ‘This is really cool. I wonder what I could be doing for Noah at home that could get him excited about math and what are the expectations as he goes into kindergarten?’ “
Price takes her son on weekly trips to the library for story times but didn’t know of any math programs for her son. She asked Paige Elwell, an elementary learning and math coach, for help.
Elwell brought the idea to start a free math program for young children to Kinoshita. She and other math coaches agreed to volunteer their time to lead the sessions.
“We’d been brainstorming ideas to get parents involved in early numeracy,” Elwell said.
The program is based off of Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks, Marysville School District math curriculum and Strength in Numbers, a professional development program for teachers.
Parents were asked to bring an empty egg carton with them. Kids will drop lima beans into the egg carton to help them develop a “one to one correspondence” and create patterns with different numbers of Popsicle sticks, Elwell said. Each day’s agenda will include a read-aloud that reinforces math concepts such as counting, addition and subtraction.
Parents can use what their children learn from the games and activities to talk about math concepts at home, said Colleen Williams, an elementary math coach.
“I think our hope is to engage children and help the parents be knowledgeable so they can continue the work themselves,” she said.
Parents who would like more information about the Early Childhood Mathematics Program can call the district office at 360-653-7058.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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