Reflection on Practice

Two things that are already practice in pre-schools:

1.Learning the relationship of more, less and same.

This concept is usually taught when children are of 4 years of age. It is an important concept as children will be able to relate and see for themselves the relations of numbers and exposing them to counting on. It also helps them to understand the meaning of more and less. This is usually taught using concerete materials such as counters and picture cards to impart this concept.

2.numeral writing and recognition

As mention in the book, the common practice for children to learn to write and recognise number is by repeatedly tracing numerals, writing them in the air, on the board and tracing them on sand.

Two things that are not common practice in pre-school:

1.Dot cards as a model for teaching number relationship

So far, it is not a common practice in Singapore for teachers to make use of dot cards to teach number relationships and counting. We tend to use items such as flash cards with pictures of dogs, cups and etc to aid in children's counting or concrete materials such as buttons or counting cubes.

2.Part-part-whole

Again, part part whole is not taught adequately in our local context with dot plates. concrete materials such as counting cubes and fingers tend to be used to teach part part whole. Our local context tend to focus on only teaching part part whole with addition of the same number. For instance, 5+5=10, 4+4=8 and 3+3=6 instead of 4+5=9.