Preschool Goldfish Math

I remember in High School bringing home my Math homework and my mom scratching her head as I explained to her how my teacher told me I was to arrive at the correct answer. Not long ago, my daughter brought me her homework and I understood my mothers frustration as I had to visit my daughters teacher to be taught myself how to do the lattice method. Although, the methods may change over the years, math remains the same. I find it a challenge to weave Math in our lesson throughout the day, steadily moving away from the routine of just counting and number recognition.

On this particular day we were having goldfish for snack. I asked the kids to sort the goldfish by color. Explaining further that all the red ones go together, all the green ones go together and so on. I did not specify how to do it just as long as they were separated.

What I learned was that each child grouped their goldfish differently which made it so clear in my mind, there will always be many ways to getting to the answer. I am so glad we don't all get it the same way, what is important is that we get it. "A method by any other name, produces the answer just the same."