Mathematics in Early Childhood Education: the importance of play and manipulative materials

Abstract

A teacher must consolidate their training in the teaching-learning of mathematics in order to carry out their future work in the classroom. On the first day of class, talking with the students, it was verified, on the one hand, that part of our students had had negative experiences in previous training processes. The primary objective was set: to enjoy "doing mathematics" to lose fear and, consequently, to ensure that future teachers were capable of transmitting to boys and girls the taste for discovery in our subject. The reasons that make play and manipulative materials an essential part of early childhood education teacher training are well known. An active methodology was chosen, working groups were created. The approaches of this way of working with student productions are illustrated. Materials, activities, and games were created. During ten academic years, recordings of all these productions have been made and it has been verified that, when they arrived at school, in the practical subject, they had learned to implement the tasks with the boys and girls.