In this unique guide, classroom teachers, coaches, curriculum coordinators, college students, and teacher educators get a practical look at the foundational concepts and skills of early mathematics, and see how to implement them in their early childhood classrooms. Big Ideas of Early Mathematics presents the skills educators need to organize for mathematics teaching and learning during the early years. For teachers of children ages three through six, the book provides foundations for further mathematics learning and helps facilitate long-term mathematical understanding. The Enhanced Pearson eText features embedded video.

"The early math collaborative" -- Title page.

ch. 1 Sets: Using Attributes to Make Collections -- Big Idea: Attributes Can Be Used to Sort Collections into Sets -- Big Idea: The Same Collection Can Be Sorted in Different Ways -- Big Idea: Sets Can Be Compared and Ordered -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 2 Number Sense: Developing a Meaningful Sense of Quantity -- Big Idea: Numbers Are Used in Many Ways, Some More Mathematical than Others -- Big Idea: Quantity Is an Attribute of a Set of Objects, and We Use Numbers to Name Specific Quantities -- Big Idea: The Quantity of a Small Collection Can Be Intuitively Perceived without Counting -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 3 Counting: More than Just 1,2,3 -- Big Idea: Counting Can Be Used to Find Out "How Many" in a Collection -- Big Idea: Counting Has Rules That Apply to Any Collection -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 4 Number Operations: Every Operation Tells a Story Note continued: Big Idea: Sets Can Be Changed by Adding Items (Joining) or by Taking Some Away (Separating) -- Big Idea: Sets Can Be Compared Using the Attribute of Numerosity and Ordered by More Than, Less Than, and Equal To -- Big Idea: A Quantity (Whole) Can Be Decomposed into Equal or Unequal Parts; The Parts Can Be Composed to Form the Whole -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 5 Pattern: Recognizing Repetition and Regularity -- Big Idea: Patterns Are Sequences Governed by a Rule; They Exist Both in the World and in Mathematics -- Big Idea: Identifying the Rule of a Pattern Brings Predictability and Allows Us to Make Generalizations -- Big Idea: The Same Pattern Structure Can Be Found in Many Different Forms -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 6 Measurement: Making Fair Comparisons -- Big Idea: Many Different Attributes Can Be Measured, Even When Measuring a Single Object -- Big Idea: All Measurement Involves a "Fair" Comparison Note continued: Big Idea: Quantifying a Measurement Helps Us Describe and Compare More Precisely -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 7 Data Analysis: Asking Questions and Finding Answers -- Big Idea: The Purpose of Collecting Data Is to Answer Questions When the Answers Are Not Immediately Obvious -- Big Idea: Data Must Be Represented in Order to Be Interpreted, and How Data Are Gathered and Organized Depends on the Question -- Big Idea: It Is Useful to Compare Parts of the Data and to Draw Conclusions about the Data as a Whole -- Implications for Teaching -- ch. 8 Spatial Relationships: Mapping the World Around Us -- Big Idea: Relationships between Objects and Places Can Be Represented with Mathematical Precision -- Big Idea: Our Own Experiences of Space and Two-Dimensional Representations of Space Reflect a Specific Point of View -- Big Idea: Spatial Relationships Can Be Visualized and Manipulated Mentally -- Implications for Teaching Note continued: ch. 9 Shape: Developing Definitions -- Big Idea: Shapes Can Be Defined and Classified by Their Attributes -- Big Idea: The Flat Faces of Solid (Three-Dimensional) Shapes Are Two-Dimensional Shapes -- Big Idea: Shapes Can Be Combined and Separated (Composed and Decomposed) to Make New Shapes -- Implications for Teaching.