Curriculum Review: Mathematical Reasoning PreK 1-2 by Critical Thinking Co
Mathematical Reasoning PreK Curriculums:
Beginning 1: Most appropriate for 3 year olds or students that are still learning to count and recognize numbers 1-5, colors, and shapes
Beginning 2: Most appropriate for 4 year olds or students that consistently recognize numbers 1-5, colors, and shapes
I’ve used both Mathematical Reasoning PreK books by Critical Thinking Company and I will use them with all my kids. I love them!
One reason I love these curriculums is because they are based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards, which, to me, means it is following standards that are aiming to be best practice and up-to-date based on current research in math education. And it shows! These books introduce much more than basic math skills and counting. They introduce a variety of math related vocabulary and critical thinking skills. The emphasis on critical thinking skills is what really sets this curriculum apart from other PreK math curriculums, but it’s also very simple and straight-forward. Both are spiral curriculums that revisit skills throughout the book after introducing them.
Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1:
This curriculum is best for students still learning to count and recognize numbers 1-5, colors, and shapes. If your student is confident with identifying numbers 1-5 and knows colors and shapes already, this will likely be too easy for them. It is very developmentally appropriate for 3-year-olds. It doesn’t involve much writing. At most, students draw straight lines to match items or color some pictures, but the majority of the book can be done without writing. If you wanted to be able to use it with another kid in the future, you could make copies of the pages that are written on and keep the book in good condition. Most pages, like the ones pictured here, only require discussing with your child.
Aside from the focus on building number sense and recognition of 1-5, this curriculum also introduces patterns, shapes, fractions, and measurement in age appropriate ways. It also includes data analysis practice, like the Can You Find Me? example above. At this age, I usually modeled the higher level thinking skills these types of exercises required and talked through them with my child. But by the time he got to Beginning 2, these types of thinking skills began to click and he didn’t need as much support. Even if they still need some support and modeling of the critical thinking skills, that’s completely fine! It’s so good to expose them to this kind of thinking and exercise those “muscles” in the brain. This book is open-and-go which is exactly what I needed as well. You can pull it off the shelf, talk through a few pages, and call it a day.
Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2:
Like Beginning 1, this is an open-and-go curriculum that manages to be straight to the point while also introducing even more critical thinking skills. Beginning 2 is most appropriate for older preschoolers, or those that confidently recognize numbers 1-5, count to at least 10, and know colors and shapes. This book focuses on numbers 1-15. It also starts to incorporate more number writing practice, so this book would be harder to keep and use again with another kid than Beginning 1.
As pictured to the right, I love that Beginning 2 starts to ask students to explain their thinking. Being able to think about your own thinking is called metacognition, and it is a very valuable skill to develop! Metacognition is what we use when we reflect on why we did something a certain way or how we thought through a problem and realize what we might have done wrong or how to improve. We identify our own thought patterns and are able to self-correct when needed. Pretty valuable skill, right? It also continues to build number sense throughout the curriculum and introduces addition and subtraction, left vs. right, and number lines among other mathematical skills.
The key with both of these curriculums is to make sure you are giving your kid wait time. Teachers know that if you want students to give you an answer, you have to actually make sure you are waiting long enough for their brains to process how to answer! Don’t be too quick to give the answer or jump in to help them figure it out. These thinking skills are hard work and you have to wait patiently (and quietly) while their little brain works hard to process. If they seem stuck, re-read the instructions. If they still seem stuck, start to talk through your thought process out loud, so you can model how to approach this type of question in the future. For example, if my son was stuck on the picture above, I would pick one row and say, “I notice that all of these shapes are yellow, but only one is a rectangle! The rest are squares. So the rectangle doesn’t belong. Which one do you think doesn’t belong in the next row?”
I definitely recommend these curriculums for getting the most out of the intentional time you spend teaching math to your preschooler. They manage to be so low-maintenance even though the skills they teach are high value. I got Beginning 1 just to have something that helped me feel good about developing math skills in my preschooler without being too intensive and these are absolutely perfect for what I needed. My son often asks to do “just one more page” until we end up doing many more than I ever intended at one time! They are age-appropriate with just the right amount of challenge built-in, and full of colorful and engaging images the kids love throughout. I hope you enjoy them, too!
