Early Learning Standards

Number and Operations

In 2003, professionals from the Madison Early Learning Initiative and the Madison Metropolitan School District joined to create the Madison Early Learning Standards. These standards are aligned with state, local and national standards. They reflect widely-held, research-based expectations for the social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and physical development of preschool children.

Corresponding Madison Early Learning Standards for Mathematical Thinking and Exploration:

Early Learning Standard: Children will construct an understanding of mathematical concepts as they interact with materials, people, events and ideas.

Benchmarks: When provided with opportunities to explore mathematical concepts with a variety of materials and interact with others through play, the young child will:

Demonstrate increasing understanding of number concept by:

• showing interest and awareness of numbers
• counting in sequence
• using one-to-one correspondence in counting objects
• counting a collection of items and understanding that the last counting word tells “how many”
• knowing how many objects are in a small group without counting (for example: dots on dice, fingers on a hand)
• recognizing some numerals
• joining or separating sets of objects and telling how many objects result from that action
• telling the number that is one more than a given number