The Children's Math Worlds project seeks to integrate students' social, emotional, and cultural experiences into classroom mathematics. For seven years, we have been developing in classrooms a conceptually challenging researchbased mathematics curriculum called Children's Math Worlds (CMW) for kindergarten through grade 3. We build on the individual experiences, interests, and practical mathematics knowledge that diverse children bring to our classrooms. Our collaborative research project has been, and is being, carried out in urban schools of underrepresented minorities, mostly Latino English-speaking and Latino Spanish-speaking children, and in English-speaking upper-middle-class schools to ensure that our work crosses socioeconomic boundaries. The CMW family component was described in De La Cruz (1999). See that article for data concerning the excellent comparative performance of CMW children.
As teachers of young children, we perceive a tension between the demands of parents and elementary schools—that young children be academically prepared to enter increasingly challenging kindergarten programs—and our philosophy of early childhood education—that fourand five-year-old children should experience creative nurturing in a setting that encourages free expression of childhood through spontaneous play. In the early childhood education community, we have embraced the Reggio Emilia approach, the idea that a successful curriculum grows from the children's own interests and that effective projects encompass multiple disciplines and may develop and change over an extended period.
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