Welcome Back

Since starting this blog several years ago my life has taken on a few changes, nonetheless, my views regarding the importance of early childhood technology education have not wavered. In fact, they have gotten even stronger than ever.

In the fall of 2012, I was blessed with my 1st grandchild and he is amazing. I doubt anyone who knows me will be surprised to hear one of the 1st gifts my grandson received was an iPad. In fact, the iPad was a shower present from my son…. DGS was still in utero at the time.

You might say, the Apple (literally and figuratively) doesn't fall far from the tree. :)

Over the last couple years, I have watched this newest member of our family connect his physical world and his digital world in ways I could never have imagined. One of the most mind boggling examples of this, is DGS (dear grandson) can identify all of his ABCs and he is not yet two years old. Previously, this ability might have been classified as some form of hyperlexia, but I assure you DGS is quite the social butterfly. I have seen many, many other examples of these technology learning shifts in my DGS that I cannot recall seeing when my own children were little, and I hope to share some of these future posts.


For now, I wanted to take a moment to reconnect with those who have followed my journey since the start and welcome those who are just joining me.


My goals are to still share the great apps I come across, but I feel the need augment my reviews and share my experiences; how I see technology may be shaping the minds of the youngest of learners. Additionally, I have invited others to share their experiences of how they see technology shaping the early childhood learning environment. I promise it will be an exciting journey and I hope you will share it with me.


Thank you,

Keri

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Symmetry Shuffle By: Carstens Studios: Fun Way to Build Spatial Understanding of Flip, Turns, and Slides

Young children are being exposed to elementary geometric concepts at a younger age than ever before.

Some attribute this to the new push due to "Common Core Standards", while others state the increased pressure for students to build their fundamental math concepts is a result of the United States less than stellar performance on the latest round of PISA testing.

Whatever the actual reason is, there is no disputing the reality, or the need for our nation's students to both competent and competitive members of the global knowledge economy.

Symmetry Shuffle by Carstens Studios does an amazing job of introducing and fine-tuning both a child's skill and their understanding of spatial geometric concepts such as flip, turns, and slides. 

A student can choose between two different play modes "race" or "solve"; along with an option for "easy" or "hard "modes. There are also options for grid size and icons (used in the transformations).

The only downside of the game I encountered  -other than a difficulty in solving some of the actual puzzles- was in using the "arrow controls" whist on my iPad mini. However, once I moved onto a full-size iPad this issue was reduce to only a minor nuisance.

I found the game play to be additive and I could feel the brain buzz as I was challenged with increasing more difficult puzzles.
  
Side note: I consistently suggest this particular app to parents whose children struggle to complete tasks on found on: https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-2/flip-turn-and-slide

I find this "pre-assessment" to be a good indication of a student's generalized understanding of this particular concept.

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Geometric and spatial thinking are important in and of themselves, because they connect mathematics with the physical world (Excerpt from "Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics,  June 23, 2012)
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