Math and Science for the Young Child

Course Description

Math and Science for the Young Child is a course covering the skills and concepts required by teachers of young children to plan developmentally appropriate activities in math, safety, science and food experience.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, CHD is the Child Development and Early Childhood Education prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered Fall, giving approximately 45 contact hours.

Mathematics and science for young children are not junior versions of school subjects. They are ways of noticing: counting what is actually there, sorting by a property the child chose, predicting what will happen and finding out. A three-year-old sorting buttons is doing mathematics, and treating it as such — rather than waiting to teach numerals — is the substance of this course.

The inclusion of safety and food experience alongside them is characteristically early childhood, and sensible: cooking with children is simultaneously measurement, chemistry, sequencing, and a food safety exercise, and it is one of the most reliably engaging activities available.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its CHD courses, but the prefix convention is consistent: every published CHD course at this institution runs at 3 credits and 45 contact hours — 15 hours per credit (CHD1220, CHD1430, CHD2320, CHD2334 and CHD2801 are all published at that rate).

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe early mathematical development and its typical sequence.
• Describe number sense and how it develops.
• Plan counting and one-to-one correspondence activities.
• Plan sorting, classifying, and pattern activities.
• Plan measurement, comparison, and seriation activities.
• Describe spatial awareness, shape, and geometry for young children.
• Use everyday routines to develop mathematical thinking.
• Describe early scientific thinking and inquiry.
• Plan science activities based on observation and prediction.
• Support children's questions without supplying all the answers.
• Plan activities using natural materials and the outdoor environment.
• Describe safety education appropriate to young children.
• Plan and conduct safe food experiences with children.
• Apply food safety and allergy precautions in cooking activities.
• Integrate mathematics and science across the daily routine.
• Adapt mathematics and science activities for differing abilities.
• Apply developmentally appropriate practice to planning and interaction.
• Observe children accurately and record observations factually.
• Adapt activities for children with differing abilities and needs.
• Maintain active supervision and apply safety practice.
• Recognise indicators of abuse or neglect and report as required.
• Communicate professionally with families and colleagues.
• Apply ethical standards in work with young children.
• Reflect on your practice and identify improvements.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe mathematics and science standards for early learning.
• Describe documenting children's mathematical and scientific thinking.
• Describe gardening and nature study with children.
• Describe engineering and construction play.
• Describe technology in early mathematics and science.
• Build a resource file of activities.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Early mathematical development
• Number sense
• Counting and one-to-one correspondence
• Sorting, classifying, and patterns
• Measurement, comparison, and seriation
• Spatial awareness and shape
• Mathematics in daily routines
• Early scientific thinking
• Observation and prediction activities
• Supporting children's questions
• Natural materials and outdoor science
• Safety education
• Food experiences with children
• Food safety and allergy precautions
• Integrating across the routine
• Adapting for differing abilities
• Developmentally appropriate practice
• Observation and recording
• Adapting for differing needs
• Active supervision and safety
• Recognising and reporting abuse
• Communicating with families
• Professional ethics
• Reflective practice

Optional Topics

• Early learning standards
• Documenting thinking
• Gardening and nature study
• Construction play
• Technology in early maths and science
• Activity resource file

Resources & Tools

• NAEYC (naeyc.org) — the National Association for the Education of Young Children; the position statement on developmentally appropriate practice is the field's foundational document and much of it is free.
• Florida Department of Children and Families — Child Care (myflfamilies.com) — free; the authority on screening, training, ratios, and licensing requirements in Florida.
• Florida Abuse Hotline — 1-800-96-ABUSE — know this number.
• Council for Professional Recognition (cdacouncil.org) — the CDA credential, its requirements, and its portfolio process.
• Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards — free; what children are expected to know and do by age, and the basis for planning.
• Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework — free and widely used well beyond Head Start programmes.
• Zero to Three (zerotothree.org) — free resources on infant and toddler development, and unusually good on the science.
• Your placement centre and its teachers — the most valuable resource in the programme. Watch how experienced teachers manage a room; almost none of it is written down.
• A notebook for observations — the habit of writing down what you actually saw, before interpreting it, is the foundation of the whole discipline.

Career Pathways

• Preschool teacher — SOC 25-2011.
• Childcare worker — SOC 39-9011.
• Preschool and childcare centre director — SOC 11-9031; the usual progression, and it requires additional credentials.
• Teacher assistant / paraprofessional — SOC 25-9045, including in public school pre-kindergarten.
• Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) programmes — a large state-funded sector with its own credential requirements.
• Head Start and Early Head Start.
• Family child care home operation — self-employment with its own licensing requirements.
• Early intervention and inclusion support.
• Infant and toddler specialisation — distinct skills and persistently short-staffed.
• Transfer to a bachelor's in early childhood or elementary education — ⚠ teaching in a public school classroom requires state certification and a bachelor's degree; confirm which of these courses transfer as major credit.
• ⚠ Pay in early childhood is low relative to the responsibility and the training required. That is a real and well-documented feature of the field, and it is worth knowing before committing — as is the fact that credentials, age-group specialisation, and moving into public school or director roles are the routes that improve it.

Special Information

⚠⚠ Food experiences — excellent learning, and a real allergy risk

• Cooking with children is one of the most valuable activities available — measurement, sequencing, change of state, and language, all at once, with a motivating result.
• ⚠ It is also where allergic reactions happen. Food allergies in young children can be fatal, and a cooking activity introduces foods that are not on the centre's usual menu.
• Check every child's allergies before planning, not before serving. Substitute at the planning stage so no child is excluded on the day.
• Cross-contamination counts. Shared utensils, shared bowls, and traces on hands and surfaces are enough for a severe reaction.
• Know where the emergency medication is, that it is in date, and how to use it — and know the centre's emergency procedure.
• Watch for choking hazards — whole grapes, raw hard vegetables, nuts, and popcorn are high-risk for young children.
• Apply proper food hygiene: handwashing, clean surfaces, safe temperatures, and no tasting from shared spoons.
• Inform families in advance about what will be cooked and eaten, and respect dietary and religious requirements as a matter of course.
• Supervise sharp tools and heat closely, and plan the ratio for the activity rather than the room.

⚠ Resist answering the question

• A child who asks "why does it float?" has given you an opportunity that supplying the answer destroys.
• Ask what they think first, then "how could we find out?" — and then actually find out together.
• Wrong predictions are the valuable ones. A child who predicts confidently and is surprised has learned something they will keep; a child told the answer has learned to ask an adult.
• You do not need to know the answer, and saying so honestly — "I don't know, let's look" — models exactly the disposition you are trying to build.
• Give time. Enquiry takes longer than explanation, and rushing it converts science back into telling.
• Use what is in front of you. Water, sand, ramps, shadows, ice, and things that grow are better than any kit.
• Document what children said and did, which makes their thinking visible to you, to them, and to families.

⚠ Developmentally appropriate practice is the organising idea — and it is more demanding than it sounds

• An activity is appropriate when it fits what the child can do now and stretches them a little — not when it fits their age on paper.
• Three things determine appropriateness: what is typical for the age, what is true of this child, and what is meaningful in their family and culture. All three, together.
• Children of the same age differ enormously, and a group of four-year-olds will span a wide developmental range. Planning for the average serves few of them.
• Play is how young children learn, and it is not a break from learning. An adult who converts every activity into instruction removes the mechanism.
• Process over product. What the child did and discovered matters more than whether the result looks like the example — and twenty identical craft outcomes is a sign the adults did the work.
• Observe before you plan. Good planning follows from watching what children are actually interested in and capable of.
• Scaffold rather than rescue. Offer the smallest help that lets the child continue, and withdraw it as they manage.
• Adapt for children with differing needs as a normal part of planning, not as an exception.
• Expectations that are too high produce frustration; too low produce boredom, and both look like behaviour problems.

⚠⚠ Supervision and safety — the failures that actually happen

• Active supervision means you can see and hear every child, all the time. Being in the room is not supervision, and this is the single most common contributor to serious incidents.
• ⚠ Transitions are when children are lost. Moving between rooms, going outside, coming back in, arrival and departure — count the children, by name, at every transition and at regular intervals.
• Never leave a child unattended, including in a vehicle, a bathroom, or asleep out of sight.
• Know your ratios and maintain them, including when a colleague steps out.
• Allergies can be fatal. Know every child's allergies, know where the medication is, know how to use it, and treat food brought from home as a hazard requiring a plan.
• Choking is a leading cause of death in young children. Know which foods are high-risk for which ages, supervise eating, and hold current paediatric first aid and CPR.
• Safe sleep practice for infants — on the back, on a firm surface, nothing else in the crib — and it applies every time, including for naps.
• Check playgrounds and equipment before use, and know the surfacing and fall-height requirements.
• Handwashing and illness exclusion policies are how outbreaks are prevented in a setting where they spread very fast.
• Release only to authorised adults, and check identification when you do not know the person — however awkward it feels.
• Report incidents and near misses honestly, including your own errors.

⚠⚠ In Florida, everyone is a mandatory reporter of child abuse — including you

• Florida law requires any person who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected to report it. Unlike many states, Florida's duty is not limited to designated professions — it applies to everyone.
• The report goes to the Florida Abuse Hotline: 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873), available at all times, and also by web and fax.
• ⚠ You report suspicion, not proof. It is not your job to investigate, to confirm, or to decide whether the threshold is met — and attempting to investigate can compromise a later inquiry and put a child at greater risk.
• Report directly. Telling a supervisor may be your centre's procedure, but it does not discharge your personal legal duty — if you have the suspicion, the obligation is yours.
• Failure to report is an offence, and knowingly making a false report is also an offence.
• Good-faith reporters are afforded legal protection, and reports can be made without the reporter's name in most circumstances — though giving your name assists the investigation.
• Document what you observed, factually and immediately — what you saw or heard, in plain description, with the date and time. Not conclusions, and not what you inferred.
• Know the indicators — physical, behavioural, and developmental — and know that a single indicator rarely means anything while a pattern may mean a great deal.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Reporting duties, thresholds, and procedures are statutory and can change. Verify current requirements and follow your employer's procedure alongside your personal duty.

⚠⚠ Working with young children in Florida requires screening and specific training

• Child care personnel in Florida are subject to Level 2 background screening — fingerprint-based state and federal criminal history checks — before working with children, and rescreening on a cycle.
• ⚠ Certain offences are permanently disqualifying. If you have any criminal history at all, establish your eligibility before investing in this programme — raise it early and privately with the programme, because finding out at placement is far worse.
• The Department of Children and Families sets mandatory training requirements for child care personnel, including introductory training that must be completed within a defined period of employment, plus ongoing in-service hours.
• ⚠ Coursework and DCF training are not automatically the same thing. Some college coursework may substitute for some DCF requirements and some may not — confirm with the programme and with DCF what your courses will and will not satisfy.
• The Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is separately awarded and widely required or preferred; it involves documented experience, training hours, a portfolio, an observation, and an examination.
• The Florida Staff Credential and related credentials have their own requirements and are frequently what an employer actually asks for.
• Ratios and supervision requirements are set by rule and are inspected; they differ by age group and by setting.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Screening, training, ratio, and credential requirements change. Verify with DCF and with your programme rather than relying on this guide.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

CHD2338 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered Fall at Daytona State.

⚠ Level 2 background screening is required before working with children in Florida, and certain offences are permanently disqualifying — establish your eligibility before investing in this pathway.