Geometry

This week in class we talked about geometry and folded a square-piece of paper, having to use proofs not just what we saw to explain what we did. While I reviewed geometry last year to take the WEST-B test, it has been 12 years sine I took geometry in high school, and I didn't know the material like I thought I would. This proves to me that I really need to review and re-teach myself the material before I even begin to teach a lesson, especially a lesson like this with the paper.

In my kindergarten main placement we begin math with a "math minute". All the kids sit together on the carpet and the teacher reads out a math problem and they turn to their friend on the carpet and tell them the answer. On Thursday the question was a geometry question and it made me think about class. The kids had to describe a shape to their partner. They couldn't say the name or the name of shape that it is similar to. For example, "the shape I'm thinking of has four corners and all the sides are the same length". The students were doing it, and I watched and listened to them think about what they know about each shape. This made me think about Van Hiele's five steps. These five and six year olds were in the first step working their way to the second step. If as a kindergarten teacher, I can lay a strong foundation, the teachers after me can continue to build and by the time the students are in high school, they'll comfortably be in step four, "deduction".

In class we talked about having students keep a journal to express their emotions, feelings and thoughts about math. I'm wondering would you as the teacher correct math errors in the journal, or leave them as a place for students to freely write whatever they feel, whether it's matematically correct or not?