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Welcome to our blog!

View posts by our current and past bloggers to gain valuable insights into the developing brain and learn about activities that you can easily incorporate into your early childhood curriculum to foster the development of early math skills in young learners.

Check back often throughout the year so you don’t miss a single blog—and join in the conversation by asking questions or leaving comments at the end of each post!

About our blogger Diann Gano, M.Ed

Diann Gano, M.Ed.

Diann Gano, M.Ed

Diann Gano—who opened her family child care program, Under the Gingko Tree in 1986—has long believed that “the earth gives us what we need to learn” and that nature is “the perfect environment for little brains to grow and learn in every day.” While conducting research for her master’s thesis on outdoor learning in early childhood settings, she learned about the Nature Explore Classroom Certification Program, which recognizes schools and other organizations that have made a commitment to providing outdoor classrooms and comprehensive programming to help children use the natural world as an integral part of learning. She enrolled in the Nature Explore Classroom certification program after completing her master’s degree in 2010, and Under the Ginkgo Tree was certified as a Nature Explore Certified Outdoor Classroom Program in 2011.

A member of the Erikson Family Child Care Portal Project Advisory Board, Gano has also participated in the Erikson Institute’s Early Childhood Leadership Summit and served as a webinar panelist for Town Square Illinois, an online resource and professional development tool for home-based providers. She has presented at the local, state and national levels on topics such as indoor and outdoor learning environments, the importance of loose parts in early math education and the impact of immersion in the natural world on brain development in young children. In 2016, Gano was honored as a recipient of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Child Care Innovator Award for creating a school environment that inspires children to become more active and engaged learners. In May 2019, she received the prestigious Terri Lynn Lokoff/Children’s Tylenol National Teacher Award, which honors 50 outstanding early child care professionals across the nation each year for making a lasting difference in the lives of the children they serve and setting them on a path to success in school and in life. She received her BS in liberal arts from Western Illinois University and her MEd in education from St. Mary of the Woods College in Indiana.

The Perfect Fit: Blocks and Friends

“Here’s a circle!” calls out two-year-old Eleanor. “My mom calls that a cylinder, and it goes over here,” says four-year-old Nadia. “A silly-der?” Eleanor is puzzled. The room erupts in laughter as Nadia gently corrects her: “No, Eleanor, it’s a cylinder.” Eleanor gamely gives it another try. “Oh, a silly-her?” she asks with a giggle, […]

Happy 100th Birthday, Ella Jenkins!

  Last month, the City of Chicago and educators around the globe celebrated Ella Jenkins’s 100 birthday. If you grew up listening to borrowed albums, tapes, or CDs from your local library, I guarantee that Ella Jenkins has touched your life. If you’ve been to a state or national early learning conference, there is a […]

Good Night, Gorilla—Hello Math!

  “Good night, Gorilla,” says four-year-old “zookeeper” Emma as she pats her friend, Ana, on the head. Emma pretends not to notice as Ana—playing the role of the gorilla in this reenactment of the beloved children’s book, Goodnight, Gorilla—removes a colorful set of keys from Emma’s pocket to unlock her pretend cage. (These toy keys […]

Early Math Olympics!

    “Hey! Let’s play Olympics! ” shouts four-year-old Carl. “We can have a relay race and use a paper towel tube for the relay baton. Who wants to play?” “Let’s do the long jump!” calls out Celia, who is already jumping up and down with excitement. A week of watching the Paris Olympic Summer […]

Finding Math in a Field of Strawberries

“I’ll carry the biggest container,” volunteers four-year-old Matthew as the younger children fall in behind him. Picking strawberries during the first week of summer break is an annual tradition in our early childhood program. What better way to learn about counting, measuring and estimating than to get out in the fresh air and sunshine and […]

Mapping Fun for Young STEM Learners

  Five-year-old Amelia—our budding cartographer—has captured the attention of every child in the room as she shares her latest map drawing: “You walk out of my front door and turn right. Then you go this way and you are at my swings and slide. If you walk out of my front door, turn left and […]

STEM Play With Pattern Blocks

  “Hey, that’s cool. I like your guy!” says four-year-old Jaheem, peering over Michelea’s shoulder as she plays with her pattern blocks. “It’s not a guy; it’s a flower!” Michelea replies, tilting her head to try to see the “guy” that Jaheem is referring to. “That’s the stem and the leaves,” she explains, pointing to […]

Eclipse Party 2024!

“The birds are chirping so loud—I think they’re scared,” said Vera as she looked up at the sky with a pair of certified safe eclipse glasses pressed against her eyes. She was absolutely right! The singing birds—along with the chirping crickets and the barking dogs in the neighborhood—were louder and more intense than usual as […]

Early Math Counts is Now Multilingual!

  Hello, Hallo, Hej Hej, Hola, Ciao . . . well, you get the idea! To expand our reach to families and early childhood educators around the globe, we’ve added a translation option to our Early Math Counts website. With this new functionality, our readers can now translate Early Math Counts into more than 100 […]

Risk-Taking, Math and a Hollow Tree

“LOOK!” Ellie summons us with such joy that there’s no doubt she has spotted something wonderful. Our eyes follow the four-year-old as she dashes to a very large, very hollow tree. A tree that is still alive and thriving—with an opening over four feet tall just inviting a group of children and their teacher to […]