Do your early learners know how to play Garbage, a fun and engaging card game that helps young children—especially preschoolers and kindergartners—strengthen their early math skills?

A game of Garbage usually involves two players and a standard deck of cards with the jokers removed. For our youngest learners, we also remove the face cards (kings, queens, and jacks) Each player is dealt 10 cards. The cards are placed face down in front of each child in two rows of five. The rest of the cards are placed in the center of the table as a draw pile.

So let’s get a game of Garbage started!

Ask Player #1 to draw a card from the draw pile and look at it. Let’s say it is a FIVE. Player #1 will count to her fifth card, remove it,  and replace it with the five card, face up in its location. Then Player #1 will look at her new card and determine where she can play that card. 

If Player #1 draws a number card that has already been played, Player #1’s turn is over—and Player #2 takes a card from the draw pile. The first player to complete an entire set of 10 cards is the winner.

When, Maleah, a four-year-old in our group, plays this game, she tends to count one by one as she touches each card. For example, when she draws a five, she’ll count from one to five, placing the card down as she finds the fifth pile.

Six-year-old Jamanjae is already comfortable counting up to 10. He quickly identifies the position of the seven on the second card in the bottom row and places his card there.

It takes time and practice to master the skill of putting numbers in order. I can see Maleah’s number sense emerging as she becomes more familiar with this game. If a few cards have already been flipped over, she will use those to help her find where the next card goes. If she pulls an eight, she’ll spot the seven nearby and place her eight card next to it. This shift in understanding marks a key milestone in Maleah’s early math journey.

Number sense is all about recognizing patterns, making connections, and understanding the value of numbers, so this shift represents a step forward in those skills. As children play this simple game, they are also developing their number-recognition skills and beginning to grasp concepts such as number value, greater than, and less than.

I love this card game for so many reasons, but the main one is its resemblance to the design of a ten frame. Garbage—with its two rows of five cards—can be an incredibly effective way to strengthen early math skills because the cards are arranged in a pattern that children recognize from their ten-frame activities.

Children learn math at their own pace by using many different skill sets that don’t always develop at the same pace or in the same order. So we give them a lot of options that allow them to learn in their own unique ways. By keeping it playful and hands-on, we set them up for math success.

That small deck of playing cards contains a lot of math just waiting to be explored. As this game progresses, you’ll have many opportunities to observe and assess each player’s number sense. Can each child identify the numbers by name?

Card games such as Garbage, War, or Go Fish can help children visualize math concepts through play—and offer entertaining alternatives to worksheets and screen time in the process!

Ready to get started? Check out this How to Play Garbage  video for step-by-step instructions. Then grab a deck of cards and let the learning begin!

“Why is there dirt in the snow?” asks Seana as we hike through some freshly fallen snow speckled with dirt and debris.

“Maybe it blew off of a roof?” Anthony suggests.

“I think it came from the birds and squirrels,” Elijah chimes in.

“Or maybe the wind blew it off of the trees?” guesses Quinn.

These observations spark a lively conversation about where the dirt came from and how it ended up in the snow. The children wonder if they are eating dirt when they sneak a bite of snow, if the dirt will float to the top when the snow melts, and if they will be able to see the dirt more clearly once the snow turns into water.

Eager to discover the answers to these questions, we decide to bring some snow inside and observe it as it melts.

Our goal is to explore the properties of snow, measure its depth, and observe how it changes as it melts. This provides a wonderful context for practicing key math and science concepts such as measurement, comparison, and data collection.

After collecting fresh snow in jars and bringing the jars into the classroom, the children use a measuring stick to measure the depth of the snow in each container (see photo below). 

This is a fun, hands-on way to reinforce the concept of measurement. The children measure the snow before and after it melts, then compare the amount of dirt in the water to the amount of snow that they started with.

Through the use of measuring sticks, the children also practice counting while learning about measurement units. They learn that the numbers on the measuring sticks represent how much space the snow is taking up in the jars and begin to grasp the concept of measurement as they develop their number sense.

Their curiosity and questions drive the entire investigation, making it an engaging and meaningful experience for everyone involved.

After measuring the snow in the jars, we place each jar in a different classroom location to see how the snow will melt under different conditions over time. We place some of the jars near sunny windows and others in cooler or darker areas of the classroom.

Then we make predictions about which jar of snow might melt fastest based on its size and location. Making predictions and testing hypotheses is a key part of the scientific method. As they engage in these processes, the children develop problem-solving skills that will be essential to later math and science learning.

As the snow melts and the children record their observations, this period of observation turns into an impromptu lesson about transformation. The children compare the volume of the snow as a solid to its volume as a liquid and discuss the difference between the two states of matter. This lays the foundation for an early understanding of scientific concepts such as melting, temperature, and physical changes in matter.

While measuring the snow at different stages of the melting process, the children also notice that the snow melts at different rates in the different jars. This gives them a real-world context for the concept of comparison. As they discuss terms such as more, less, and the same, they gain a foundational understanding of how to compare quantities.

After measuring and comparing, we stack the math linking cubes pictured above to create a visual representation of the volume of snow in its frozen and melted states. This gives our early learners a rudimentary understanding of what it means to measure.

Through hands-on play with these math linking cubes, the children also begin to understand the numerical value of their measurements. This multi-sensory learning helps them understand early math in a more visual, tactile, and engaging way than traditional worksheets or lessons.

All in all, this snow measurement activity is so much more than a fun experiment. It is an opportunity for our youngest learners to engage in real-world math, build important measurement skills, and make connections between math and science. 

Whether it’s measuring snow in its solid and liquid states, making predictions about how much snow will fall, or following animal footprints on a snowy day, winter is the perfect time to integrate math and science into everyday experiences.

We hope you’ll be inspired to embark on some snowy STEM adventures of your own this winter!

“Did you get new blocks?” four-year-old Marlo shouts as she makes a beeline for a table piled high with SumBlox, our newest early math learning tool.

Without waiting for an answer, she begins stacking the blocks into a tower. Suddenly she stops and asks: “Hey! Are these numbers?” 

“Yep, they are number blocks,” I confirm. “There are lots of different ways to play with them.”

Marlo tilts her head, looks at me quizzically for a second, and then begins to arrange the blocks in numerical order. Within minutes, she has another epiphany.

“Every number gets bigger and taller!” she notes with excitement.

Five-year-old Seana joins Marlo at the table.  “These are cool!” she exclaims.

I continue to observe as these two early learners explore our newest playful math tools.

Just when I thought wooden blocks couldn’t get any better, I discovered SumBlox: wooden blocks shaped like the numbers 1 through 10.

But here’s what truly unique about this block set: Each block’s size reflects its numerical value. For example, the #2 block is twice as tall as the #1 block and the #10 block is 10 times as tall as the #1 block.

These simple yet powerful blocks help children spot numerical patterns and understand the relationships between numbers.

It isn’t long before Seana figures out the magic of these blocks.

“When I stack two blocks together to make them add up to 10 and then line up the different stacks, they are all the same height!” she reports.  (See image above.)

Wow! I think to myself. I love how those little brains work!

Seana smiles and I can see her confidence grow as she stacks different sets of numbers. Her number sense is growing as she “plays” with different number block combinations.

Because the blocks are different heights based on the numbers that they represent, they give children a fun, hands-on way to see how numbers work together, like finding different “friends” for each number that add up to the same amount.

As Marlo and Seana continue to play with the SumBlox, they are learning that different combinations of numbers can form the same total—a key early math concept.

When children can physically manipulate number blocks, they can better understand the concept of  “how much” each number represents. For example, when children see that the #3 block is three times taller than the #1 block, they begin to understand that 3 is more than 1—and the size difference helps them see how numbers grow.

This hands-on approach is especially helpful for visual learners who grasp concepts better by seeing and doing rather than by listening to someone explain the concepts. As children arrange the blocks in various combinations, they can start to recognize patterns such as how numbers add up or how removing some blocks makes a smaller number.

Because the blocks are proportional in size to the numbers they represent, children can see how numbers combine in a visual way.

By placing the #4 and #5 blocks next to the #9 block (see image above), children can see that the heights match, which helps them grasp the idea that 4 + 5 is the same as 9.

Children can also explore how to break down the number 10 into different parts, such as 5 + 5 or 6 + 4, and even experiment with more complex combinations such as 5 + 2 + 3 to reach 10.

This “seeing and touching” approach enables young learners to connect with numbers in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Instead of simply knowing what a number looks like, children begin to understand what that number really represents—how numbers relate to each other, how they change, and how they can be combined or broken down.

All of this helps children develop number sense—a key early math skill.

Number sense can be challenging for young learners to grasp because it involves abstract concepts such as quantity and number relationships.

SumBlox makes these concepts a bit less “abstract” by giving children a hands-on opportunity to practice ordering numbers, which helps them gain confidence as they make and correct mistakes.

As the numbers increase in value, the blocks get taller too, offering a visual cue to help kids understand the concepts of “more” and “less.”

This hands-on approach also makes it easier for children to see the relationships between numbers. As they stack and arrange the blocks, they can practice number recognition, counting, addition, and subtraction. Our more advanced and intrepid early math learners can also explore basic multiplication, division, and fractions.

I love how these blocks also help children spot patterns in numbers and understand how numbers relate to each other.

By observing how towers composed of various SumBlox are taller or shorter, children can see how numbers grow in predictable ways. Simple activities such as putting the blocks in order from 1 to 10 help build number recognition skills, while fostering an understanding of the value represented by each number. Children can begin to see that 10 is much bigger than 1, not just by recognizing the number, but by seeing the difference in the size of the blocks.

A SumBlox set offers a powerful, hands-on way for young learners to explore and understand key early math concepts. Through play, children can physically see and feel the relationships between numbers, which helps build a solid foundation for more advanced math learning down the road.

Playful learning truly makes math enjoyable and meaningful for young minds.

Try pairing SumBlox with Ten, Nine, Eight on our Early Math Counts lesson page!

“How many marshmallows would you like with your hot chocolate, Miss?” asks Cody, imitating a waiter in a fine restaurant as he holds out a tray of yellow pompoms.

“Can I have five, please?” Makenzie responds.

“One, two, three, four, five . . . there you go!” says Cody as he counts out the pretend marshmallows with a flourish.

Then he moves on to Zachary, who says, “I’d like seven marshmallows, please.”

“Okay, ” Cody replies. He glances down at his tray to estimate the number of remaining marshmallows. “But I don’t think I have that many.”

Then he starts to count again, plunking the pretend marshmallows one by one into the different sections of his ten frame to keep track. “One, two, three, four, five . . . hmm, that’s all I have.”

Through this simple interaction, Cody and his friends are developing a deeper understanding of numbers and quantities. When children use ten frames in play, they are actively exploring math concepts in a fun, hands-on way. Ten frames help children visualize numbers and grasp concepts such as grouping, patterns, and relationships.

By physically moving the pompoms from the tray to the different sections of the ten frame, they are also engaging in kinesthetic learning, which is a vital part of early childhood development. This physical interaction with numbers reinforces abstract math concepts such as counting, subitizing (recognizing small quantities without counting), and one-to-one correspondence.

At first, a ten frame may simply feel like part of a game—something that the children use to count objects, organize toys, or create patterns. This playful early exposure to ten frames will make these learning tools less intimidating when they are introduced later as part of the formal primary school curriculum.

The use of ten frames in an informal, low-pressure setting also reduces math anxiety and boosts confidence as children become more comfortable with numbers. When the focus is on exploration and play rather than “getting the right answer,” children develop a positive, confident attitude toward math.

The simple act of filling and emptying a ten frame or organizing objects into groups strengthens neural connections that are crucial for brain development. This tactile play builds fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and problem-solving abilities—all essential for future learning.

When children move objects around in ten frames, they are doing more than practicing math: They are developing foundational skills that will support every aspect of their cognitive development. The more children touch, feel, and explore, the more they learn!

I encourage you to add ten frames to your classroom or home play area and watch as the children engage with them in creative and exciting ways. The best part? You don’t need a formal lesson to get started. Simply let the children explore the ten frames as part of their play and watch how they naturally build basic math skills along the way.

For a story that ties in beautifully with math and the magic of marshmallows, check out The Last Marshmallow by Grace Lin. This charming tale of sharing and counting is perfect for building early math skills through storytelling.

After your book share, check out our “Hot Cocoa Math” lesson plan for a fun and easy way to integrate ten frames into play!

“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 to be the center of attention.

This playful exchange continues, with Eleanor determined to say “cylinder” correctly, much to the hilarity of her friends.

Finally, she nails it: “Your mom calls this a cylinder!” Applause and dancing follow in a lighthearted celebration of Eleanor’s success.

In this vibrant block center gathering, we have all of the ingredients for deep learning. Movement, physical touch, mentoring, and experimentation are all at play.

When mistakes happen, they’re met with laughter rather than frustration and friends are always ready and willing to lend a hand.

This rich environment fosters conversation, cooperation, and problem-solving as the children engage in hands-on learning while meeting important educational standards. 

It’s nearing lunchtime, and the children in the block area have somehow caught a case of “pick up” fever.

This is rare, as many of you know. We usually have one older child who assumes the role of “organizer.” This is the child who likes to put the unit blocks in a specific place and in a specific order, while the younger children struggle just to find room on any available surface.

So when I see the blocks being organized on the shelves by attributes, I stop to observe the collaboration and child-led learning that is unfolding in front of my eyes.

“The long blocks go here,” Nadia instructs her younger friends. “If you have two shorter blocks, you can make a long block. See?”

“We can put two triangles together to make a square and stack them here,” Sasha chimes in.

The excitement in the block area is contagious as the children collaborate, explore, and learn together.

As I observe Saaliha, I can almost see the wheels turning in her mind. She carefully experiments with the blocks, turning them this way and that, determined to find the right fit. It’s deep thinking at its finest. When she sees a friend successfully place a block, she mimics her friend’s technique and—success! There’s no grand celebration, just a quiet determination to find another matching block to solidify her learning.

This is where the magic of hands-on learning happens. Saaliha’s brain might not have grasped these concepts on paper, but the tactile experience of handling blocks and using vocabulary in context has helped her put the pieces of the puzzle together.

As educators, we need to focus on making learning real. The Early Learning Standard is met, but more importantly, Saaliha is developing critical cognitive skills in a way that feels natural and engaging.

These vibrant moments of play offer invaluable opportunities for observation. During these times, we can step back and truly witness the learning that is happening in front of us. 

The block center is often the epicenter of these play buzz moments. Blocks are universally appealing and developmentally appropriate for young children, making them an essential resource in any early childhood setting.

If your program doesn’t have a dedicated block area, consider advocating for one. A well-designed block center can enrich the life of every child and help foster the development of a wide variety of skills.

If you already have a block area, try to carve out longer periods of time for uninterrupted play. Get down on the floor, observe the learning, and check off the early learning standards that the children are meeting. You’ll see so much happening in that corner of your early childhood center, from math and science to geography and art!

The block center is more than just a space for play: It’s a rich environment for building cognitive, social, and emotional skills.

Through block play, children learn about shapes, sizes, and spatial relationships—all while practicing essential communication and cooperation skills.

Let’s embrace these moments of discovery and learning. By fostering a playful atmosphere, you are not only meeting educational standards but also fostering a lifelong love of learning.

So, let’s dive into the block corner and watch our young learners thrive!

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 chance that  Ella Jenkins was the keynote speaker!

Click on the image below to hear “Sweet Ella Jenkins,” an original song celebrating the 100th birthday of “The First Lady of Children’s Music.” Written and performed by songwriter and preschool teacher Greg Gardner (aka Mr. Greg), with musical accompaniment by Ben Sigelman and harmonizing vocals by the Chapin sisters, “Sweet Ella Jenkins” contains lines from Jenkins’ classic songs. This catchy new song is a heartfelt and engaging tribute to the woman who taught us all to “sing a song together.”

Here are just a few of the song’s lyrics:

“You sing the song, we sing it right back,

A call and response with a rhythmic clap,

Our voices all blend, and our toes start to tap.

Tap to the tune of Miss Mary Mack,

And we all sing along, yes, we all sing along,

With the first lady of children’s folk songs.”

If I have learned one thing from listening to Ella Jenkins, it is the effectiveness of call-and-response singing and chanting. Jenkins is a master at call-and-response singing and uses it often in her music. She recognizes that the interactive nature of call and response helps maintain the attention and focus of children by inviting them to respond to the leader’s prompts. Call and response breaks up the monotony of passive listening and keeps children actively involved in the learning process.

Click on the image below to hear songs from Ella Jenkins’ first album. Released in 1957, it features simple call-and-response chants from the U.S. and Africa, adapted for young children. The album launched Jenkins’ long and successful career as one of Smithsonian Folkways Recording’s most beloved artists.

Call-and-response songs help children develop self-regulation skills by requiring them to pay attention and take turns. Songs like “Miss Mary Mack” and “Did You Feed My Cow” foster cooperation and group processes.

The repetition and rhythm in these songs make it easy for very young children to remember the sequence of patterns. As they learn to anticipate these patterns and the sequences of events or objects, children build early math skills.

Educators worldwide have seen the emotional and social connections that form when we use call and response in our classrooms. The responsive nature of this activity creates a sense of community, fosters a positive learning environment, and makes learning more enjoyable while creating trust and friendship.

Call and response fosters social interaction and collaboration. It encourages children to work together and take turns, which helps them develop social skills. Repeating phrases or information through call and response can enhance memory and recall.

Click on the image below to hear Jenkins’ infectious song, “Get Moving.”

Music holds a powerful place in the human brain—and singing utilizes the brain’s language and music areas. When children actively listen to music, multiple brain areas light up! 

Music and movement are powerful tools that we can use daily to reinforce math concepts, and the more senses that children employ as they participate in this activity, the more they learn. A five-year study conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that using music in early childhood accelerates brain and language development, speech perception, and reading skills.

I remember the Jenkins song, “Counting Games and Rhythms for the Little Ones,” from my own kindergarten days. Jenkins’ songs are great teaching tools for those of us who are fostering early math skills such as counting, patterns, rhythm, and basic arithmetic in early learners. Math, set to music, leads to a deeper grasp of numerical concepts.

Click on the image below to hear it!

My favorite kindergarten game was singing along with Jenkins as she taught us “Johnny Had One Friend.” We skipped around and grabbed the hand of a friend as she reinforced our counting skills with “Johnny Has Two Friends.” We stood on the carpet and recited “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.” We practiced our fine motor skills by repeating “Two Little Black Birds.” When you can remember anything from kindergarten, you know it was a powerful moment!

“Wake up, little sparrow, come join the choir,

Sing a song for a lady we all admire, 

Her heart’s been beating for a full century, 

And these songs will live on for eternity.

Let’s raise a glass to a woman with class

And sing with sweet Ella Jenkins.”

Join us in celebrating the gift of Ella and her music! Play it loud, sing it louder, and let’s all sing a round of Miss Mary Mack!

Happy 100th birthday, Ella Jenkins, from all of us here at Early Math Counts and countless early childhood educators around the globe. Thank you for all that you have taught us over the years. We are forever grateful!

“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 recently purchased for the classroom helped bring this pretend-play scenario to life!)

“Good night, Elephant,” says Emma, patting another child on the head as “Gorilla Ana” unlocks Elephant’s pretend cage.

Emma moves on to the next pretend cage: “Good night, Lion,” she says, continuing to act out the book’s storyline (which we have all heard more times than we can count).

Good Night, Gorilla is a childhood classic about bedtime at the zoo, when a mischievous gorilla steals the keys to the animals’ cages from the very sleepy zookeeper.

By popular demand, Goodnight Gorilla has become a permanent fixture in our classroom library. Only 34 pages long, with just 10 words, Good Night, Gorilla is, without a doubt, the most requested read-aloud story at our preschool. 

Every time we revisit this charming tale, the children discover something new, which prompts a new set of questions and a new wave of learning. This book may be short on words, but it’s full of hidden surprises!

Best of all, it’s filled with so many early math concepts that every reading turns into a joyful early math adventure. Goodnight gorilla, hello math!  

Have you ever noticed that the key used by Gorilla to unlock each cage is the same color as the cage? This color-matching exercise helps foster a foundational understanding of matching and attributes.

Not only is each animal’s cage a different color, but the tiles beneath each cage have different colors and patterns. I encourage the children to focus on these variations to introduce them to the concept of patterns and repetition.

As the children acquaint themselves with these early math concepts, they are also sharpening their observational skills. While studying each illustration, they discover that the cages are stocked with different toys and food items.

Gorilla’s cage, for example, is outfitted with a bike and a tire swing. The mischievous primate’s best friend, Mouse, is nibbling on a string attached to a balloon. A closer inspection reveals a Curious George storybook and an enormous bunch of bananas hanging overhead.

Elephant’s cage contains a Babar the Elephant soft toy, a blue ball decorated with orange elephants, and plenty of peanuts littering the cage floor and spilling out onto the pavement.

But why does Armadillo’s cage contain an Ernie soft toy? One child suggests that it might be because Armadillo and Ernie both have stripes, which makes sense to the rest of us!

As Gorilla makes his getaway, Mouse, the banana, and the balloon follow along. This gives the children plenty of opportunities to spot them on each page and make observations about objects in the cage, behind the zookeeper, and above the houses.

This activity helps the children develop their spatial reasoning skills, which are linked to future achievement in STEAM disciplines such as science, technology, engineering, art, and math. 

Goodnight Gorilla also unfolds in a specific sequence. When the children begin to understand this order—how the gorilla steals the keys, unlocks each cage, and follows the zookeeper home in the order that the animals are released—they become acquainted with sequencing, a foundational skill they will later use for math and reading.

There are also many opportunities for the children to count the animals and learn about ordinal numbers, which indicate each animal’s position in a series, such as first, second, third, or fourth.

By reinforcing the fact that the final number in the counting sequence also represents the total number of animals, you can introduce early learners to concepts such as cardinality and one-to-one correspondence.

To practice subtraction, note that Gorilla leaves a key in the lock each time he unlocks a cage door, which leaves one less key on the ring.

You can also help build the children’s positional and spatial vocabulary as they follow the balloon on the string, which appears on nearly every page. Watch that balloon get smaller and smaller as it moves up into the night sky—until it is just a pink speck next to the moon.

That’s a lot of joyful math learning!

But there’s so much more to explore. Ask the following questions to help the children focus on other details:

• Point to the houses and ask: “Do the houses in the neighborhood seem surprised as the animals walk back and forth to and from the zoo?“
• Direct the children’s attention to the people watching from the house windows and ask: “Have you noticed that the number of people watching from the windows changes? Do you think this a nightly occurrence?“
• Point out the speech bubbles in the black-as-night bedroom scene and ask: “Do the speech bubbles match the sizes and locations of the hiding animals?“
• As the children’s powers of observation grow, ask harder questions, such as:
  • Can you find the zookeeper’s broken belt loop?
  • Do you see the banana-shaped moon on the cover?
  • Do the times on the bedroom clock change as the night wears on?”

Don’t forget to remind the children to keep an eye out for Mouse and his banana; they appear on almost every page.

On the final page, Gorilla and Mouse are snoozing in the zookeeper’s bed after enjoying a late-night snack.

Ask: “Who ate the banana? Gorilla? Mouse?“

My gang is convinced that they shared it!

“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 Games at home with their parents has transformed these early learners into Olympic hopefuls!

This Olympics fever has set our play and learning in motion for the week. It’s a great opportunity to get outdoors and get those little bodies moving while we factor in some early math.

I grab a stopwatch and a tape measure to help my early Olympians build their early math foundations.

“Can you time me and see how long I can hang on these rings?” asks Maya.

By incorporating a stopwatch into our Early Math Olympics, I’m giving the children an opportunity to build their number recognition skills by identifying and reading the numbers on the stopwatch display. 

Introducing children to a stopwatch early on can also help them grasp the concept of time in a practical way. By watching the stopwatch record seconds and minutes, kids gain a rudimentary understanding of the passage of time. It’s a hands-on way for them to learn how to measure time and how activities fit into different timeframes.

“Watch how far I can jump and then tell me what number it is!” shouts Caleb.

Our Olympic long jump event encourages the children to develop physical skills such as coordination and strength as they learn about early math concepts such as measurement, counting, comparing, and estimating distances.

We estimate how far the children think they can jump and then record each child’s long jump with the measuring tape. Afterward, we compare the difference between their predictions and the actual results. 

We use a frisbee as a discus and a softball for the shot put. You can measure everything from a long jump to the distance a child can spit a watermelon seed in a seed-spitting contest!  The beauty of these Early Math Olympics is that we get to create our own variations on the actual Olympic games as the day progresses.

Our favorite event of the day is the steeplechase, which combines distance running with several obstacles. An obstacle course may look like play, but it’s chock full of learning opportunities. We created a series of simple obstacles, such as crawling under picnic tables, jumping over cones, and balancing on a beam.

Obstacle courses are a great way for children to develop their spatial skills as they expand their spatial vocabulary.

Set up an obstacle course and listen in as the children naturally use spatial vocabulary words such as above, around, below, beside, between, over, and through.

Obstacle courses also teach children about sequencing, memory, and following directions.

Best of all, kids LOVE them!

As you design your obstacle course, include the following elements to make it both fun and challenging:

• Something to climb over: We climb over the picnic table or up the slide.
• Something to weave around and between: We often use cones or buckets, two-liter plastic bottles filled with water, or landmarks such as trees, bushes and gardens.
• Something to crawl through or under: We use tunnels, parachutes, boxes, etc.
• Something to walk or balance on with care, such as a curved rope, river rocks or tree stumps.
• Something to run toward, such as a fence, a tree, or a door at the beginning or end of the course.

It’s likely that one competitive child in your group will want to make a chart, add columns and times, and keep score. Fortunately, that will satisfy the “Recognizes and Organizes Data and Information” early learning standard for that child. If the scorekeeping catches on with the group, be sure to have a laptop on hand to check off all of those standards!

If your early learners catch Olympic fever this month, sneak in the math, check off those early learning standards, and enjoy the fun!

“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 enjoy hands-on activities that engage all of the senses—from seeing and hearing to touching, tasting and smelling?

I am fairly certain that we are eating as many strawberries as we pick! But that makes this math-packed adventure even better because children learn best through their senses.

The friendly folks at our local U-pick farm assign us a numbered row to pick from, which gives us yet another way to factor math into our strawberry-picking adventure: number recognition!

“We are in Row 66 today,” I call out to the children as they march behind me, wearing their strawberry boxes as hats.

As we walk past each row, Matthew begins to count, “1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . .”

“I can do it!” blurts out three-year-old Owen. He races to the front of the line, positions himself at Matthew’s side, and picks up where his older friend left off:  “4 . . .  5 . . . 6 . . .”

Matthew gently takes over the counting when Owen reaches the limits of his number knowledge at the 13th row. But as Matthew counts out the double-digit numbers, I can hear Owen echoing him, which is a great way for Owen and his younger peers to practice their counting skills. 

“Row 66!” Owen stops abruptly and swivels his head from left to right as he surveys the row dotted with bright red strawberries just waiting to be picked. “There must be millions,” he observes in awe.

Maybe not millions, but this is a great opportunity to introduce concepts such as quantity and estimating. In fact, one of the best places to strengthen math skills is in the garden.

“Kindergarten” is a German word that literally means “children’s garden,” which covers Froebel’s concept of “a place for children,” as well as his beliefs regarding childhood growth, development and learning (Elkind, 2015).

Teaching math in a garden comes naturally as children count, sort, find patterns, and organize by size, color or other attributes.

“Look at how big this strawberry is!” Owen exclaims excitedly. “I bet it’s the biggest one we find all day!”

What starts out as a competition to find the largest strawberry is soon replaced by relaxed camaraderie as the children bite into the sun-warmed fruit and the juice stains their lips, chins and fingers bright red.

“Close your eyes and open your hands,” Asa tells Harper as she plops a strawberry into each of Harper’s outstretched palms. “Now tell me which strawberry weighs more.”

Harper obliges. “Definitely this one!” he answers, holding up his left palm and opening his eyes. “But that’s weird because the heavier strawberry is smaller . . .” 

“I know! I thought that was weird, too!” Asa replies.

Hands-on activities with everyday objects help children learn about measurement. Moments like these also offer real-world opportunities for them to discuss math concepts such as size, weight and capacity.

Children need to talk about mathematical concepts and share their theories with one another and their teachers.

“I wonder which basket will weigh more?” I ask Joseph. “Your basket with eight big strawberries or Vera’s basket with 14 little strawberries?”

“Vera’s! She has 14!” shouts Joseph. We decide to weigh them after we’re done picking to see if his guess is correct.  

“I found a double strawberry; I bet it weighs the most!” announces Gabriel with a mischievous grin.

“That’s not FAIR!” the gang whines in unison.

Gabriel laughs. “It’s really cool. I’m taking this one home to show my mom and dad, so please don’t eat it!”

We finish filling our baskets and make our way to the checkout to see how many pounds we’ve picked this year. The sun is getting warmer and our legs are getting weaker. It’s time to rehydrate with some cold water and refuel with a protein-packed lunch.

We’ve picked 13.2 pounds of strawberries! The eight big strawberries in Joseph’s basket did weigh more than the 14 small strawberries in Vera’s basket—but only by two ounces.

No one seems to care. The sun and the heat have sapped us of the energy and enthusiasm we need to discuss size and weight at greater length, but there will be other chances when we return to the classroom.

Although some of these concepts may be a bit too advanced for some of the younger learners in the group, we have planted the seeds for future academic success during a day of fun in the strawberry fields.

Later, back in the classroom, we set up a farmer’s market and invite the parents to purchase baskets of strawberries from their children, who serve as cashiers.

In the days ahead, there will be lots of strawberry snacks, jam-making and strawberry smoothies—along with more opportunities to learn and share early math concepts. 

Sink your teeth into some juicy math this summer. Whether you make it to your local farm, the farmer’s market in your community, or simply introduce fruits and vegetables into your early learning program, there’s plenty of math packed into that yummy summer produce!

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 walk past my wagon, you will be at my gardens, the fire pit and the wood pile!”

We have been reading some really great books about maps recently, which have inspired a lot of creative thinking and map drawings.

When children create and play with maps, they’re learning math without even realizing it. Using maps helps children learn about distance and concepts like near, far and next to. Children begin to figure out how objects relate to other objects, such as where they are in space and how far apart they are. Later, the children will use numbers to measure distances and angles. But, for now, they’re just starting to understand these concepts.

Preschool children, in particular, are very curious about how things are positioned and where they are in relation to each other. Whether they’re building with blocks, modeling with clay, or setting the table in the play kitchen, they are exploring space.

The more often early learners play with maps, the better they’ll understand space when it’s time to learn about geometry. Reading physical maps may be a lost art, but it’s a fun and important skill to tackle nonetheless.

Our brains can reason, create, analyze, and process information all day long. They also enable us to move around in our environment with an innate sense of direction. This skill is called spatial orientation, and it’s like having an internal GPS system in our brains.

Spatial orientation helps us understand our relationship to the world we live in as it helps us navigate through space.

Children are natural explorers. They come into the world ready to experiment, investigate, and learn through play. As they engage in this process of exploration and discovery, they not only change the structure of their brains but strengthen the skills they need to be engaged, flexible learners throughout their lives.

“I made the path that Sam follows,” shares three-year-old Michaela. “Remember how Sam does all those curves?”

Sam is a cat in Joyce Hesselberth’s delightful book Mapping Sam, which follows the path of a cat as he travels through his neighborhood. There’s a lot going on in Michaela’s map, but it all makes perfect sense when she explains it to her friends. Michaela’s drawing skills are still developing, but her spatial reasoning as she shows us the path is remarkable. 

Some of our favorite mapping books are also wordless. Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman is a wonderful picture book about maps and mazes. I love books without words because they slow us all down to concentrate on the pictures rather than language—and we all see things a bit differently. It is interesting to see how books without words seem to level the playing field. Regardless of our age or reading ability, we are all equal.

Try introducing young children to simple maps of familiar places such as their classroom or playground. Talk about where objects are located on the map and how they’re connected. This will help the children understand the concepts of distance and direction.

As the children become more proficient at mapping, you can make your map activities more challenging. For example, you might create treasure maps together and hide a toy somewhere in the classroom or outdoor playground. The children can use their emerging navigational skills to follow the map and find the treasure!

Research shows that children who have a deep understanding of spatial relationships are more likely to succeed in STEM fields. So keep encouraging them to explore and play with spatial concepts—it’s helping them build important math skills!

For more real-life applications, whenever you are traveling along a familiar route, narrate the directions out loud. For example, in the car, you can say: “At this corner with the fire hydrant, we turn right! At the next stop sign, we turn left and we will see the grocery store.”

I often narrate directions when the children in our program walk to the local park (see photo above): “Climb the stairs and then turn right and follow the sidewalk past the mailbox to the park.”

Wishing you many happy early “map” adventures!