“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 the Moon slowly moved between the Sun and the Earth. They must have sensed that something out of the ordinary was about to take place!

This scene was from our previous eclipse party on August 21, 2017, when we witnessed the last total eclipse of the Sun in our early childhood center’s outdoor area.

Now—nearly seven years later—children, families and teachers across the nation are bursting with excitement as they anticipate the next total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

This extraordinary event will cast its shadow across a narrow, 115-mile arc that stretches from the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico through 15 U.S. states to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada. People living in or traveling to areas in this “path of totality” will have a rare opportunity to witness daytime turning into night.

You may not live in the path of the total eclipse—or have the time or resources to travel to the best vantage point to see this natural wonder.

But here’s the good news: Observers in all of the lower 48 states will still be able to enjoy the spectacle of a partial eclipse.

If you’re an early childhood educator, you can seize the opportunity to turn the solar eclipse into a fun and educational early math adventure. You can spend the afternoon indoors with the shades drawn, reading books about eclipses while munching on Oreo cookies. Or you can distribute some eclipse safety glasses and take your gang outside to witness the 2024 eclipse in person. To find out more about the 2024 solar eclipse, check out greatamericaneclipse.com.

It pays to plan ahead for this special day! Many local libraries distribute free eclipse safety glasses to community members, and you can also buy them online. Make sure you have enough on hand if you plan to take your eclipse party outside.

In 2017, we attached our safety glasses to paper plates to make them a bit safer and easier for little hands to handle—and then turned this task into an art project by giving the children an opportunity to decorate their “eclipse plates.”

Check out the photo below for an example:

Some of the parents in our program loaned their welding masks to the children for the 2017 eclipse. The welding masks were a big hit, and they were easy for the children to hold over their faces.

According to NASA, it’s safe to view a solar eclipse as long as observers are using a #12 welding filter or higher. But many eclipse viewers find the solar image to be uncomfortably bright when viewed through a #12 filter. For that reason, #13 and #14 filters are becoming more popular (although some viewers find the solar image to be a bit too dim when viewing it through a #14 or darker welding filter).

Our 2017 eclipse party was memorable in so many ways. I don’t think the children will ever forget that surreal moment when the Moon passed in front of the Sun.

I still remember Vera’s awed response as the day darkened and an eerie silence settled over our outdoor area.

“Listen,” she whispered to her fellow eclipse watchers. “The birds aren’t chirping anymore. It’s so quiet. I bet the animals think it’s nighttime. And it feels colder!”

When I think about this comment today, it reminds me that information flows naturally through the senses to a child’s developing brain.

Young children learn through their senses. When you’re a child—or an adult, for that matter—there’s nothing quite like the moment when a sunny day goes dark and the birds, animals and insects suddenly go silent.

During our 2017 solar eclipse party, we used Oreo cookies to simulate the different phases of the eclipse. Then we consumed the cookies as a delicious solar-eclipse snack. Yum!

Teaching children about a solar eclipse can be a fun and educational experience that introduces children to a variety of early math concepts. Here are a few ideas:

1. Introduce the concept of measurement to the children by discussing the relative sizes of the Sun, Moon and Earth. Say: “The Sun is bigger than the Moon” or “Earth is bigger than the Moon but smaller than the Sun.”
2. Introduce the concept of distance by explaining that the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun.
3. Ask the children to make predictions about what they think will happen during the solar eclipse. After the eclipse, ask the children to describe what they saw. Was is what they predicted? If not, how was it different?
4. Use books and models to teach the children about the positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth during a solar eclipse.
5. Demonstrate how the moon moves between the Sun and Earth during an eclipse, using balls of different sizes.

Eclipse-party book share suggestions:

• A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse by Kate Allen Fox
• Eclipse by Andy Rash
• Total Solar Eclipse: A Stellar Friendship Story by Jayme Sandberg

Before you dive into the science behind this sky show, however, keep in mind that people in certain cultures consider the eclipse to be a bad omen. In these cultures, an eclipse is not an exciting event to be studied, but something to be avoided. People in these cultures stay indoors and abstain from food and drink until the eclipse is over.

In our multicultural society, it makes sense to be proactive. Discuss your eclipse lesson and activities with your program administrators and check in with the families in your early childhood community. Be aware of any cultural considerations that you may need to take into account.

Consider inviting parents to your eclipse viewing party. A solar eclipse is one of the most beautiful sights to see in the sky. No photograph can capture the beauty and stillness of a total eclipse.

This celestial event will truly awaken a sense of wonder in every budding STEM explorer!

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 languages.

Breaking down language barriers and making our content accessible to a diverse global audience is important to us. This new feature will enable more families and early childhood educators to access the tools, insights and resources they need to help children succeed in kindergarten and in life.

So let’s get started!

1. Click on the language dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the website. We’ve circled it in red on the screenshot below:

2. Now select your preferred language from the dropdown menu. See screenshot below:

3. The entire website will be translated in an instant.  Isn’t technology wonderful?

You’ll be glad to know that we’ve added this translation feature to the other websites in our early childhood series: Early Science Matters and The Ready Child. See screenshots below:

When Engineering Explorers—our newest website—launches later this year, you’ll also be able to access this exciting early STEAM content in the language of your choice. We thought you might enjoy a sneak preview. See screenshot below:

We’ll be sure to notify you when Engineering Explorers goes live.

In the meantime, please visit Early Math Counts, Early Science Matters and The Ready Child often. Let us know how we’re doing—and how we can serve you better.

We’re always open to comments, questions and suggestions. In fact, we added this translation option at the request of one of our community members. Thank you, Michelle—and keep those comments coming!

“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 peek inside.

“Who lives in there?” asks Clare as she summons up the courage to move closer.

Can we go inside the tree?” asks Veronica, although the question is a rhetorical one because the three-year-old has no intention of venturing inside.

“Is the tree hollow all the way up to the top?” Alex asks in wonder as he approaches the tree and glances upward to assess the tree’s height.

“I think a whole family of squirrels might live in there . . . or bats!” Harper’s pronouncement prompts her peers to quickly back away from the tree.

It’s so quiet and still as everyone contemplates the hollow tree that I’m not sure if the children are even breathing. All eyes are locked on Ellie, our resident risk-taker.

Emboldened by the children’s curiosity, Ellie inches her way closer to the tree’s interior. She is cautious but curious, brave yet apprehensive as she simultaneously challenges herself and calculates the risk at hand. 

Research tells us that children won’t take risks if they think they can’t succeed. But I know Ellie. She is an amazing observer and a visual learner who tends to rely on her senses when approaching an unfamiliar situation.

Today is no different. I watch as Ellie inspects the size, strength and thickness of the trunk. She inspects the ground outside of the tree cavity for animal droppings. She pokes her head into the hole and peers up, down, left and right before stepping inside. Ellie thrives on moments like these and trusts herself to evaluate the situation.

I trust Ellie as much as she trusts herself. These moments of risk-taking and assessment help a child develop cognitive, social-emotional, and self-regulatory skills—traits that make Ellie a natural leader.

Suddenly, Ellie pops back out of the hole in the tree, looks around and beams at the rest of us. “It’s so cool!” she exclaims. “You have to come in!”

One by one, slowly but surely, the children all make their way into this amazing gift from Mother Nature. Children grow in their ability to appraise risk by observing other children at play.

When children observe their friends taking risks and succeeding, they become more confident about taking risks themselves. This confidence carries over to the classroom and prepares them to try something new, possibly fail, and try again.

This hollow tree trunk has evoked wonder and curiosity in the entire gang, sparking a STEM investigation that helps lay the foundation for later math, science, and engineering concepts.

When we let children learn through play, movement, and trial and error, we lay the groundwork for the kind of deep learning that builds new neural connections. These are the moments that inspire our early learners to investigate the possibilities.

Today, nature has provided the ultimate learning tool and transformed a moment of outdoor play into an exploration of the concepts of spatial relationships and geometry. An understanding of spatial relationships helps children talk about where things are located. I hear them use words such as in, out, down, over, under and next to, vocabulary that helps lay the foundation for geometry. 

When children use words such as wide, heavy and light, they are using descriptors for measurement. We begin to get a better sense of measurement as we visually estimate the height of the tree, the height of the entrance hole, and the number of friends who might be able to fit inside the tree. 

When children are guessing, predicting and classifying their ideas, they are engaging in early algebra, the scientific method, and basic engineering design. This morning of play is strengthening their understanding of these concepts as they use the vocabulary words repeatedly throughout their investigation.

Hands-on learning enables children to take their understanding to a deeper level so that they can analyze the information that they have collected and then apply this knowledge when they create their own structures during block play, art projects and clay play.

These are opportunities that are rich in learning, creativity and friendship. Whether they are on the playground or in the classroom, children must take risks that enable them to develop new skills and explore their ideas in a safe and supportive environment.  

Look for opportunities that can build your student’s risk-taking skills. Like our exploration of the hollow tree, these learning adventures will not only build their confidence and self-esteem but lay the foundation for academic success!

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice three-year-old Saaliha, who is patiently working her way through a rainbow puzzle. Her friends are busy in other parts of the classroom, but Saaliha is problem-solving her way to puzzle mastery. I sit down next to her to observe her learning style, and she is so engrossed in her learning that my presence goes unnoticed.

Open-ended materials such as Saaliha’s rainbow puzzle often lead to long periods of deep concentration and learning. Today is no different.  Although this rainbow puzzle often lands in the block area in the shape of a snake, a tunnel or a flowing river, Saaliha is trying to assemble the pieces so that the puzzle will fit back into its round wooden tray for storage.

Puzzle play is a great time to build cognitive and fine-motor skills. In addition to finding the correct sequence of sizes, Saaliha must determine how each block must be placed to complete the puzzle. I watch as Saaliha flips, turns and rotates the pieces to figure out where they go and in what order.

I love observing Saaliha’s learning style and seeing how it corresponds to her developmental level. I see her set aside pieces that are not needed at the moment. Saaliha’s spatial awareness is growing with each try.

As Saaliha plays with the puzzle, I note how her choices and strategies change. She begins to recognize and understand how the pieces fit together to complete the puzzle. I watch her sorting and testing pieces of different sizes and moving them in different directions until each piece fits properly.

As she builds her spatial awareness, Saaliha is also strengthening the small muscles in her hands while improving her manual dexterity and building foundational problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. This is a learning adventure that requires the eyes, hands and brain to work together!

Saaliha is soon joined by her two-year-old buddy, Eleanor. These two best friends are 11 months apart in age—with different learning styles and different levels of brain development.

As they work together to fit the yellow arch into the puzzle, they discuss and test out different strategies. The collaboration continues as Eleanor tries to solve a problem her older friend could not.

Saaliha never reaches over to remove the piece from her younger friend’s hand. She is observing and reasoning as deeply as she had been moments earlier when the puzzle piece was in her own hand. Eleanor quickly loses interest, but Saaliha perseveres.

Saaliha tries new pieces and new directions. I can practically see the wheels turning in her brain. She is coming up with new ideas and testing out different theories.

She is not rushed or agitated, and she doesn’t ask for assistance. She simply keeps trying new patterns and new pieces. In short, she is riveted to this learning opportunity.

Suddenly it all clicks into place. Saaliha has an “Aha” moment, and I can see her confidence surge as she fits the pieces together more quickly. She has solved the puzzle!

There is no celebration, just a smile of satisfaction. She studies the finished project. Before I can capture her expression of satisfaction with my camera, she disassembles the puzzle to do it over again.

As Saaliha starts over, I continue to observe her strategies and methods. Her perseverance continues to reward her with stronger puzzle-solving skills.

What better way to build an early math foundation?

“Saaliha, come with me to the light table,” Evelyn whispers. “I have to show you something!”

Hand in hand, the two preschoolers quietly make their way over to our light table. This darkened corner of our classroom never fails to mesmerize the children with its soft glow and luminous colors.

As the days grow shorter and darker—and the hectic holiday season approaches—it’s the perfect time to engage children in calming investigative play with light and color.

Before we gather around the light table, I dim the lights in the classroom and put on some soft music to create a soothing and tranquil setting for the children, who are often overscheduled, tired and anxious during these busy December days.

“Look!” says Evelyn. “I took a play silk from our dress-up bin and put it on the light table!”

Evelyn moves over to make room for Saaliha at the light table and the two friends immerse themselves in STEAM collaboration, problem-solving and investigation. The girls are completely absorbed in their play—and the learning is enhanced by the presence of a friend and collaborator.

“That’s cool!” says Saaliha. “It makes everything look a little different, but you can still see all of the different colors!”  

The light table allows for open-ended play, where children can experiment and create without strict guidelines. This type of play fosters the development of creativity and problem-solving skills as the children follow their curiosity, devise their own experiments and draw their own conclusions. This child-led play also fosters an investigative mindset, which can lead to hours of exploration and discovery.

“Try this!” Evelyn suggests as she shows Saaliha how to duck under the silk to compare the views. 

The girls experiment with different color combinations and share their theories and discoveries. The light table always seems to spark curiosity and encourages children to ask questions and seek answers.

As more children join the investigative play, they expand their knowledge base by collecting data and adding probability to their investigative skills.

This is a shared space that encourages collaborative investigations. Collaboration fosters communication skills, teamwork and the ability to share ideas with peers.

Children work together to create patterns, build structures and explore different materials—a process that helps foster the development verbal and social skills.

The hands-on nature of these activities promotes a deeper understanding of mathematical principles through play.

Children can investigate fundamental mathematical concepts such as counting, sorting, patterns and shapes on the light table. 

These long play periods extend the learning as the group explores spatial relationships, patterns and sequencing, laying a foundation for more advanced mathematical thinking.

Play at the light table is naturally enjoyable for young children. The combination of vibrant colors, interactive materials and the freedom to explore creates a positive and joyful learning experience that can contribute to a lifelong love of learning. 

Light tables allow children to learn at their own pace, which makes the play developmentally appropriate for every early learner. The children build on their own knowledge and share their observations with others.

When children are making observations and discoveries, they are forming and testing hypotheses. These self-directed learning experiences empower them to continue to explore and investigate beyond the classroom.

So turn on that light table and watch the magic of play and discovery brighten the day! 

Autumn has flown by—and winter is almost upon us! Here in Illinois, that means cooler temperatures and wrestling with winter outerwear.

But here’s the good news: Getting the children dressed for outdoor play is a great way to meet your early math standards. Outdoor play in the winter months includes snow or rain pants, boots, coats, hats and mittens. Getting my young group dressed for outdoor play used to be a challenge. But math—specifically sequencing—came to the rescue! 

By breaking this dressing activity down into smaller steps, you can boost your early learners’  self-confidence and place them on the path to independence as you lay the foundation for math concepts such as routine, pattern and sequence.

By learning to dress themselves, children also strengthen developing skills such as coordination, memory and body awareness.

I embrace this activity as an important part of our curriculum. This process takes time—and we have a lot more of that commodity than a working parent trying to make it to an early-morning meeting!

Here’s how I do it: First, I set up the following “winter outerwear dressing stations” leading from the children’s cubbies to the exit door. Allow plenty of room between each station. One teacher I know uses all four corners of her classroom.

• Bathroom break station
• Snow/rain pant station
• Boot station (It’s easier to deal with the boots BEFORE the coats go on. Hopefully your students will have slip-on boots or boots with Velcro fasteners.)
• Coat station
• Hat and scarf station
• Mitten station (Waterproof snow mittens are ideal for outdoor winter play. Fleece or wool mittens are good for car rides but—if the children are going to be sledding, building snowmen, eating icicles or just playing in the snow—snow mittens are the way to go. The best ones are long enough to cover the wrist or forearm up to the elbow and keep little arms warm and dry so that your little snow bunnies can play outside longer on cold winter days.)

If you have not been taught the “firefighter flip” method for putting on jackets, two-year-old Jonathan (below) will lead you through it:

           Toes to the tag.                        Hands slip into the armholes.              And…FLIP!

                 Over the head.                  Push the arms down into the sleeves.       And…ta da!

We love the firefighter flip and use it all year long. It takes a few practice sessions, but I guarantee that successful coat flipping is in your future if you are not already using this method.

At the exit door, I provide some last-minute assistance with hats, scarves, zippers and mittens.

For some reason, removing the cold-weather gear seems to go more quickly. I use laundry baskets as stations for removing the gear, which allows me to quickly and easily place the wet gear in the proper drying places.

Sequence. Routine. Pattern. It’s all there—and it’s all math! Regardless of the season, find a sequence in your everyday classroom activities and break it down into little steps. During these crisp, beautiful late autumn and early winter days, put on your own outerwear and join in the fun!

“We can’t reach the top to make it bigger!” says Rowan with a giggle.

“Can we stand on this table to make our tower taller?” Linnea pleads.

Four-year-olds Rowan and Linnea have taken over the front foyer of our early childhood center for some serious block play. This bustling area will soon be filled with parents picking up their children—and the heavy traffic will no doubt send this tower crashing to the ground.

But who among us can resist a great tower-building moment?

Early childhood is a unique developmental period when children are learning how to learn. They follow their own interests and have their own ways of looking at things. As Rowan and Linnea stack and fit the blocks together, they are stepping into the world of math and engineering.

“Go really slowly,” Linnea cautions as she watches Rowan add another block to the tower. The room grows still as we all hold our breath. These two math and engineering mavens have engaged in enough block play to know that it takes concentration and a gentle touch to place a block on a tower with precision and dexterity.

Years of block play have helped the girls develop visual-motor skills, eye-hand coordination and fine-motor skills. They are well aware of the concept of cause and effect—and they know that one false move will send this tower crashing to the floor.

This late-afternoon block party is also strengthening the girls’ spatial skills. Strong spatial skills are tied to math skills! Research  shows that spatial reasoning skills are the best predictors of whether children will excel in STEM-related careers in adulthood. Spatial skills are especially important in STEM careers related to heating and plumbing systems, medical imaging, and engineering homes and buildings.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to give early learners like Rowan and Linnea ample time for extended block play.

“I think it’s going crooked,” says Linnea. “Can you move those two blocks over this way a little bit? But be careful!”

I watch as they collaborate and experiment with direction and observe the outcomes of their building efforts. They learn about mass, weight and proportionality as they plan and predict outcomes.

These girls are developing concepts in engineering as they design, build and test their solutions through their play. Making observations, asking questions and gathering information are all part of problem-solving. 

Problem-solving is the work of engineers! You won’t see early learning standards for engineering, but we often see engineering concepts referred to within the science and mathematical standards and benchmarks. 

More friends stop by to encourage this engineering duo and share in the communication and cooperation that is taking place as the tower grows taller. The children jointly decide where each block should go and then pass the blocks to Rowan, who has been tasked with the actual construction of the tower because she is the tallest child in the group.

Preschool-aged children need opportunities to be social and learn together with their friends. Important life skills such as taking turns, sharing and being patient are developing during these early social interactions.

As parents begin to arrive for pickup, I notice some two-year-olds in the actual block area creating their own version of stacked blocks. This is the mentoring that makes our teachers’ hearts burst with joy. This is what happens when children of different ages share an early learning environment. This is what happens when we educators resist the urge to say “no” when children want to build a block tower in a high-traffic area at an inconvenient time. If we let them lead their own play, children will create their own learning opportunities—often in the final moments of their preschool day!

“Oh, I like your mosaic, Avery!” says Claire, who has wandered over to look at the mosaic that Avery has just created with sidewalk chalk and tape. “Yours only had triangles. We did squares and triangles and those long skinny squares.”

“Oh, you mean rectangles! I want to see it!” Avery exclaims. He jumps up to compare their creations.

Our days have been full of busy children drawing shapes and creating colorful chalk mosaics on the sidewalk. This activity offers many opportunities to work on shape recognition while extending the learning to the outdoor classroom.

Start by creating a shape on the sidewalk or a flat surface with masking tape. Divide the inside area into smaller shapes. If this is your first attempt at introducing chalk mosaics to your students, I would suggest beginning with a few small areas that measure about two feet by three feet, with smaller shapes inside.

Why start out small? The children can see results faster—and smaller is better for our youngest students, who haven’t yet developed the hand and wrist strength to color in larger shapes. On a more practical note, I’ve discovered that smaller shapes are better when the children are using smaller pieces of chalk.

You can always go bigger as the children get the hang of chalk mosaics. If you have an endless supply of wasabi tape, this easy-to-tear tape enables them to create their own shapes inside the larger shape. 

Leaving a basket of chalk nearby will invite the children to start coloring in the shapes. Once the children have completed the mosaic, simply remove the tape and admire the masterpiece! 

As your students learn to identify shapes, they can use spatial orientation vocabulary to describe the relative positions of the shapes. Preschoolers should understand and be able to use positional words such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, next to, between, on, over, under and inside.

Shapes are the foundation of geometry. Geometry involves shape, size, position, direction and movement.

In early education, geometric skills include identifying and comparing shapes, differentiating between shapes and creating shapes.

Children need hands-on investigation to understand more than just naming or classifying shapes. Our chalk mosaics introduce children to simple shapes—as well as more advanced concepts such as symmetry, angles and fractions.

“My chalk is shrinking really fast!” giggles Rowan.

Oh, how I love shrinking chalk! Yes, we are definitely collecting data, making observations and noticing cause and effect.

But there’s more happening here than meets the eye. We know that the transition to smaller writing utensils helps promote the development of better gripping skills. As the children continue to draw and their pieces of sidewalk chalk get shorter and smaller, they are effectively transitioning to smaller writing tools and increasing their grip strength.

We try not to rush writing in our young learners. But when it happens spontaneously, we try to promote the use of smaller pieces of chalk, crayons or pencils to help them develop age-appropriate gripping skills.

These are all bonuses for kindergarten readiness—above and beyond the early math learning standards. This is the foundation that we talk about when we play our way into academic life. These small steps will enable our children to succeed when it’s time to sit at a desk. 

I have a few insights into the hidden benefits of chalk play—insights that can be shared with parents who may question the value of outdoor play and its role in advancing their children’s kindergarten readiness. Kindergarten, sadly,  involves a lot of sitting time. Children need strength throughout their bodies—including strong core muscles to sit all day. When children get down on their hands and knees and support their upper-body weight with their arms and hands, this strengthens their core muscles, as well as their shoulder muscles, which are so important for fine motor dexterity.

There’s a lot of math built into our chalk play. Follow the lead of your students, connect the curriculum to the play and you’ll meet your learning standards every day!

Looking for more ways to play with shapes? Extend the learning with these Early Math Counts shape lesson plans!

“When we drive to school in the morning, the sunflowers are facing one way and when we drive home after school they are facing the other way. That’s because they always want to see where I am going!” brags Melania to the other children on the bus.

“That’s not true,” grumbles Roberta, who is clearly not a sunny morning person.

“Yes, it really is true! Melania insists. “Ask my dad!”

I planned this morning field trip to a local sunflower farm to set the stage for some hands-on STEM learning. But it’s going to be a long Thursday if the kids are already arguing about the science behind the sunflowers we are about to see.

Hoping to lighten the mood on the bus and soothe the “hangry” Roberta, I reach into my bag and pull out some Sun Butter Energy Bars.

“Actually, what Melania is saying is partly true,” I explain as I hand out the energy bars. “As a sunflower grows, it turns its face to follow the sun from sunrise to sunset. So the sunflowers do face in one direction when Melania sees them in the morning and another direction when she sees them in the afternoon.”

By the time we arrive at the sunflower farm, the energy bars have worked their magic. Roberta’s morning grumpiness has dissipated, everyone seems perkier, and the group is staring at the giant flowers in amazement.

“Look at how tall they are!” gasps Lauren. “They are even taller than the grownups!”

“Can I touch one?” asks Lauren. She reaches up and touches the center of the sunflower. “It’s bumpy,” she observes. “Wait, inside the middle, are those all little tiny sunflowers? Look! There are a million little tiny flowers inside the big flower head!”

Maybe not a million, 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!

Whether you bring flowers into your classroom, plant a school garden or take a field trip to a sunflower farm or a pumpkin patch, you can extend the learning by creating hands-on opportunities for children to practice their early math skills. When children observe, measure, compare and analyze their surroundings, it helps them make sense of their world.

“Look how big this one is!” says Jason, staring up at an enormous sunflower in awe. 

I pull out a measuring tape so that we can measure how tall it is. We discuss how to measure an object. This leads to a conversation about concepts such as diameter and circumference.  Of course, these concepts are too advanced for this group, but I like to “plant the seeds” for later vocabulary development.

As we wander through the sunflower farm, I prompt the children with conversation starters such as:

“I wonder how many seeds they planted.” 

“I wonder how tall the sunflowers get.”

My goal? To inspire the children to find the math hidden in this field of sunflowers and start asking questions of their own.

“I wonder how many times people get stung by all those bees hanging around the sunflowers?” muses Roberta.

“There are a lot of bees!” responds Melania, ever the Pollyanna to Roberta’s pessimist. “But they aren’t bothering us. They are so busy eating nectar that they don’t even know we are here.”

“Look, this one has three bees on it!” observes Jason. “Look, Roberta! Let’s see if we can find more!” 

When children are learning to count, they love counting anything, even bees! By teaching math in the garden, you can show children how we use math in our daily lives.

Soon the children are comparing the sunflowers in the field, using math vocabulary words such as big, bigger and biggest, small, smaller and smallest, and tallest and widest.

When you return to the classroom, you can build on this lesson by encouraging the children to arrange flowers, fruits or vegetables in order from smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest.

Our morning at the farm has inspired a morning of math-filled conversations. From the shapes that make up the sunflower, to counting bees to measuring stalks, math concepts come to life when we take the time to look for math in our everyday encounters.

Ready to find more math in the garden? Check out these Early Math Counts lesson plans: The Tiny Seed and Flower Fun.

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It’s another 90-degree morning, and we’re going deep into water play to keep our budding mathematicians as cool and happy as possible on this humid, sultry day.

I glance over just in time to catch three-year-old Tahin playing with one of the small watering cans. It’s obvious that no one has mentored him on the fine art of submerging his watering can to fill it up with water. I observe him closely as he problem-solves.

First, he reaches for a small yellow cup, fills it up with water and tries to pour it into the small opening of his watering can. Most of the water runs down the side of the watering can, but he keeps trying, oblivious to his surroundings as he repeats the process over and over with the same disappointing results.

But this little guy is resilient. He doesn’t get frustrated or angry, he doesn’t give up and he doesn’t ask for help. He persists!

Tahin, like most children, can spend countless hours playing with water, pouring it back and forth, watching it spill over the edge of the cup, splashing gently and pouring some more.

My love of water play has been well documented on this blog, and it’s one of our favorite summer learning adventures.

Math might not be the first thing you think of when you think about water play, but water presents many opportunities to explore one of the main areas of mathematics, which is measurement!

If you’ve been using your water table as a “sensory table” filled with something other than water during the winter months, now is a great time to move it outdoors for some long periods of math play.

Children are naturally drawn to water and this naturally occurring (read “free”) element fosters curiosity, imagination, investigation and experimentation. What more could one ask of a learning tool?

I watch as Tahin abandons his first idea and tries a different approach, using the yellow cup to fill a larger yellow bowl, which he then uses to pour the water into his watering can.

When Tahin empties the smaller yellow cup into the larger yellow bowl, he also begins to learn which container holds more and which container holds less.

He also has the opportunity to use the cup as a unit of measurement and see how many cups it takes to fill the larger bowl.

Tahin carefully lifts the larger bowl, moves it close to his plastic watering can and tips it to pour the water into the can. The bowl’s wider rim and the greater volume of water are a winning combination.

Tahin’s second method proves to be successful, and the watering can is soon filled to the brim. This is persistence and problem-solving at its finest!

Water play is always developmentally appropriate, regardless of a child’s physical condition, age, language, gender or culture.

When children are engaged in water play, they tend to lose themselves in the activity and can spend long periods of time experimenting and playing. This encourages children to focus.

Any activity that requires sustained focus will increase a child’s attention span, sharpen problem-solving skills and enable the child to solve more complex problems later in life.

Open-ended water play also presents opportunities for children to use both sides of the brain as they problem-solve.

Children can explore and problem-solve in any manner that they choose, which forces them to be creative as they try out new ideas.

This is an example of executive functioning at work! Executive function skills help us make a plan and troubleshoot when the plan is underway.

Eve (pictured below) is developing and practicing her executive function skills through play!

We like to stimulate the imaginations of our early learners by changing our water-play tools frequently.

Here are just a few of the tools that we add to the mix on different days:

• Throw some ice cubes into the water and give the children slotted spoons to fish them out.
• Scatter sponges around the water play area. This often leads to activities such as washing the bikes or the plastic animals that we keep in the sand play area.
• Styrofoam meat trays and toy boats can be used to transport those plastic animals in water as well.
• Funnels, soup ladies and turkey basters are also big hits.
• Condiment squeeze bottles are great for building grip strength and strengthening the muscles of little hands.

Whenever children play with water, they are exploring mathematical concepts such as volume, capacity, size and shape.

There are many good reasons to bring water play into your outdoor play space. It’s a fun, refreshing pastime that will chase away the children’s lethargy on muggy summer afternoons—and it’s chock full of learning and skill-building opportunities.

What better way to knock out those early learning standards when the temperature and humidity soar?