“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!

“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! 

“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 four 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.

A pair of four-year-olds in my classroom are happily playing “dice wars,” a simple but fast-paced game. To play, each child rolls a die and the player who rolls the highest number wins. No one is keeping score today—and nobody seems to care who wins each round. 

I watch as Juan shakes the die between his palms, rolls it, counts each pip (dot) on the side that’s facing up and announces, “1, 2, 3!” I rolled a three!”

“My turn!” exclaims Maria as she shakes the die between her hands and rolls it. “SIX! I win! Six is more than three!” Maria doesn’t need to count the pips. She recognizes the pattern immediately and her number sense tells her the value of the pips on the die.

Rolling a die is fun in its own right, but these friends are working on the math skill known as subitizing. When children begin to recognize the pattern on the die and associate it with the number of pips (dots) without counting each pip, that is subitizing!

Children develop subitizing skills in much the same way that they learn to read sight words.

In a previous Early Math Counts blog post, Jen Asimow, M.Ed, explained it this way: “Remember when you learned about ‘sight words’ and how children learn them? According to one school of thought, children memorize sight words by taking a mental snapshot of the entire word. By using context clues, they learn the word as a ‘whole’ rather than as a series of letters. Consider how children learn the words EXIT or STOP.  Both of these words appear in the same way—on signs above doors or on red octagonal street signs—and nearly always in the same colors and typefaces. All of these clues help children form a mental picture of these two words, and they often learn the pictures before they learn the individual letters that make up the words.”

Maria and Juan are playing with a die, so they are only working with numbers ranging from one to six. As they play successive rounds of the game, they are beginning to recognize the patterns on the die without counting the individual pips.

With every roll of the die, Juan’s pattern-recognition skills are growing stronger. Before long, he can recognize the total number of pips on each throw without counting.

According to child development experts, the ability to subitize quantities up to and including four by the age of five represents a significant developmental milestone. 

Subitizing is a fundamental math skill, and dice games are a good way to help foster the development of this skill.

“Hey! Do you want to play that block-building dice game?” asks Pierre as he grabs a die from the jar and joins the group. 

Roll and Build is another dice game that we’ve played in our classroom for years. One child rolls a die and the other children add that number of blocks to their towers. Children learn to recognize four dots on a die, which helps them understand the cardinal value (how many four represents), which they can then link to the symbol (4) and the word (four).

Games like this provide repeated opportunities to interpret the dot images. As children figure out how many pieces to collect or add or how many spaces to move on a game board, they develop their number sense and other early math skills such as counting, number identification, the correlation between numbers and the items being counted and concepts such as greater than or less than.

Keep a jar full of dice within easy reach to give the children plenty of opportunities to practice and make up their own games.

Begin by subitizing quantities of 1, 2 and 3. In a math workshop that I attended, the trainer had blacked out the pips representing 4, 5 and 6 for the younger children.

If a child is having difficulty subitizing, reduce the quantity of dots. 

Dice games help young children develop math and social-emotional skills in a fun and engaging way.  So grab some dice and introduce your gang to subitizing fun! 

Check out our Early Math Counts lessons page for dice game ideas. Be sure to click on the Connect With Families button in the left-hand column of each lesson to download a Parent Letter that you can customize to share the day’s learning activity with parents and other family members.

Today is one of those magical winter mornings when snow blankets the ground and clings to the trees around our center.  The sun is shining and the world looks so sparkly and irresistible that we head outside in spite of the freezing temperatures.

“Hey! Who has the smiling boot?” Jacoby calls out to the group. He scans the play space, which looks like a snowy white canvas dotted with boot prints.

“Do you have the smiling boot?” he asks Maria.  

Maria looks confused as she glances down at her boots. “No, my boots are pink.” 

“No, no…on the bottom!” Jacob points to her boots. “Does your boot have a smiling face on the bottom?” 

Even I am confused by Jacoby’s question—until he points to the clue in the snow. 

“Look!” he declares. “Somebody has a smiley face on the bottom of their boot.”

Ah-hah! Indeed, we do have a smiley face boot print staring up at us from the snow-covered ground. Well, this will warm us all up!  Let the STEM investigation begin!

After a fresh snowfall, it’s so much fun to find and follow animal tracks. But we’ve never really paid attention to the patterns on the soles of our boots until now.

One by one, Maria and Jacoby begin to check the bottom of each friend’s boot. This simple moment of exploring patterns leads us to measurement, reasoning and comparing attributes.

Young children instinctively seem to notice attributes. It may be the shape, size, color, length or some other characteristics of an object, such as today’s smiling boot face.

Children develop their understanding of matching and patterns through experience. Because it’s difficult to consider a lot of attributes at once, children often begin creating sets by finding exact matches.

When children create pairs of boots or find an exact match to the smiling boot face, they are creating sets of items that are exactly alike. Maria and Jacoby are using rudimentary math, science and engineering skills as they observe and ask questions—all while solving the smiling boot print mystery!

Suddenly, everyone is stomping their boots and comparing and analyzing the shapes and patterns that their boots are leaving in the snow.

“I have zigzags!” announces Liam.

Sure enough, as we all run over to look at Liam’s boot print in the snow, we see row after row of zigzags.

“They look like mountains!” laughs Rokia. “That’s so cool!”

 “I have rectangles!” announces Rachel. “If I turn around, it looks like a house with a roof. Look!  See, at the bottom of my boot print?”  

Our focus is now very intentional and the mood has shifted from playful curiosity to deep observation and concentration. 

This is what child-led learning looks like. For those of you who believe that “child-led learning” can only lead to chaos, I urge you to put on your winter wear, head outside and see how effective and wondrous it can truly be.

“I have diamonds!” shouts Julio, “Oh and triangles at the top and bottom. Wow! Look at my boot print, it has really cool patterns.”

We are working on spatial reasoning, direction and positional vocabulary. This is the deep learning that takes place when children have ample time to explore and investigate.

Every day, children learn something new.  Every day, they deepen their understanding of STEM principles and share their insights and theories with their fellow STEM explorers.

Time is the key to deep learning!

“I have snakes!”  Josie shouts.

“Snakes?” 

Everyone comes running to see the newly discovered boot-print pattern. And, yes indeed, Josie’s boot print really does look like snakes.

But Isaac sees it differently. “I think it looks like waves,” he counters. “You know, like when you throw a rock in the river and it makes those lines?”

Then five-year-old Maya reorients the group to the smiley-face boot prints that started the morning’s STEM investigation.

“Where did that smiley face boot come from?” she asks, putting an end to the snake-shape and wave-shape discussion.

“I don’t know!” retorts a frustrated Jacoby. “That’s what I am trying to figure out!” 

“No, I mean, where did the smiley face boot print start?” Maya clarifies, assuming the role of lead investigator. “Where did you find it? Did you follow it, like we followed the cat paw prints last winter?” 

Jacoby pauses and I can see the wheels turning as he considers Maya’s questions. This is a lightbulb moment when the children suddenly recall a forgotten game from winters past. We have plenty of wandering cats in our neighborhood. For years, we have engaged in follow-the-cat-print expeditions on snowy days, following the tracks and trying to figure out the exact route that the cat took and why. Today has ushered in a new season of snow—and now we are rediscovering the game all over again.

Five-year-old Maya has had a few more years of brain development and a few more years of winter play, so she has retained more memories of those snowy-day games than the younger children who started the smiling boot print investigation.

Suddenly we are tracking movement, direction and the changes in how the boot print is left. We don’t have paper and pencils to collect data outside today, but our friends are forming hypotheses and making deductions as they piece the clues together and abandon the ideas that don’t pan out.

Maya continues as the lead investigator. “Look at the size of this boot track. It’s much bigger than our boots. See? I think it’s an adult boot print. Look how far it is between the foot prints. It takes me three steps to their two steps.”

“Maybe it’s the mail carrier,” suggests Lois.  “She brought a package to the door yesterday.”

“It can’t be the mail carrier,” reasons Maya. “She doesn’t walk on this side of the center.”

“It must be a parent!” shouts Jacoby. “Who has a parent with a smiling boot?”

The question is met with dead silence. No one knows the answer.

Suddenly, Maya turns to me and asks, “Do you have a smiling boot? You are an adult.”

Much to my disappointment and the chagrin of my young friends, I am not the owner of the smiling boot. We are getting cold and our investigation has hit a dead end. We decide to go indoors and warm up with some hot cocoa and banana muffins.

At pickup time, the children check the boots of every parent for a smiling face, but no one has the matching boot. Many weeks later, we discover that the smiling boot belongs to a grandparent of one of the children at our center. By then the thrill of the hunt is over. But the learning has not been lost. A great morning of STEM investigation is tucked away safely in the developing brains of our early math explorers.

Ready to start your own Snowy Day STEM Investigation? Check out Show Me Your Shoe, an Early Math Counts lesson plan that can be adapted for your own boot-matching investigation!

“I think that wolf should go in this row, with the pigs,” protests five-year-old Harper. 

“What? Why? He’s a wolf, not a pig!” insists Harrison.

“And he’s not pink!” chimes in three-year-old Evelyn. 

“The wolf will go with the pigs in this row for ‘Stories,'” explains Harper. “You know, like in that book, The Three Little Pigs!”

I wander over to see what this deep discussion is all about. Wow! The older preschoolers are lining up and labeling groups of animals from the basket. This is child-led learning at its finest!

“Oh yeah! That makes sense!” Miguel agrees.

But Evelyn seems puzzled by their reasoning. Math skills such as sorting and patterning are developed in a sequential order—and Evelyn’s early math skills are not as developed as those of her older friends.

At all ages, children classify objects intuitively to make sense of the world. Two-week-old infants can already distinguish objects that they suck on from other objects.

By the age of two, toddlers can form sets of similar objects. By preschool, children can sort and categorize objects according to a given attribute.

When children engage in classification, they are sorting objects according to some established criteria. For Harper, it makes sense to classify the wolf with the pigs. It also makes sense to Miguel when Harper explains his reasoning. 

I look at the list that Harper has created. I chuckle at his phonetic spelling as I read the three categories that he has printed across the top of a sheet of green paper: “Jungle, Farm and Stories.”

When learning how to classify objects, children first learn how to identify and name the attributes that the items in a group will have in common. Then they move on to identifying the attributes that will exclude items from a group.

See Harper’s list in the bottom right corner?  It reads, “Not in a group.”

Wow! This is math! This is early literacy! All while playing and having fun!

Remember back in first grade when we were learning about sets and we had to circle the apples, but not the oranges, on our math worksheets? Our morning of animal sorting is a similar exercise, but the children are establishing the rules.

Hands-on play will beat a worksheet any day of the week. What sticks to the hands, sticks to the brain. 

When children sort objects in their environment, they are using their analytical thinking skills, which are the lifeblood of mathematics. When children engage in organizing activities, it helps them make sense of their world.

Sorting allows children to determine where they think an object belongs and why they think it belongs there. Often, objects will be reclassified from one day to the next. The wolf may be classified as a “Story Animal” today and as a “Forest Animal” tomorrow!

A 2015 research study showed that young children were more creative, more interactive and more verbal when they were playing with sets of animal figures than with other toys (Trawick–Smith et al. 2015). These findings were consistent regardless of gender or background.

The takeaway? Every classroom needs a basket of animal figures!

What’s so great about a basket full of plastic animals? It doesn’t come with a rule book!

When children play with toys such as small animals, people or vehicles, they create elaborate make-believe scenarios and engage in rich discussions about those scenarios. Perhaps best of all, they learn to play cooperatively with their friends. 

As educators, we know that children love to play with baskets of plastic animals. Now we have research to prove what we’ve known all along: that open-ended, imaginative play will naturally lead to sorting and classifying—and you’ll be checking off those early math learning standards in no time!

Looking for an Early Math Counts lesson plan that involves sorting and classifying?  Check out Cereal Sorting!

Do you have collectors in your midst? Those young children who can turn a five-minute walk into a 15-minute treasure hunt? The children who fill their pockets with treasures and then load up your pockets with the overflow?  I love these kids. They can wreak havoc with our daily schedules, but they help us slow down, take a breath, smile and find beauty in unexpected places. They also make me smile when I remind myself that these impromptu, child-led collecting and sorting expeditions are worth their weight in gold as we work with young children to build a strong foundation for later math learning.

We collect lots of natural loose parts like acorns and buckeyes, feathers and rocks. But we also collect colored gems, bottle caps, keys and other odd items. This, my friends, is the rock-solid, hands-on play that lays the foundation for number sense.

At all ages, children classify intuitively to make sense of a world that seems largely out of their control. By the time infants are two weeks old, they can distinguish between objects that they suck on and those they do not. By the age of two, toddlers form sets of similar objects. In preschool, children begin to sort objects into categories according to a given attribute.

If it attracts their attention and they touch it, that’s the moment the child-led learning begins! So grab a bag, a basket or a bucket, take a walk and see what sparks the imagination of the children in your life. A good pocket comes in handy on these expeditions!

Along the way, observe the collecting habits of your budding mathematicians. What captures their attention? What treasures do they deem worthy of pocketing? Does one of the younger treasure hunters in your group need guidance or mentoring?

During your expeditions—and other daily outings—keep your eyes out for heart rocks. It’s a great opportunity to build some early math skills, whether you’re waiting for a table to open up at a restaurant or killing time before an appointment. Hidden in those landscape rocks, there is sure to be a heart rock!

Children will naturally begin to sort their collected treasures into piles or “sets.” Separating will come very naturally as children sort acorns into one pile and bottle caps into another. They may group by colors, shape, texture or weight. They may also organize their objects in a line by size or other attributes.

As they sort the objects that they collect, children are building their analytical thinking skills, which are the lifeblood of mathematics. This is a great opportunity to introduce vocabulary words such as more and less.  Young children have an inborn sense of more and less. They always know if someone has more than they do!  Children can learn number sense simply by playing with their collections!

If the grouping of sets leads to counting, this is another great opportunity for young children to build foundational math skills. Regardless of how high a preschooler can rote count, a child’s sense of what those numbers actually mean develops gradually. We call this “understanding number sense,” and it requires relating numbers to actual quantities.

There are three core counting principles:

Counting Sequence 
There is an ordered sequence of number names. Counting involves using the same sequence each time, starting with one. By using counting songs and moving each object as you give it a “name,” you can help children learn the counting sequence.

One-to-One Correspondence
One number from the counting sequence is assigned to each object in a collection. Instruct the children to put each object into a container or slide it across the table as it is counted.

Cardinality
The last number assigned to an object when counting a collection indicates the total quantity of objects in the collection. Ask: “How many?” If the children don’t know the answer to this question, count the objects together and note the last number that you counted as you push the objects all together into a group.

By turning counting into an enjoyable, hands-on activity, you are also introducing the children to mathematical concepts such as place value and addition.

Remember to take it slow and make it fun. Children develop at different rates and have different learning styles. They will master early math concepts in their own time and in their own way.

So let the children set the pace. Enjoy the cooler fall temperatures as you embark on your collecting expeditions—and see what collections land in your pockets!

Looking for some great activities to introduce sorting and counting to your early learners? Look no further than the Early Math Counts lessons page.

Here are a few of my favorites to help you get started:

• Cereal Sorting
• Laundry Sorting
• One Fish, Red Fish

Sing and clap along to the tune of “Bingo.” 

There was a boy with dark brown eyes and Timmy was his name – O!

T – I – M – M – Y,

T – I – M – M – Y,

T – I – M – M – Y and Timmy was his name!

“Sing my name song next!” cries Evani.

“Please, can we sing my name song too?” implores another classmate of Timmy’s.

Do you play the Name Game? I simply take a familiar children’s tune, add a personal note if needed and spell out each child’s name to that tune.

I started playing this game more than 20 years ago because music plays a powerful role in brain development. One five-year study by a team of University of Southern California neuroscientists showed that music instruction accelerates brain development in young children—particularly in the parts of the brain responsible for processing sound, language development, speech perception and reading skills.

Children love the patterns and rhythms of songs. Setting words to music helps children learn them more quickly and retain them longer. Even a one-year-old will beam with pride the instant you start singing their tune. They may not be able to talk, but they know their name song!

Research also shows a connection between music and math in brain development. Musical patterns, rhythms and tempo make it easier for children to learn mathematical concepts such as sequencing, simple counting and patterns.

Emphasizing the steady beat of a song by clapping or moving to the music helps children master the concept of one-to-one correspondence (the understanding that each object in a group can be counted once and only once).

Music also helps build early literacy skills and promotes social-emotional development. The Name Game helps children learn through play as they explore the letters that make up each child’s name. When we start simply by inserting the letters of a child’s name into the Name Game, we give these letters personal meaning, which will incentivize the child to remember them.

As we play the Name Game, we are building a strong foundation for later literacy development activities such as letter recognition, letter names and letter sounds.

There is something magical about the Name Game and its capacity to keep children engaged for extended periods of time.

Musical rhythms sharpen developing attention skills. The fun of singing your own name song and the name songs of all of your friends can make learning joyful. The Name Game became a tradition at our center to keep the children entertained and happy while lunch was being prepared and served.

Here’s a “cheat sheet” to help you get started with the Name Game.

“The Wheels on the Bus” is a great song for three-letter names:

The letters in my name go J – O – E,  J – O – E,  J – O – E,

The letters in my name go J – O – E, 

That spells JOE!

Four-letter names work well with the “Happy Birthday” song: 

K – O – B – E, 

K – O – B – E,

My name is Kobe,

K – O – B – E.

“Bingo” is my go-to song for five-letter names.

Six-letter names work well with “Polly Wolly Doodle” or “Pat-a-Cake.”

Seven-letter names pair well with “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Eight-letter names work great with the song, “Muffin Man”

Nine-letter names? Try “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

You get the idea! Let’s give it a try. Pick a child in your class (maybe the one who rocks your boat just a little bit, because we all have one and it’s to our advantage to have this child on our team.)

If you get stumped, head to your CD collection for inspiration and grab Taj Mahal, Ella Jenkins, Raffi or whatever song is a classroom favorite. This is the perfect opportunity to add music from the cultures that are represented in your classroom. Reach out to parents to ask for a favorite childhood song that you can match up to their child’s name. They will love you for it, I promise!

You can also use chants. The children who first played the Name Game in my classroom are in their mid-twenties now, but they still remember the song or chant that they used for each classmate!

Here are some examples to get you started:

M – A – D – I – S – O – N…Madison, Madison is our friend.

C – O – N – N – O – R…Our friend Connor is a soccer star!

Chants are a great place to start because you only need to rhyme with the last letter of the child’s name. You can also sneak the letters into the middle of the sentence if they have a hard letter to rhyme with, like the dreaded letter X!  Some letters, like W, will trip you up because that letter has three syllables. Take it slow, you won’t come up with these in a single night. Find a friend who can rhyme on a dime (haha) or a friend with a musical background. Friends like these can be extremely helpful when you are struggling with a name that’s difficult to set to music.

Each child believes they own their song, which they do. I try not to use the “Bingo” tune for more than one child in my class at a time. This may seem like an overwhelming task if you have a large class, so keep it simple. Maybe start with the first kids to be dropped off or the last to get picked up. Make sure you write down the tune and the words as they come to you. You will need your own cheat sheet in the beginning for reference.  

When children are actively listening to music, multiple areas in their brains are lighting up. By adding clapping, marching or other movements, we develop other areas of the brain. The more senses we use, the more we learn!

Give it a try. I promise you, it works like magic! If you’d like to add to my cheat sheet, make a comment below and we will start our own list to share with one another. Good luck!

Interested in other activities that help build early math skills?

• You’ll find some great counting songs in the Music and Movement section of our Noodle Cadoodle Counting lesson plan.
• Check out the Music and Movement section of our Monkey Mania lesson plan to pair music with counting and help children understand the concept of subtraction.
• Finally, our What’s in a Name? lesson plan offers more activities to foster the development of early math skills as children count, compare, contrast and graph the number of letters in their names. 

Click on Connect with Families on the left side of each lesson page, download the parent letter included with each lesson, personalize it for your class and your math curriculum for the week is complete!