It started simply enough with the bowl of beautiful autumn colors and loose parts pictured below:

The children began sorting the items in the bowl almost immediately—without any prompting. There was no discussion about what we were doing. This was very intentional and calculated. When children sort materials, they begin to understand that certain things have similarities and differences.

Let’s think of these groupings as sets. Sets are a collection of items that have been classified together because they have something in common. Defining these sets of matches is a prerequisite for counting and comparing. Before we can figure out how many pine cones there are, we need to separate the pine cones from the buckeyes.

Classifying is the skill of grouping or sorting items by similar characteristics. Being able to match items and explain why they go together is an important part of cognitive development. Children between the ages of three and four enjoy sorting and classifying objects by one characteristic. By allowing more time for exploration and play, you will will give the children opportunities to increase their classification by more than one characteristic.  

Matching is a simple form of sorting. Matching helps children identify attributes that are the same and take notice of details that are a bit different. Children can match by size, shape, color or one to one. 

Seriation is arranging objects in order by size, location or position. There was great discussion and collaboration as we discussed the sizes of pine cones and what order they should be arranged in. 

Patterns are sequences that repeat. The ability to recognize patterns supports math skills. Pattern recognition helps children make predictions about what will come next. Patterns are an important part of spatial thinking. Once children begin to spot patterns, they will see them everywhere in their surroundings and their daily routines.  Pattern awareness is a form of early algebraic thinking.

The children were engaged and spent a great deal of time arranging their materials in many sorted piles and patterns. By engaging in these simple mathematical experiences, the children became more proficient at problem-solving, reasoning, making predictions and making connections in their world. To help the children in your care develop these foundational math skills, keep it simple! Take your students outdoors! The curriculum is waiting for you in those autumn treasures just waiting to be found! 

Last week I wrote about the importance of impartial and accurate observations of children.  Teachers of young children need to systematically use observation as a part of their daily practice in order to plan for appropriate and engaging learning opportunities, to set up the environment so it is both challenging and safe, to collaborate with other professionals, and to communicate accurately with families.

Today, I want to look at the video above and consider ways in which to support this child as he actively investigates the ramps.  Let’s tease apart the ways he is already exploring early mathematical competencies and ways we can further support his play so he can go deeper. During free choice time, this particular child came over to the large rug, where a long rubber track was placed along with a few wooden balls of various sizes.  He began exploring the track but before long (a minute or two) he went to the corner of the room and pulled out some wooden ramps and large block.  What you see in the video is what happens next.

Before we begin to analyze his play we need to accurately and objectively observe his play. What do you see? What is he doing?

At first, the child lays down three tracks of the same length from a large wooden block and then adds tunnels to the ends of the tracks.   He rolls a ball down each ramp, one-by-one, smiles and collects the balls to start over. He then uses his hands to hold three balls at the same time, and then places them all simultaneously at the tops of the ramps and releases them at the same time. He runs to where the balls have stopped, collects them and repeats the same action. Holding the balls in his hands, he goes back to the ramp box and takes out one more ramp and tunnel and sets them up next to the original three. He asks his teacher to help hold a ball and then asks me (while I was recording) to hold the last ball.  He indicates what he wants us to do by verbalizing and nonverbal cues, and we all release the balls at the same time.

He goes back and collects eight more ramps and sets them up.  The ramps are in sets of similar lengths and in descending length order. He places them side by side and when he gets to the last one, he puts it off on the end of the block but then moves it and makes room for it with the others. He collects the balls and hands them to his teacher.  He goes and finds a small car and places it at the top of a ramp.  He then uses one of the balls to push the car down the ramp and through the tunnel. 

I LOVE this clip.  There is so much going on during these three minutes there is no way we could possibly discuss it all. But, let’s give it a go.

Where is the math?

1.  Spatial Reasoning – Notice how he places the ramps, makes room for the last ramp, lines up the tunnels at the end of the ramps.
2. One-to-One Correspondence- As he places one ball at the top of each ramp, you can actual see him making this assessment and adjusts his actions to each ramp has one ball.
3. Sorting and Grouping- We don’t know from this observation whether he purposefully sorted the ramps by length and then grouped the like lengths together, but we do see the ramps end up like this.
4. Problem-Solving – He tries to roll the car down the ramp on its own (you don’t see this bit in the video) but it won’t move on its own.  He uses the ball to push the car down.

We could spend more time analyzing the video, but this is enough for now.

The next step is to consider ways to support his explorations and scaffold his understandings.  If you were his teacher teacher, what would you do to plan for this child?

I am going to offer a few suggestions.  They may seem obvious, but often I find that they are not.  I am only offering a few so there is room for readers to offer their own ideas.

1. Bring the ramps and balls out again – In my experience, I have found teachers set up learning activities for one day and then switch them up the next.  Children need many opportunities to explore the same materials over time.  I would even reassure him that the ramps and balls will be out so he can continue playing with them as he might think of other things he wants to add to the play.
2. Add one more element – It may be interesting to add another element to the activity.  Maybe a few more cars of various types and sizes or a ball of yarn (I’ll let you consider ways yarn may enhance the activity).  Don’t add more than one at a time, unless the child asks or comes with the idea himself.
3. Talk about the ramps and balls at group time – Tell the other children about the ramps and balls or better yet, let the child describe what he was doing with the ramps and balls to the other children.  This may pique their interest and some may join him, or he may explain in his own words, what he was doing, what he was thinking, and why.  This could be very enlightening.

Those are my three ideas to further support his play.  What would you do?

When older children and adults perform chores such as doing laundry or putting away dishes, they may not even realize they are making decisions about how to classify objects into categories—washing the white clothes together and putting the plates together on a shelf.  Young children can begin to see how objects can be sorted into categories with the help of several children’s literature books.

Young children naturally sort objects by color.  Have a variety of books available that introduce colors and show objects of a particular color so children can make associations with the object and the color.  A fun book that can be used to explore colors is The Color Box (Dodds, 1992), in which a monkey named Alexander crawls into a box to discover a world where everything is black, then another where everything is white, then yellow, and so on until he ends up back in his world where there are objects of every different color.  Then provide groups of objects that can only be sorted by color such as Unifix cubes or square tiles.  Once children have sorted these objects by color, they can count the number of cubes or tiles in each group and compare them—which group has the most?  Are there more red cubes or more orange cubes? Then make several types of objects available for children to sort by color such as beads, tiles, cubes and blocks.

After children have had several experiences sorting objects by color, they can begin to explore other attributes.  In the book, The Button Box (Reid, 1990), a boy visits his grandma and finds a box with hundreds of buttons inside.  He sorts them into categories such as buttons covered with cloth, sparkly buttons, metal buttons and buttons from uniforms.  He also lines them up based on size and color.  At the end of the story, the boy and his grandma close their eyes and each choose a button from the box.  Then they look at them and talk about all of the ways the two buttons are alike and the ways they are different.  Follow up the story with a game similar to the one in the story, by comparing two buttons or other toys that have similar attributes such as two dolls or two cars.

Another book that can be used for classification of objects is How Many Snails? A Counting Book (Giganti, 1988).  On each page there are illustrations of one type of object but they vary by size, color or design.  On the first page there are eight clouds for children to count.  Then there are more questions to answer, “How many clouds were big and fluffy?  How many clouds were big and fluffy and gray?”  Children can use their toys to count, sort and answer questions such as, “How many frogs?  How many frogs are yellow?  How many frogs are yellow with a green stripe?”  Incorporate science by introducing various types of insects and asking children to tell you how they can sort them—by putting all of the insects that are the same color together or by putting the insects with wings in a group. 

When children sort and classify objects into groups, they are building a foundation for graphing and data collection.  They can create unique ways of sorting objects into groups and once they know how to put objects into categories, they can help with all of those chores!