“Good night, Gorilla,” says four-year-old “zookeeper” Emma as she pats her friend, Ana, on the head.

Emma pretends not to notice as Ana—playing the role of the gorilla in this reenactment of the beloved children’s book, Goodnight, Gorilla—removes a colorful set of keys from Emma’s pocket to unlock her pretend cage. (These toy keys recently purchased for the classroom helped bring this pretend-play scenario to life!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s a lot of joyful math learning!

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

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

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

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

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

My gang is convinced that they shared it!

If you’ve been fortunate enough to visit The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, or driven by the Arboretum on Interstate 88, you may have spotted Joe the Guardian, a 20-foot-tall, spear-wielding troll peering down at the passing cars from atop his grassy berm. Joe is just one of six towering troll statues created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. Fashioned from repurposed wood and other natural materials foraged from the Arboretum’s vast acreage, these incredibly detailed trolls have been delighting and inspiring visitors of all ages since they were installed as a temporary exhibition in Spring 2018. 

I like to say that Dambo never lost his childhood love of playing with loose parts. If you’ve followed my blog, you know about my own passion for using loose parts in early childhood classrooms! Some of our students have been fortunate enough to visit the trolls on weekends—and they are always eager to share their tall troll tales with their friends on Monday mornings.

Here’s some rare good news in a year that has had more than its share of bad news: The pandemic that has interrupted life as we know it has also put a pause on the trolls moving on!  If you have a chance to visit the Morton Arboretum before the end of the year, it’s worth a trip. Turn off those screens, get out of the house and breathe in some fresh air. This is STEAM learning in action that will inspire your own loose-parts play!

The Troll Hunt features a collection of trolls constructed from reclaimed wood. But these woody behemoths are 15 to 30 feet tall—a bit more than our gang is capable of constructing. Creating more diminutive trolls is definitely more our speed.

After several weeks of Monday-morning reports of troll sightings at the Arboretum, I took advantage of the trend. First, I printed out photos of the trolls to inspire our early learners to create their own versions of these mythical woodland creatures. Next, we sorted all of our loose parts into baskets and small bowls. Then we created trolls of various shapes and sizes out of small sticks, tree cookies, leaves, buckeyes, corks, shells and fabric—using bits of clay to connect the loose parts.

Architect Simon Nicholson first introduced the concept of loose parts back in the 1970s. Nicholson believed that we are all creative and that loose parts inspire children to engage in experimental, creative play, which is beneficial for child development.

What exactly are loose parts? They are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. (Kabel, 2010)

We like to think of loose parts as shells, rocks, sticks, acorns, feathers, pinecones, flowers, flower petals, fabric, water, sand, dirt, moss, leaves, bark, rocks, pebbles, pine needles, seeds and whatever else is native to your region. But we can also use blocks, people, animals and other manipulatives. Loose parts can range from dramatic play props to toy cars, pots, pans or pouring devices.

After studying the photos to determine the materials that were used to create the trolls at the Arboretum, the children noted that the hair on Dambo’s trolls was made from branches and observed the intricate detail on the troll faces and toenails.

Then they began to build their own trolls. At first, the children created two-dimensional trolls. But, as the troll workshop continued and they became more confident and creative in their use of loose parts, they began building in three dimensions.

“I need a leg that is the same size as his arms! See? These legs are too little!”

Jamie was not happy with his troll’s appearance. Digging through the bowl of small twigs, he discovered a longer “leg” and kept digging until he found another that satisfied him. Jamie was busy measuring, sorting and comparing his loose parts, employing nonstandard units of measurement. Sure enough, he was knocking out those early learning standards through play once more! This was a morning spent exploring concepts such as symmetry, geometric shapes and spatial awareness (how things fit in front, behind, next to or underneath something). Recognizing, predicting and building patterns are all important early math and science skills that lay the foundation for later STEM and STEAM learning.

As they engaged in these simple experiences, the children were becoming more proficient at problem-solving, reasoning, predicting and making connections in the world around them. By creating these opportunities for children to see the world through a different lens as they play with loose parts, we open up new avenues of exploration and discovery.

“Sally, you are using shells for your troll’s eyes,” Noa pointed out to her friend. “I used pine cones!”

By observing, asking questions and drawing conclusions, children develop scientific skills. Comparing and describing physical properties while creating their trolls allowed our young learners to think out loud and try out new ideas. When the children weren’t satisfied with how something looked, they would often rearrange the loose parts or start all over again. There was no anger or frustration—just calm exploration.

“Where did you find that grassy stuff for your hair?” Noa asked Sally. But Sally was deep in a state of creative flow. Sally often incorporates fabric into her creations and proceeds more slowly than her peers. But she is very deliberate about her choices. All of this takes time. We don’t need to look at the clock and decide when this activity should end. We can let the children decide. On this fall morning, the troll table sparked a play buzz that lasted for more than two hours as our troll makers followed their curiosity, becoming more confident as they took advantage of new opportunities to engage in art, math and science.

We rarely take walks without bringing home all kinds of loose parts—what the children refer to as “treasures.” If your child keeps small items in containers to create “things” with, your child is playing with loose parts! Take advantage of what you have around you. Those are your tools for setting up a math- and science-rich environment.

If you haven’t experienced the Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum, autumn is a great time to visit the Arboretum’s beautiful grounds and maybe find some loose parts along the way. Just be sure to call first to make an appointment, as the Arboretum is enforcing social-distancing measures to ensure visitors’ safety. Don’t forget to check into a membership when you pay for admission. That membership is your ticket to a full year of adventures at more than 300 gardens around the United States. It is a great investment or gift idea. Consider it a year of math and science curriculum as we hit the pause button on life to collect loose parts and scout out those magical, mythical trolls. Happy hunting!

“I found GOLD!” squeals Laura. Four little friends are quick to join her in the latest gold rush in the sandbox. In the wee hours of the morning, often when the sun is barely above the horizon and the coffee is still being brewed, gold will magically appear in our sandbox. Spray-painted rocks that will give our young friends hours of digging, collecting, hoarding and, hopefully, sharing.

Once upon a time back in 1886, the first sand garden was created in the yard of the Children’s Mission on Permenter Street on the North End of Boston. In the late 1800s, sand gardens were viewed as safe places for immigrant children to play in during the summer months while their parents worked in factories. Today, these early sand gardens are often referred to as America’s “first playgrounds.” As we reimagine education during the pandemic, perhaps we should harken back to a simpler time and create sand gardens for our young learners!

A sandbox seems so simple, but it is truly a blank canvas—inviting curiosity and creativity, exploration and investigation. It offers a soothing sensory experience and an opportunity to experience natural textures while experiencing the peace and simple pleasures of sand play. Peer pressure will entice wary friends to strip off their shoes and tentatively join in the fun. Placing a big “Shoe Basket” near your sandbox is essential for your own mental health. It will save you hours of searching for socks and shoes. When we add loose parts to our sand, we create opportunities for counting, collecting and designing. We can explore symmetry and patterns. By adding baking tools, we can explore measurement and estimation. Opportunities abound for vocabulary growth and lessons about location and position.

“Joseph, can you get the trucks to drive under our castle?” The children have been busy building and decorating large mounds of sand. Now they have moved on to cautiously digging out tunnels. Tunnel digging builds engineering knowledge as the children predict, problem-solve and collaborate with friends—all while spending long periods of time engaging in what appears to be play. Are you documenting this? Check those early math and science learning standards off of your list!

We can encourage children to mix sand with water to see how adding water changes the physical properties of the sand. This sand play allows the children to create models of their own making. What they imagine, they can create. They create plans, make observations and experiment with ideas. This is science!

As educators and parents, we often miss the opportunities and possibilities that sand play presents. It took me years to figure out that if I took three minutes to rake the sand and make it more inviting, my effort would be rewarded as more children engaged in hours of deep learning and exploration every single day. Consider preparing your sandbox as essential as prepping any other area of your classroom. If the sandbox is full of leaves, too many loose parts from yesterday’s play or any other undesirables, it won’t be, well…desirable! Make sure your sandbox is inviting, and you will “invite” the children to explore math and science concepts with a soothing blank canvas. Unless, of course, there is a major construction project underway. On those days, I gently place a tarp over the sandbox to protect the project until our pint-sized “construction crew” returns the following morning.

If sand is a new adventure for you, recognize and remove any obstacles early on. One important tip is that you must have a water source nearby to make the sand packable. A garden hose, gallon buckets of water or nearby rain barrels will open up a treasure trove of opportunities that are not possible with dry sand. Shade is another important element to consider. You can create shade with a large umbrella if you do not have a tree to shade your sandbox. Or you can use parachutes from the gym, which can be strategically placed with a little bit of ingenuity to create shade.

I know educators who are allergic to sand in the same way that they are allergic to playdough. Ha! I know who you are! But, in this year of uncertainty, let’s allow our students to enjoy the serenity, sensory pleasures and myriad possibilities of outdoor sand play.

I promise you, it will buy you hours of calm, hands-on learning. If you build it, they will come. Just do it!

“It works! The water is coming out!” Rokia cannot contain her excitement as the discovery of a full rain barrel adds a new avenue of discovery and learning for our week.

“How did you do that? Can I have a turn? Get a bucket!” The excitement builds as so many little brains begin to figure out what is happening here. We have hypotheses, theories and observation humming away. There is nothing like water to bring a group of children together for a day of play and learning that can help you meet your curriculum goals.

As the United States begins to open up with precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there are opportunities to literally change the landscape of early childhood education by spending more time in outdoor spaces.

The best place for our children as we navigate this “new normal” is in nature. Studies show that sunlight, higher temperatures and humidity are detrimental to the survival of the coronavirus.

We also know that exposure to dirt helps young children develop healthy microbiomes and strong immune systems. Outdoor activities make social distancing easier—and research suggests that outdoor learning can deliver many other benefits, from boosting mood and increasing concentration to reducing stress.

You can meet many important early learning standards easily with outdoor play. And once you take your curriculum outdoors, you may never want to head back inside!

It’s important for anyone working with young children to understand the enormous potential for learning and brain development that exists when children are connected to nature. As children actively use their senses to explore the natural world, they are forging new neural connections and strengthening neural pathways through sensory play.

In short, outdoors is where our children need to be—and setting up an outdoor classroom is easier than you think. You don’ t even need to have a natural setting.

Water is a great place to start because we want the children in our care to wash their hands A LOT during the pandemic—and we can set up water play just about anywhere.

Incorporating water into our daily play with a rain barrel was one of the smartest things I ever did. We love using rain barrels for scientific exploration and discovery, as well as teaching children how to be good stewards of the earth’s limited resources. Many cities give away rain barrels for free to promote water conservation. If your city doesn’t have a rain barrel program, you can purchase a rain barrel for $50-$150 or make your own from a plastic trash can with a lid.

The children love to use the spigot on our rain barrel to explore the concept of flowing water and control the water’s flow. Let me tell you, being in control of something so powerful is a pretty powerful experience in its own right!

The communication and social-emotional skills that develop during this outdoor activity are worth their weight in gold. If your building has a downspout or an outdoor water source, that may be where you place your rain barrel. During very hot, dry summers, we sometimes have to resort to filling the rain barrel with our garden hose. By taking the time to think about these issues, you will help ensure the success of your own rain-barrel adventures.

We are also big proponents of tubs for water play. We use everything from big plastic tubs to utility tubs from auto stores to bus pans from restaurant supply stores to commercial school-supply tubs. This summer, we are adding soap bubbles to the buckets to encourage play and kill germs in a calm, not-in-your-face-scary-virus way. Doing this in front of the students will be a whole science and math lab in itself as they discuss the addition of ingredients, the change in matter, the chemical reaction that takes place and the change in physical properties. So, yes, grab those standards! This is the hands-on learning that we love—all while keeping our children safe from germs!

We were fortunate to have a handyman in our lives with the vision and skill to create a working pump. We buried a short, wide rain barrel and connected it to the farmhand pump. If you’d like to give this a try, you can get the step-by-step directions here. This pump has added hours and hours to our investigations and play. We absolutely LOVE our pump, and it is one of the most popular additions to our outdoor classroom. Many an hour has been spent here learning about cause and effect as the children see “what happens if….” Trust me, they have investigated the craziest ideas that adults just wouldn’t conceive of!

“Eve, come see!  Look what’s crawling under the bridge!” Jamison has discovered a daddy longlegs out for a morning stroll in our rain garden. Many cities and towns across the U.S. are beginning to award grants for rain gardens. We took advantage of our local grant program and created a rain garden filled with native pollinating plants and a dry creek that gifts us with insects, an occasional toad or two, and plenty of opportunities for exploration, observation and investigation.

Last summer, we added a mister connected to a simple garden hose to our tree. With pools closed during the pandemic, this mister (which we ordered from Amazon) is a great alternative that you can take advantage of without great expense or worries about water safety. We supplement the mister with big tubs of water and plenty of buckets and spray bottles. Heavy buckets of water and spray bottles are great resources for building strong arms, wrists and fingers for future pencil gripping. Bring in measuring cups, measuring spoons, tall containers and short wide containers and you have set your students up for outdoor learning activities that will foster the development of predicting, data analysis, probability and geometry skills.

It won’t take the children long to figure out that the mister will afford them many opportunities for water collection. This, in turn, will encourage pouring and measuring and experimenting with volume. Nearby plants, flowers, rocks, shells and other loose parts will add to the value of the play. When children make dandelion soup or rock salad, they are combining, collaborating, creating and imagining. It’s all there for us to document. They don’t need worksheets, they need play!

As we navigate our way around the pandemic, maybe we need to return to the roots of early childhood education by taking a page from the playbook of the German educator and nature lover Friedrich Froebel, who founded the first kindergarten (which translates literally to “children’s garden”). Froebel’s original kindergarten model in 1837 emphasized time and opportunities for children to connect with natural materials in a garden for play. Maybe this is what kindergarten could and should emulate as we reimagine early childhood education this year.

All of the activities that you need to meet your math and science standards are awaiting you in the garden. Head outside and lay the foundation for math and science success with a developmentally appropriate day of nature play.

Let’s take back what early education could look like in America. Join me!

What math treasures are hiding in your game closet?  If you’re like me, you have more games in that closet than children in your program. If and when you do play games, do you choose the same few games over and over again?  

When I repurpose the pieces from our rarely used games, I often end up with a bounty of amazing loose-part math opportunities.  

The Haba Sleepy Princess game (below left) is lovely, but the children at our center rarely played with it. When I took the mattresses and pillows out of the box and put them in a basket near our block play area, however, these loose pieces soared in popularity and have been played with on a daily basis for the past five years. If you take a close look at the scenario below on the right, you will see that there is not only one-to-one correspondence, but color matching with pillows and characters. We have sets and patterns. We have playful math and learning children—and our math standards have been met!

When I took the wooden peg set (below left) off of its shelf and repurposed it in our kitchen area, the loose parts in the set sparked many math-rich adventures. Do you recognize the “pizza dough” topped with pieces of red “pepperoni” baking in our oven (below center)?  On top of the stove (below right), we have our fish and noodle soup, with a side of red “spaghetti.”

On some days, these loose parts are fashioned into a pepperoni pizza. On other days, the children use them to “bake” a birthday cake or chocolate-chip cookies. Regardless of where their imaginations take them, the children have math in their hands and math on their minds. Math that is working through all the synapses to make sense of numbers and patterns and quantities.The many hours that the children have spent playing with these loose parts far surpasses the time that they might have spent using the game for its intended purpose, waiting their turn or being forced to place pegs into holes as we teach them about cardinality. A pepperoni pizza is much better nutrition for brain growth than a pegboard!

Let’s talk about repurposing some other games as loose parts. Dominoes can be repurposed as chocolate-chip muffins or cell phones (below). When you put dominoes in small baskets and set them out for the children to find, they will invariably spark new learning adventures.

Matching games and puzzles (below) are also a great source of loose parts. Just take the games and puzzles out of the closet, arrange the pieces in strategically placed baskets and you are inviting the children to play with math.

Look for it, observe it, capture it, document it. Match it up with your math standards and recycle the game boards. Trust me, you won’t ever need them again.

A parent recently asked me if we had been working on shapes because her two-year-old was quite knowledgeable about the topic. I just smiled, because we work on shapes all day long, starting with breakfast. Would you like circles (Cheerios), squares (Chex) or hexagons (Crispix)? Math is embedded in many of your daily activities as well. We just need to train our senses to find the math!

So, where is all the math in this clay area that we are creating?

When a new child joins our clay table, only to discover that there is no clay to be had, the children in our group know that they can each contribute a bit of their own clay to make a nice clay ball for their friend. 

This is decomposition! The children have learned that a whole can be decomposed into parts. 

This is problem-solving!  

This is adding parts to make a whole ball of clay for their friend.

And you, my friend, aren’t even coming to my table because you are “allergic” to playdough and clay—the same way  that I am “allergic” to glitter. Ha! Gotcha!  

I promised you lots of tips to make this an easy and successful setup. I wouldn’t be writing a blog about clay if I weren’t passionate about it. Honestly, it’s THAT good!  Come , let me share my clay with you.

More about trays

We talked earlier in the month about trays. Adding a tray full of loose parts is as important to the play as the clay itself. Look for trays that are big enough to hold heavy clay and loose parts. I really like wooden trays with sections, but we use baskets filled with empty yogurt cups. We LOVE the new Oui yogurt glass containers! I love the transparency and beauty of these. You will not believe how strong these glass containers are. Ours have fallen onto our hardwood floors and outdoor deck without a chip or a nick. They just add to the sense of beauty with the wood that I think adds to the calmness of our clay. 

Loose parts

I dispensed with cookie cutters years ago because I believe that they restrict my students’ creativity. The use of open-ended loose parts and small objects triggers imaginative play and prompts children to investigate new ideas. The more time that children spend playing with clay and objects, the more confident they will become about their creations. The trays and shallow baskets that we use to organize our clay and loose parts also come in handy when it’s time to clean up. Trust me, it won’t look as beautiful as when you started, but everything can be put away quickly, which is priceless for every teacher I know! Designing, creating, building, arranging and restoring order will come naturally to children through their clay time. You will see patterns, symmetry and shapes explored. When we use trays with separate compartments, this helps foster the development of early math skills and encourages children to put loose parts back where they came from.

Clay for sensory kids

For children with sensory issues, we have used popsicle sticks, chopsticks, toy cars, toy dinosaurs and other materials to coax them into the clay zone. 

Hard clay

If the clay is too hard when you first bring it out, it’s likely cold. We warm it up by making snakes. We also stretch the clay and make it LONG and THIN instead of SHORT and THICK. By starting the younger students out with flattened clay (think of a pancake), you are saving yourself time. The older, stronger students can begin with a ball to really work those hand muscles, but save yourself some time and start flat with the little ones. 

Outdoor clay

On a ninety-degree day, this clay will remind you of crayons that melt in the hot sunshine. We tried working with clay outside in the sun on a hot day and ended up with clay soup. I’m sure the clay is fine when it cools down, but mine and everything that was stuck to it went straight into the trash. We’ve played with pliable clay in the shade on very hot days, but take my advice when I tell you to avoid direct sunshine—or you will be writing to me in the comments section below!

If your winters are cold, this is a great time to keep your clay stored in flat pancakes, not balls. I try to keep the clay in a warm area such as the top cabinet above the stove. Avoid cold basements or porch areas—and please don’t try to warm it in the microwave. (Just trust me on that.)

Thick, thin, make it again

Clay snakes are also a great lead-in for this activity, which we then extend into classifying and organizing. The rolling strengthens little wrists and the small muscles of the hand and builds arch development, which will increase children’s endurance for writing and coloring in the future. We often introduce scissors with this activity to cut the snakes into chunks. The clay is firm enough that the child can focus on scissor coordination, rather than struggling with flimsy paper. We also create “fat sticks,” which are actually just clay snakes held vertically, but we try to rotate the clay and twirl it between the thumb and fingers. It works different muscles; call it anything you want! 

Mirror, Mirror on the Clay

I recently added unbreakable mirrors to our clay tray, and the children requested them all week long. Mirrors add a new perspective to clay activities. I also think children like to use anything that gives them a base or framework for their projects.

Time, time, time

Clay is calming, always inclusive and always developmentally appropriate. Whether you are dealing with mixed ages, sensory issues or different language-skill levels, clay will meet your students exactly where they are! Each child will interact with the clay at their own level of imagination, confidence and curiosity. Clay responds to rolling, poking, stretching, squeezing or patting. When you are three years old and you don’t get to control much in your life, manipulating that clay can be immensely satisfying! Give them lots of time!

Color

It only bothers you and me. The children honestly don’t care that their yellow, green, blue, pink and purple spiral is slowly turning brown. Ugly brown. I looked at it for months. Only the older, school-aged siblings asked for new clay.  Finally, I could stand it no longer. I put it away and started over. Now, when I put out fresh clay, I put out colors that will blend together beautifully. Red, yellow, orange are blending cheerfully. Red, blue and purple is a nice combination. We also used this as a chance to create sets of colors and combinations and patterning of colored balls. Embedding math, that’s our goal.  

Wooden Numbers

Dollar Tree stores often sell wooden numbers that you can add to your clay when your students are ready. But don’t rush it. You are building math environments. It will come!

The many benefits of clay

Let your students build their math and science skills through clay. You will see that, by working with clay, children develop eye-hand coordination as they build the small muscles in their fingers and hands. I like to imagine that each child’s brain is taking shape right along with the clay. Neurons and synapses in the brain are generated each time a child explores new ideas through their tactile and visual experiences with this soft, pliable material. Clay also has a uniquely therapeutic quality that settles and calms children. I have seen the busiest children spend an hour or more at our clay table. It’s truly magical—and it’s math. Have fun!

Two-year-old Elizabeth screams with delight, “I made a ball, I made a ball!”

Ah, it’s another magical moment with clay. Making shapes, discussing length, adding loose parts or subtracting pieces of clay to share with a friend. There is a whole lot of math in that ball of clay! Clay allows children to build in three dimensions, unlike coloring and painting. Children get to experience their first lessons in geometry as they begin to grasp concepts such as form, shape and perspective. When we talk about building that strong foundation for math success, we can add clay to our list of building materials. This month, I would like to help you set up a math-rich environment with clay or playdough—and I promise not to let it get too messy!

Containing the clay

When I returned from a study tour in Reggio Emilia, Italy, I tried to recreate the clay-rich environment that I encountered in the schools there. It did not work for me. Their resources and set-ups were far different from mine. As a one-teacher classroom, I needed something that was simple, easy and not too messy. Yet I saw the many benefits of clay, so I set out to create a design that would work for me. We use our clay indoors and outdoors, but there is one basic rule that I live by: All clay stays at the table. A hard lesson for our traveling two-year-olds, but they love clay so much that they always return to the table.

My favorite clays

We all draw our lines in the sand. That invisible line that says, “This item is more than I care to deal with.” For many early childhood educators, that item is playdough. If you hate playdough, give clay a try. If you use playdough already, you may want to add clay to your classroom. After we started using clay, we rarely went back to playdough. I’ve discovered two versions of clay that I really, really love. If money were no object, I would spend my days playing with Jovi Plastilina, a non-toxic, non-hardening modeling clay that is excellent for young artists with small hands. When I’m on a budget, which is always the case, I purchase a classroom pack of Crayola modeling clay, which contains 24 packs of clay in 12 colors. It never dries out and it’s easy to mold, even for my youngest learners.

My favorite trays

Trays give us a sense of order and add to the beauty and calmness of clay time. I love keeping our clay and loose parts in trays or low baskets. Chip-and-dip trays work very well. I like trays that are divided into sections. Small compartments invite children to touch and explore new materials with their clay.

Themed clay trays

We have nature-based trays, beach-themed trays and people-building trays, to name just a few. Trays will make your clay activities so much easier. When my students were robot crazy, I created a tray full of robot-inspiring parts such as googly eyes, straws, pipe cleaners, bottle caps, corks, gems and other oddities. This simple tray gave rise to an abundance of math language skills, including words like on, in, under, beside, above and below. Predictions about how tall a robot could be before its head became too heavy for its body. This is math! Don’t worry about actual number recognition or addition facts. This is our deep math foundation that is strengthened through play. 

The possibilities are endless!

Clay and playdough offer many rich opportunities for mathematical reasoning and thinking. By creating a math-rich environment with clay and loose parts, you will fill your room with limitless opportunities for children to construct, invent and think divergently. Children will be introduced to measurement, spatial awareness, similarities, problem-solving and sorting and classifying every minute that they are working with clay. It’s a math extravaganza, all in one little ball of clay!

The term “loose parts” is all over the Internet and early childhood world these days and for good reason. I have witnessed firsthand how the learning changed when we brought in natural loose parts! Loose parts are so full of math opportunities and problem-solving and vocabulary-building opportunities. So, what exactly are loose parts?

Loose parts are natural or man-made materials, with no set of instructions, that can be used alone or with other materials.  These open-ended materials can be moved, combined, stacked, taken apart and put back together, and most importantly repurposed.  

         When we speak of loose parts, we are looking for materials that will spark imagination and creativity. Outdoor natural materials would include things like rocks, shells, feathers, grass, leaves, pinecones, pine needles, and seeds.  Indoors, things like blocks, manipulatives, pouring devices like cups and funnels, buttons, play cars, people and animals, recycled materials like lids, boxes, paper tubes, envelopes; art supplies (popsicle sticks, buttons, beads, spools, etc.).  The list is endless and you more than likely have these materials already or can find them and you won’t need to purchase a single thing.

September is a fabulous month for collecting materials for future loose parts play.  We take nature walks almost daily and each child is equipped with a backpack for all their treasures that they collect along the way.  We often come home with buckeyes, acorns, dried berries, colored leaves, and who knows what else we may find! Loose parts that are collected by the child, spark beauty and joy in the eyes of the child. There are no directions on how to play with their newly found treasure, so this allows the child’s imagination to run wild! The child can use the acorn for soup, or an art project, or food for the stuffed animals.

If nature isn’t your thing, take a hard look at where your children play.  There is a good chance it will be filled with loose parts. If your child is into cars or ponies, start with that!  Remove the toys that aren’t used or played with. They clutter the mind of the child and they can’t stay focused on what they are creating! Yes! I am giving you permission to remove the majority of the toys that cover your home! Less is more! The child’s creativity and focus will change, I promise you!

Many teachers and parents will rush out and get baskets and fill the whole room with rows and rows of loose part storage.  A child walks in and dumps every single bucket, and walks away.  Maybe they were looking for their one red car or green pony.  Start small.  Take baby steps with loose parts!  Our friend and mentor, Bev Bos, always recommended change with the words, “Start in a corner!” The reason is, we create chaos the minute we upend the whole room and bring in new supplies. So start small, start with what your child is playing with, and start where their interest lies. Did your mother or grandmother have a bottom drawer in the kitchen that was full of “toys” to keep you busy while they prepared meals?  Chances are that drawer was full of cups and spoons, and random recycled loose parts!

So how many loose parts do we need? I once read that we want enough loose parts so no one is left waiting, wanting, or wailing! Some experts recommend five play pieces for each child.  So, if your classroom or child is very interested in dinosaurs, you need five for each child that gravitates to that area.  If every single dinosaur is in play on most days, you will want to add more.  Or add more elements that they are using with the dinosaurs.  Build off the interest that they are focused on. Think outside of the box!  Fabric is a great loose part that often finds its way into our block area for a river or lake, or to be added as clouds or a trail. Add shells or blocks or pieces of bark.  When I witness a play buzz happening, I sometimes add supplies close enough to possibly be noticed to add to their play.  Soon, this will not be necessary, but in the beginning stages of learning to play with loose parts, I think it adds to the creativity.

So where is the math? Mathematical concepts are created through their play with loose parts. You will begin to see deliberate patterns, sequences, and classifications by color, size, or type. Spatial recognition and intentionality of play will honestly have you shaking your head! I promise you, it is crazy! You will see sorting and separating, measuring, and logical classification. All of these are precursors for higher mathematical proficiency!

If you keep your materials available, loose parts outdoor play will continue into the winter months.  If the forecast calls for snow, be sure to grab out all of the sand toys as these make great snow forms, and you can’t reach them if they are frozen in the sandbox! Building a snowman’s face uses loose parts! Make your life easy and pack a sack while the weather is warmer and put it in a safe place.  (It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out this simple task!) We keep our aluminum bowls full of rocks, shells, and walnuts, and other loose parts ready for creative outdoor play. We use large “tree cookies” (See the picture below. This little girl is playing with “tree cookies”), or cookie sheets as a tray for each child to create their loose parts formations. This allows them to be picked up and moved and gives the child a frame for their work.  We also need to acknowledge their work in process and it may need to stay in place for a day or two. They will know and you will know when the play is complete.  I am often amazed at how quickly some creations come down and the oddness of things they want to leave up.  There is a lot of time invested in these masterpieces and it is important that we treat this time and energy with respect. These masterpieces are math.  They are manipulatives and problem solving and intentional risk-taking at trying out new ideas.  Take it slowly, but I beg you to try it.  You will never look back. It is a hot topic these days for a very good reason!  Let them play!