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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This little piggie went to market. 

This little piggie stayed home.

This little piggie had roast beef. 

This little piggie had none. 

And this little piggie cried, “Whee whee whee” all the way home.

There is nothing on earth as precious as baby toes.  They are so little and soft and squishy and I really just want to eat them up.  I spent endless hours tickling, rubbing, and holding  my babies toes.  They may have always worn hats, but they rarely wore socks because I wanted easy access to their little piggies.

Why is it important for parents and caregivers of very young children to play games, sing songs, and repeat chants over and over with their infants and toddlers?  Infants build trust with the people around them who respond in caring, nurturing and consistent ways. Engaging with a child using her piggies as props and a soothing , sing-song voice to repeat the “Piggies” story over and over reaffirms the child’s nascent understandings of the world as a safe and caring and consistent place.

The “Piggie” story serves another purpose because it follows a predictable pattern.  Children come to expect that the piggie who comes after the roast beef-eating piggie never gets any roast beef.  The last piggie always runs home screaming, “Whee, whee, whee.”  This repetition also creates an experience that is predictable which may be one of the most important systems we have to support early mathematical concepts.  It is within the repetitive structure of the young child’s day and routines where she develops expectations. Trust is built when the expectations are met.  Feelings of confidence and security emerge as she predicts the next part of the story and she finds that she is correct.

It is important that parents and caregivers establish routines that are repetative and engaging.  If at the end of the day, when you remove shoes (?) and socks, you tell the Piggie story with both the child’s right foot and then the left foot, you should try to continue that routine evening after evening so it becomes a part of the child’s routine.  This “bonding” interaction will eventually become a part of the whole evening and the routine will be incomplete without it.

So, is there value in the Piggie Story?  You betcha!