“Go around the tree, through the tunnel, over the rocks, under the parachute and onto the swing. Then throw a beanbag through the hula hoop and run and touch the fence. The first person to do that WINS!”

I listen as five-year-old Juan walks his eager friend through the steps of the obstacle course he has just created.

When people think about early math skills, they often think about numbers—including number recognition and counting. But spatial reasoning is another important aspect of early math learning.

Juan has kicked off our morning of math learning with a burst of spatial vocabulary!

Words like around, through, over, under, above, below, between and beside describe where things or people are in space.

Obstacle courses are a great way for children to learn, hear and use spatial language while developing their spatial skills. Obstacle courses also teach sequencing, memory and following directions. Best of all, kids LOVE them!

When designing your own obstacle course, consider the elements that will make it both fun and challenging. Try out these options:

• Something to jump over or into such as rope, pool noodles, chalk lines or hoops. I often use chalk to draw shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles or triangles just to sneak some more math into our day. As children start to identify shapes, they are building the foundation for geometry.
• Something to climb over. When we’re indoors, we use pillows. When we’re outside, we climb over the picnic table or up the slide. The slide is a feature in many of our obstacle courses.
• Something to weave around and between. We often use cones or buckets, recycled two-liter plastic bottles filled with water or natural landmarks such as trees, bushes and gardens.
• Something to crawl through or under such as tunnels, parachutes or boxes.
• Something that requires a bit of balance or care when navigating such as a curved rope, river rocks or tree stumps.
• Something to run to, such as a fence, a tree or a door.

When older children are here after school, we often use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to complete the course. This exposes our children to data analysis and record keeping.

Some students may want to use their drawing skills to create a map of the obstacle course. Keep clipboards and pencils nearby because this activity catches on quickly!

You can add more math learning opportunities by counting the hoops or cones as children go through or around each one.

You can measure the distance between cones or stones—or simply use spatial language to describe the distance, using words such as closer together or farther apart.

Obstacle courses are also great for developing gross-motor skills. Include activities such as crawling, jumping, skipping and hopping. If your outdoor area has natural slopes and uneven terrain, these areas are perfect for fostering the development of early gross-motor skills.  

We all see the need for self-regulation in young children. Occupational therapists often use movement to support physical and mental regulation and increase a child’s attention span, focus and alertness. That’s reason enough to create a math curriculum that involves an obstacle course!

An obstacle course may look like play, but it’s chock full of learning opportunities. When we take the time to explain how activities like these can support early childhood learning and development, parents and administrators begin to develop a deeper understanding of our early childhood curriculum. 

Ready to take a deeper dive into spatial learning? Check out the Early Math Counts lesson plan Over, Under, Through. After you engage in the activity, click on the Connect With Families button on the left side of the page and customize the letter to send home to the families of the children in your classroom.

Be sure to let us know how your obstacle course turned out and share helpful tips in our Comments section. Have 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!

This got me thinking about providing individualized care in a group setting.

Recently, I was visiting an “older infants” room in a center setting (6 mos.-1 year).  It was a lovely room with all of the appropriate bells and whistles I’ve come to expect in quality child care.  What surprised me was that the teachers fed the children simultaneously, changed them on the same schedule, and put them down for their naps all at the same time.  This is contrary to everything I’ve learned about caring for infants and toddlers “on demand.”

Nowhere is individualized care more important than in the infant and toddler setting.  Regardless of how the teachers managed to get all 6 babies on the same schedule, I can’t imagine that is best for all of them.  I am quite sure it is nice for the teachers.

The earliest mathematical concepts are reinforced for infants through a consistency of care.  Babies come to expect that when they are hungry they eat, and when they are tired they sleep.  When they are changed, there is a system in place that is consistent and follows a set order.  These set structures build trust between the infant and her  provider and ultimately create a sequence of events that is constant and predictable.

These relationships between people and events are logico-mathematical in nature and are paramount to children’s overall well-being.  For me NAEYC is really clear on this.  Developmentally Appropriate Practice asks that we consider the child in light of her/his family and culture.  Providing individual care for children under three should still be a priority, shouldn’t it?

Know number names and the count sequence.

• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.2 Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).
• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

Although I believe that this first standard may start out as  a language and memory skill, I do agree that eventually children should be able to count.  Even if it begins with children memorizing the sequence (1,2,3,4,…) and not really understanding what that sequence means, it is a good beginning.  The problem is when teachers and parents confuse the child’s ability to recite a list of numbers (10, 20, 30, 40…) and his understanding of number.  These are two very different skills and competencies.

We often hear children counting from a number other than 1, but usually it is in the context of completing a sequence, for example, when they join in when others are already counting.  In that case, they have heard the sequence beginning with 1 and are completing the phrasing.  It is harder to find opportunities for children to count beginning with a number other than 1, but finding ways for children to count starting at 4, or 5, or 8 will help develop this kindergarten skill. Try using visual cues, i.e., fold down three fingers and have children count the rest of the fingers on your hand.  Remember, it is OK for them to need to start with 1 and point to one of your folded fingers.  They do not need to master this skill during their preschool years, they only need to have ample experiences so they will eventually master it.

Writing the numbers is also important, but children may know the numbers even f their fine motor skills are not yet able to create them.  Again, confusing two different areas of development is problematic.  Remember, allowing children to have multiple ways of showing what they know is the ultimate form of assessing their progress.  Whenever an opportunity arises for children to write numbers, try to encourage it.  My kids liked to write numbers on the bottom of pages of their art as well as date numbers.  So when you ask them to write their names on their work, ask if they want to write the date as well.

Fibonacci (re)discovered that the patterns we see in nature are based on a fairly simple mathematical sequence.

Look at this number sequence.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55,

Take the first two numbers and add them together…

0 + 1 = 1

Add that result to the next number…

1 + 1 = 2

Take that result and add it to the next number….

2 + 3 = 5

And, again…

5 + 8 = 13

and so on….

The flower pictured above has petals that appear in a pattern that is based on the Fibonacci sequence.

You can have children explore different aspects of leave patterns and flower petal patterns  when you bring in a variety of plants into the classroom.  In no way do I think children will see the sophisticated patterns in the flower above, but they may notice if leaves are symmetrical, or asymmetrical.

Large sunflower heads, complete with their sunflower seeds still intact are great to bring into the classroom.  You can have children look at the patterns that are created by the seeds and the petals.  Later, using tweezers, children can pull out the seeds to take a closer look at them under a microscope.