A “teachable moment” is an unplanned opportunity that arises during the day that affords a teacher an opportunity to offer his/her insight or support to children as they explore the world. Teachers and parents identify “teachable moments” by observing children closely  and listening to them.  It is only through genuine interactions and availability that teachers can identify these occurrences and act accordingly and spontaneously.

Teachable moments require thinking on your feet and the flexibility that allows you to stray from the planned path.  If children’s interests and engagement take them in a direction that   you hadn’t thought of, you have to be ready to seize the moment and use it as a gift.

Ensure that you have time in the day’s schedule to allow for these unplanned moments.  They will be rewarding for everyone.

Can you describe a “teachable moment” that has occurred in your home or center recently?

Math is all around us- we simply have to look for it.  Consider this scenario.

Johnny is playing at the sand table.  He is filling and dumping a small bucket of sand into a sand castle mold.  He presses the sand into the mold  and then flips it over and all of the sand spills out.  Bea, the teacher, comes over and begins playing beside him.  She too, fills a bucket with sand and then pours it out.  A few minutes into this parallel play, Bea asks Johnny about what he is doing.  He tells her that he is making sand castles. 

Bea sees an opportunity to use math vocabulary and spatial reasoning to discuss Johnny’s play with him.  She uses words like, “heavy and light” to describe the weight of the mold when it is full and when it is empty.  She talks about “turning over” the sand mold so that it is upside-down.  She asks if he prefers “a lot of sand” or “less sand” when filling the mold. She offers suggestions about how to make the sand stick together.  They fill the bucket with water at the sink and add water to the sand to experiment with making the sand stick.

This “incidental” math moment happens during free play.  Often, these opportunities occur and we miss them.  Keep your eyes open and look for a chance to deepen and extend a child’s play.  When seized, these moments are golden.