“Hey! Let’s play Olympics! ” shouts four-year-old Carl. “We can have a relay race and use a paper towel tube for the relay baton. Who wants to play?”

“Let’s do the long jump!” calls out Celia, who is already jumping up and down with excitement.

A week of watching the Paris Olympic Summer Games at home with their parents has transformed these early learners into Olympic hopefuls!

This Olympics fever has set our play and learning in motion for the week. It’s a great opportunity to get outdoors and get those little bodies moving while we factor in some early math.

I grab a stopwatch and a tape measure to help my early Olympians build their early math foundations.

“Can you time me and see how long I can hang on these rings?” asks Maya.

By incorporating a stopwatch into our Early Math Olympics, I’m giving the children an opportunity to build their number recognition skills by identifying and reading the numbers on the stopwatch display. 

Introducing children to a stopwatch early on can also help them grasp the concept of time in a practical way. By watching the stopwatch record seconds and minutes, kids gain a rudimentary understanding of the passage of time. It’s a hands-on way for them to learn how to measure time and how activities fit into different timeframes.

“Watch how far I can jump and then tell me what number it is!” shouts Caleb.

Our Olympic long jump event encourages the children to develop physical skills such as coordination and strength as they learn about early math concepts such as measurement, counting, comparing, and estimating distances.

We estimate how far the children think they can jump and then record each child’s long jump with the measuring tape. Afterward, we compare the difference between their predictions and the actual results. 

We use a frisbee as a discus and a softball for the shot put. You can measure everything from a long jump to the distance a child can spit a watermelon seed in a seed-spitting contest!  The beauty of these Early Math Olympics is that we get to create our own variations on the actual Olympic games as the day progresses.

Our favorite event of the day is the steeplechase, which combines distance running with several obstacles. An obstacle course may look like play, but it’s chock full of learning opportunities. We created a series of simple obstacles, such as crawling under picnic tables, jumping over cones, and balancing on a beam.

Obstacle courses are a great way for children to develop their spatial skills as they expand their spatial vocabulary.

Set up an obstacle course and listen in as the children naturally use spatial vocabulary words such as above, around, below, beside, between, over, and through.

Obstacle courses also teach children about sequencing, memory, and following directions.

Best of all, kids LOVE them!

As you design your obstacle course, include the following elements to make it both fun and challenging:

• Something to climb over: We climb over the picnic table or up the slide.
• Something to weave around and between: We often use cones or buckets, two-liter plastic bottles filled with water, or landmarks such as trees, bushes and gardens.
• Something to crawl through or under: We use tunnels, parachutes, boxes, etc.
• Something to walk or balance on with care, such as a curved rope, river rocks or tree stumps.
• Something to run toward, such as a fence, a tree, or a door at the beginning or end of the course.

It’s likely that one competitive child in your group will want to make a chart, add columns and times, and keep score. Fortunately, that will satisfy the “Recognizes and Organizes Data and Information” early learning standard for that child. If the scorekeeping catches on with the group, be sure to have a laptop on hand to check off all of those standards!

If your early learners catch Olympic fever this month, sneak in the math, check off those early learning standards, and enjoy the fun!

“When I think of these experiences and interactions, I wonder why we, as teachers, feel the need to intervene and explain so often.” –Nora Thompson

I love this quote. In it Nora is talking about allowing children the time and space to include children with disabilities in to their classrooms and play spaces, but I think it also serves  as lens through which to examine many of our interactions with young children.

Take a moment and put yourself on a happy, Summer day outdoors in your childhood, sometime before you turned eight. Take a breath and remember the smells, feel the sun warm on your bare skin. Picture what you are doing, where you are, and how you feel. You could have grown up on a rural farm or in a city apartment, but you can likely imagine a day like this.

A question, did you think of an adult? What were they doing? I would imagine that if you saw an adult there, they were playing with you rather than directing your play. Now think about some of the unique math skills you might have learned at this time. What angle does a basketball bounce of the hoop, how high can you swing and where will you land when you jump, how long is an afternoon? You probably cannot remember the exact moment you learned one of these or many other skills, but what I can be almost sure of is that it was not because an adult was teaching it to your directly.

As early childhood professionals, we all know that children need lots of uninterrupted time to play to learn and grow, but sometimes when I am out with my students, watching them interact with young children, I wonder if we have forgotten what this looks like. It’s very simple and very, very hard. We just have to let them be. Really, really leave the children alone, and put yourself in a spot where you can see what’s going on and where the children know where to find you. I routinely tell my adult students that leaving them alone to learn is ABSOLUTELY the hardest part of my job. Because I care, because I find them interesting, because I want to learn too, and because I feel that I should be “busy.” I promise that your children will learn math playing outside, cardinality, subitizing, basic operations, it’s out there. I also know that children must have the time to be in control and to be free.

Here are some things not to do when your children are outdoors for free play.

Ask Questions: I promise, you already do this enough. The next time you are trying to get something done, imagine someone next to you asking questions you both already know the answer to: what is it, what color, what’s it name, what’s it doing? It’s exhausting, stop.

Play with them: I LOVE to play with children, but there is a time and a place for it. You are big, you are powerful, and you have authority. When you enter children’s games you interrupt their ability both to build meaningful social interactions with each other, and to learn to solve conflicts independently. Use grown-up play sparingly.

Make Suggestions: You could put this over here, you could build this like this, try standing here. There’s no right way to play, so why should the teacher’s opinion trump that of the children’s? Give suggestions only when children are legitimately stuck and better yet when they have independently asked for help.

Entertain Them: If the kids are bored and whining to go inside or for you to be the “monster” in a chase game for the millionth time, ignore them. Boredom is a necessary state of being to build reflective thought, creativity, ingenuity, and motivation. Let it happen.

So what can you do? Here are some suggestions with what to do with your time when children are free playing outdoors.

Observe & Document: Really watch them. What can you learn about the children’s development, strengths, needs from how they move, play, and interact? Take pictures and notes on their learning. Write plans for how to expand on ideas they are independently exploring. You can turn a day of whole digging into an curriculum about holes. Where do they come from, who digs them, what’s in them?

Check in with your fellow teachers: This is a great time to have a chat about how you are doing and feeling and what needs to happen next.

Rest: Yes, you have to supervise the children, but other than their actual safety, let your brain and body be quiet for a moment. Feel the sun and wind, breathe.

Take a project outside: Need to get the knots out of the yarn or the rinse a million paint brushes? Bring them outside with you and get it done while the children are playing.

A Math Problem: If you find yourself with a real need to do busy work during outdoor free play try this: calculate how many minutes the children spend each day being told what to do and they amount of time they get to truly choose what they want to do. What’s the ratio?

But what about my director, families, co-teacher who doesn’t believe in free play? Here’s some easy to digest research to back you up.

34 Reasons Why Play Matters

Peter Gray TedTalk: Decline in Play

Anji Play: Self Determined Play as a Fundamental Right

Life at home with my two little ones can be hectic at times. They are 19 months apart, and one of two things can happen as we go through our day. First is (unfortunately) fighting – toddlers and preschoolers are quite selfish and there is quite the learning curve for sharing and taking turns. The other is slowing their mom down when she is ready to leave or transition to the next activity. Throw in a six-month-old who I watch every day and hectic is taken up a notch. Because of my current reality, the timer is my best friend. At home we use the one on the microwave and the timer on the trusty iPhone never fails when we’re on the go.

Siblings fighting over the same toy is inevitable. When this happens, my children know the drill.

One child lets the other know that they’d like a turn with the toy.

The other child responds with “You can have it when I’m done.”

“How much longer?”

“2 minutes (my 2-year-old son’s response every time!)”

And this is when I interject. I give the second child the option to know how long “2 minutes” is or if I need to set a timer. I like to give them a chance to sense time passing and know when they are done with the toy and ready to pass it on. My daughter will usually tell me that she knows when 2 minutes have passed – and she does. In fact, she usually is done before a timer would have rang. If the timer is needed, it is a good visual for all parties involved – they can see the numbers counting down. And when the timer is done, there is a beeping or a song to let everyone know it’s time to switch. It’s not flawless by any means, but it does work most of the time.

Transitions can be tricky for little ones. Time to clean up, time to go to the bathroom, time to get your shoes on, time to head out the door, time to leave the zoo. I’m sure in their eyes, I have the worse timing! I do try my best to give them several warnings, but the timers yield a much better result and less crying. For example, when it’s time for us to leave the museum or the zoo (two of our favorite places), I will first give them a 30-minute warning so that they know it’s almost time to go home. I usually set my phone timer when there are 5 minutes left. As soon as the song plays, both of my kids – and any regular friends we see – will look right at me to make sure it is time to leave. Using the timer in this way has made this transition so much easier for us – there is rarely tears or opposition, which makes leaving go just a little smoother.

Trust me when I tell you that a timer is a game changer – even almost magical. It takes training and practice, but once established, it will help you in so many areas.

posted by Stephanie Forsman

Measurement is an area of my math curriculum that I often feel gets neglected, rushed through, and sometimes, at crunch time, overlooked all together.  As a result, I have worked on infusing small aspects of measurement into the routines of the day.  From linear measurement to volume, weight and mass to telling time, temperature and money, measurement is an everyday skill, “real life math.” It is important that children know how to identify appropriate units and choose the correct tools and technology for measuring those units.

One of my favorite topics that I consistently revisit throughout the year is Time. Even in 3rd and 4th grade, some children cannot tell time and rely on the adults in their life to tell them where they need to be and when. At the beginning of the school year, regardless of what grade I am teaching, I do a quick lesson on Time – 24 hours in a day, AM & PM, the short hand is the hour hand and the long hand is the minute hand. One of my favorite tools to teach Time is a Judy Clock. I have a class set and each student has one in which they practice telling time and learning the concept of elapsed time. A Judy Clock features easy-to-read numerals that show elapsed time in 5 min intervals. The clock makes learning to tell the time simple and fun for children and comes with visible functioning gears that maintain correct hour hand and minute hand relationships.

I will routinely ask the children to show me the time on their clocks or I will pose questions, “if it is 10:45 AM now and we have lunch at 12:00 PM, how much time does that leave us for snack and math?” Another handy time telling tool I have is a rubber clock stamp.

I will routinely ask the children to show me the time on their clocks or I will pose questions, “if it is 10:45 AM now and we have lunch at 12:00 PM, how much time does that leave us for snack and math?” Another handy time telling tool I have is a rubber clock stamp.

When I put up the day’s schedule on the board, I will put the event and the time and then have a blank picture of a clock where the children will draw in the correct time using the hour and minute hands.  I will write times such as “Math – 10:45 AM” with a blank clock next to it and make sure that the child responsible for noting the time will make sure that the hour hand is closer to the number 11 than to the number 10.

Just like my parents did with my brother and I when we were growing up, I like to have a height chart located on the inside of my doorway. One of our beginning of the year activities is to partner up and mark your height on the door. I use a cloth tape measure for this activity and it does require a pre-lesson on how to use the measurement instrument. The first year that I did this activity, I just gave the children the tape measure and had them go at it. I quickly realized that the majority of the children did not know what to do when they had run out of tape measure but still had not completely measured their friend. I have a class set of 60 inch, cloth tape measures that the children use throughout the year. I find that the cloth tape measures are easier to manipulate, cheaper, and easier to store.  After a lessons in which we discuss “How many inches in a foot?” and “If a child measures 52 inches, how would we record that in feet and inches?”, we place our names, the date and our heights against the door. We do this activity 3 times a year and at the end of the year, each child figures out how much they’ve grown through the school year. In our end-of-the-year reflection, we include our physical growth as part of the child’s reflection, “This year, I have grown 3 ½ inches and have become a much more of a risk taker when approaching difficult math problems.”

It is also extremely important to allow them exploration of various types of measurement tools and educate them to which tool is best for which situation.  Measuring how long things are, how tall they are, or how far apart they might be are all examples of length measurements. I expose the children to all sorts of measurement units in which they can use to measure various objects. Centimeters, inches, feet, yards, miles, and kilometers are all the units we use to measure distance, height, and length.

We brainstorm items we’d like to measure and then categorize them according to the units of measurement we’d use.

I like to put this conversion chart up in the classroom for constant reference –

1 foot = 12 inches

1 yard = 3 feet = 36 inches

1 mile = 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet = 63,360 inches

Liquid measurement is another aspect of measurement that when I run across it, often need to look up a conversion chart to make sure that I am measuring correctly. I am not always certain that 2 pints equal a quart since I very rarely use these units of measurement.  Again, this is when a conversion chart comes in handy but we make our own “Gallon Man” with empty, recycled containers that the children bring in from home. We bring in one plastic gallon (milk), 4 quarts (milk or juice), 8 pints (ice cream, yogurt), and 16 cups (yogurt, sour cream). Preferably all plastic and clean. Before I put up a conversion chart, I essentially create a water table and see if the children can come up with the equivalents on their own. “How many quarts equal a gallon?”, “If there are 2 cups in a pint, how many cups in a quart?” After figuring out the conversions ourselves, we create “Gallon Man.” We actually create this by attaching the quarts to the gallon with holes and wires for the arms and legs and then 2 pints to each quart and finally, 2 cups to each pint. We should rename our creature “Gallon Robot” or “Conversion Robot.”

We hang up “Gallon Man” in our classroom for easy reference.

Teaching measurement or any concept for that manner, using hands-on activities, manipulatives, and real-life applications makes concepts more interesting, engaging, and fun for my students. I get a lot of my ideas from Pinterest and often, these “real life math” lessons take little time and don’t take away time from keeping pace with my mandatory math curriculum.

Did you also know that the consistency of the routine also sets up a predictable sequence of events and order that is mathematical.  As children learn the routine, they can predict what will happen next, they can tell you the order of the events of the day, and they can describe the time of day that certain events will take place, etc.

Even the youngest children  can predict a sequence of events when they are a part of a daily routine.  Reassuring children about the daily schedule will support these concepts.  Even though it seems repetitive to an adult’s ears, saying things like, “After we eat, we are going to get ready for our naps, and after our naps, we are going to go outside,” will be reassuring to young  children.   Repeating these same words day after day, reinforces predictability and the daily sequence of events.

Our adult understandings of time have developed over years of experience.  We know exactly how long a day, a week, a month, or a year is, and we can plan accordingly. For young children, days are broken into chunks rather than hours and minutes.  The week is divided into school days and home days, but this is a faulty system as they usually need reminding each day upon waking about which kind of day it is.

This ambiguity is supercharged when something exciting is coming as well as when something bad is coming.  Since they do not know for sure when these events will transpire, they need reminders and reassurances.  Just as you remind a two-year old that her parents will return after the afternoon nap each and every day, you must reassure all the children that, “Yes, there will be days off of school, but we will all see each other again.”  Small calendars with visual cues that indicate when upcoming events are happening may also help.  Be sure to count the days until the events using the calendar. Each day, the number will get smaller as the date approaches.

Teachers need systems in their classrooms that measure time so that children can develop concepts of “how long” something is.  It isn’t useful to say to young children, “Today, we are going to play for one hour and then go outside for 45 minutes.”  Smaller increments might make more sense – A 3-Minute Warning, for instance (which may still ambiguous to a lot of young children).

This clock, The Time Tracker Classroom Timer, was developed to create time systems in the classroom.  There are visual clues to help children know “how long” they have left.  Green means they can keep playing, yellow means that it is time to start slowing down and red means that time is up.  There are number clues that count down the time and sound effects that can be set and learned by the children.

I could see using this clock in many areas of the classroom.  What do you think?