I did find more enjoyment in winter days when my kids were small.  There was something delightful about their sheer joy in playing in a newly fallen snow, tobogganing on a local hill, and having a gigantic snowball fight.  I love when little children are tightly wrapped in their snowsuits and they appear as wide as they are tall.  They look like Teletubbies!

The winter is a great source of curriculum in the early childhood world.  This month, we are going to look at the winter and all of its joys.  Try and think of each snowfall as a new and exciting opportunity to explore mathematical concepts with children.

Next time the snow comes, and it will, bring in a few bucketfuls and put it into the water table.  Using the sand table equipment (shovels and buckets), allow the children to explore the snow.  You can talk about how the snow is “heavy” but each snowflake is “light.” You can even incorporate the bucket balance into the play, so the children can weigh the snow.  Make sure that they wear mittens while they play and remember to put them on the heater when they are finished so they can dry out.

1.   identify the problem

2.  consider options for solutions

3.  noodle through the possibilities and pick one

4.  try it out

5.  and find out if it worked.

Sounds easy enough, right?  As intuitive as this approach sounds to our seasoned ears, we learned how to move through this process over many years of trial and error and with a lot of support from the adults around us.  As children, we interacted with the material world testing hypothesis and drawing conclusions based on our rudimentary experiments.

When we couldn’t reach the sink to wash our hands, we figured out how to pull ourselves up onto the counter and balance our hips on the edge of the sink, so both hands were free to turn on the faucet, get the soap, and get washed up.  We eventually  had to figure out the “hand-washing problem” when we were faced with a too-high sink and no grown-up to lift us.

The “too-high sink problem” might have also been scaffolded for us if an adult had been present in the bathroom but not available for lifting.  Perhaps we came out of the toilet area, looking around for help – no takers.  Perhaps we tried to stand on tippy-toes – too short.  Perhaps we reached for the faucet – no way.  Perhaps we tried to sneak out without washing – yuck.  Most likely we observed another older child push himself up onto the counter.  Maybe another grown-up suggested, “Try jumping up.”

It may have taken two or three tries but once we got the hang of it, we never needed a grown-up again.  Problem solved.

In Young Children (March, 2014) in an article entitled, “Integrating Mathematics Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Into the Curriculum” the authors argue that we can teach problem solving skills and strategies to children by scaffolding their learning via an intentional problem-solving process.

To do this, follow these 4 steps:

1.  Reflect and ask

2.  Plan and predict

3.  Act and observe

4. Report and reflect

(French, Conezio, & Boynton 2003)

Imagine you have a dad in your program who works for a large corporation.  He comes to you one day, reporting that his business is moving and has all sorts of interesting items that you might like for your classroom.   He describes some old adding machines that have been in storage for the better part of 30 years complete with 10 cases of paper rolls that have never been opened. He says there are 4 machines to donate.  Perfect. 

The following Monday, he brings the adding machines over to your center.  You put the 4 machines on a table and the children are instantly interested.  However, you immediately realize that trouble is ahead.  All of the children want to use the machines at once.

You have a problem.

Frequently, I see teachers solving these types of problems by using their authority and exerting their control over the children.  A typical “solve” might be “First-Come, First-Served” or “10 minute turns”.  Both of these might work, but by solving the problem for the children, they miss the opportunity to solve it for themselves.

Using the 5 steps above, teachers can scaffold the problem-solving strategy.

1.  Reflect and ask – Bring the group to the rug and begin sorting through the issue. “It looks like everyone noticed that George’s dad brought us some new equipment for our classroom.  What do you think of the new adding machines?”  Discuss.

“There are only 4 machines and we have more than 4 children in our room.  What could we do so that everyone gets to play with the new equipment?”

2.  Plan and predict – “So the kids think we should let George play with the machines first, since his dad donated them.  You also think that George should pick 3 kids to play with him.  Is that right?”

“How do you think this will go?  Do you think the kids are going to be OK with this solution? Tomorrow, we will try this new plan to see how it goes.”

3. Act and observe – “This morning George gets to play with the new machines.  He is going to pick 3 friends to play with him this morning.  Go ahead George.”

Observe the play and the responses from the other children.

4. Report and reflect – Later, at group time say, “It looks like George and his friends enjoyed playing with the adding machines today.  Did you?”

“I noticed that the 4 of you didn’t play with the machines for all of free – play time.  Should we come up with another solution so more kids can have a turn when the first group is done?  How do we decide who gets to play with the machines next?”

Problem-solving builds strong critical thinking skills which are absolutely necessary for strong math skills.  Help your children problem-solve, not by leaving them to do it all alone, but by scaffolding with them.

Which candidate do you think will provide more support for young children, families and communities over the next 4 years?


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This special edition is a collection of articles about young children and math from 2008 to the present.  I haven’t yet read it, but I am confident that I will be blogging about a lot of it in the near future.

If you are not yet a member of NAEYC, you should be.  Click here to get started.

Sometimes, I feel as though our field is filled with lingo and acronyms that I can’t always keep up with.  The first acronym that everyone learns when studying early childhood care and education or development is NAEYC.  We toss it around like a football, but how many of us know all that it has to offer?

NAEYC accredits programs for young children through an extensive and rigorous self-study, data gathering and dissemination that ultimately arrives at a site visit which will decide whether the program will achieve accreditation or not. Click here to see the process for accreditation.  NAEYC also accredits Associate Degree programs (I was lucky enough to be involved in the Harold Washington College self-study and accreditation process in 2007 which resulted in our attainment of accreditation).  Click here to learn more about that process.

NAEYC has its own publishing house which publishes an extensive line of books, videos, brochures and posters.  Click here to see what NAEYC publishing has to offer.  You may have also seen the journal “Young Children” which is the peer-reviewed professional journal published by NAEYC.

NAEYC has a lot to offer us.  Take a look around and let us know what you think.