PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY
Use props when singing the songs to help the children learn about one to one correspondence. Encourage them to use their finger/hands etc in the actions. There are some great gloves with detachable characters to go with some of the songs, for example 5 little monkeys.
Include songs and rhymes in different languages. Help children pick up the rhythm and encourage babies and young children to join in with tapping and clapping along to the songs.
In Play
Provide several of the same item, things that can be sorted or matched. You don’t have to buy expensive sets of different size plastic teddy bears often seen in the maths section of Early Years catalogues, look at what you already have within your toys and around the house. Maybe plastic animals in the farm, pieces of train track, cups and saucers in the play kitchen etc. Have numbers for the children to see all around your home, telephones, microwave dials, television remote controls, calculators etc.
Play games that involve counting, for older children this could be counting while other children hide in hide and seek, or ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ ‘Hopscotch’
Encourage children to count when skipping etc.
Use mathematical language at every opportunity, when doing up buttons on a cardigan, ‘one button through one hole, two buttons through two holes...’ When putting on clothes....one hand in..and the second hand in.....’ Use language like ‘few’, ‘many’, ‘less’, ‘more’ etc.
Count things with the children, the lamp posts when out walking, yellow cars that drive along, and encourage them to estimate numbers, how many teddies are in the toy box?
Using crafts
Use crafts to support children’s learning of numbers and counting. Provide resources such as paint brushes and encourage the children to count them. Use numbers when making things, for example cards. When making a scrapbook about themselves add numbers as labels, two eyes, one nose etc.
Download Sample Observation: Round and Round the Garden
Calculating – is about how children develop an awareness of the relationship between numbers and amounts and know that numbers can be combined to be ‘added together’ and can be separated by ‘taking away’ and that two or more amounts can be compared.
Sorting and classifying
Children need to be able to recognise when things are the same and when they are different. Help them to sort and classify objects on a regular basis. When helping with ‘jobs’ around the house encourage them to sort things, pairs of socks, all the spoons in the pot, the fruit in the fruit bowl and the vegetables in the rack etc. Involve them in helping to tidy up, bricks in one box, dolls in another etc.
Simple Sums
Include simple sums into all areas of play. For example when supporting in the sand tray ask the children ‘We have got, one, two, three, four...sand castles.....lets knock one down...how many do we have left?’
Play games that include maths, for example hopscotch and skittles. When playing pairs encourage the children to work out how many sets each player has. Introduce games such as dominoes.
Resources
Make a number line that is available for the children to see when they are playing. This can take on a theme to make it more interesting. They can be purchased but the children might like to make and decorate their own.
There are lots of toys that have numbers on them to aid calculating, for example the cookie jar and cookies.
Download Sample Observation: Collecting Toy Cars
Shape, Space and Measures – is about how through talking about shapes and quantities, and developing appropriate vocabulary, children use their knowledge to develop ideas and to solve mathematical problems.
Introducing the Language
There is a lot of language that the children will need to learn regarding shape, space and measures. This needs to be introduced through play activities, chatting and during song sessions etc.
Books such as ‘Going on a Bear hunt’ are good for introducing positional words such as ‘under’ ‘over’ ‘through’
Favourite stories such as ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ or ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ are a great way to introduce size, with small, medium and large.
Point out shapes that they children might see everyday all around them. For example a square window, a circle for a wheel, the triangle at the end of the roof on a house, road signs etc.
When supporting sand and water play, talk with the children about containers being full, or empty. Use a variety of different shapes and sizes of containers. Show the children how some things change shape when they fill with water, for example a sponge.
Resources
Provide a wide variety of toys and resources that support children’s learning of shape, space and measures.
Different sized cups and measuring jugs in the sand and water play
Different sized building bricks and other construction toys
Shape sorters with different shaped pieces
Lift out tray puzzles with pieces in different shapes and sizes
Scales for weighing (use in cooking activities and in play)
Tape measures and rulers
Same or similar toys or resources in different sizes to help introduce, smaller and bigger
Egg timer (to measure time)
Height chart to record the children’s height
Download Sample Observation: Following the Dalek
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Requirements
Children must be supported in developing their understanding of Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy in a broad range of contexts in which they can explore, enjoy, learn, practise and talk about their developing understanding. They must be provided with opportunities to practise and extend their skills in these areas and to gain confidence and competence in their use. (EYFS)
What Physical Development means for children
Babies’ and children’s mathematical development occurs as they seek patterns, make
connections and recognise relationships through finding out about and working with
numbers and counting, with sorting and matching and with shape, space and measures.
Children use their knowledge and skills in these areas to solve problems, generate new questions and make connections across other areas of Learning and Development. (EYFS)
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
is made up of the following aspects:
Numbers as Labels and for Counting – is about how children gradually know and use numbers and counting in play, and eventually recognise and use numbers reliably, to develop mathematical ideas and to solve problems.
Using songs and Nursery Rhymes
There are a large number of rhymes and songs that can be used to introduce and reinforce learning of numbers in a fun way.
One potato, two potato....
One two buckle my shoe..
Five little speckled frogs...
Ten green bottles...
Five currant buns in a bakers shop...
Five little ducks went swimming one day...
One two three four five, once I caught a fish alive...
Peter hammers with one hammer...
Five Little Peas in a pea pod....
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed...
Ten in a bed...
Baa baa black sheep...
Ten fat sausages sizzling in the pan...
Five little men in a flying saucer...
Hickory Dickory Dock...
Use counting songs in other languages
