<My
Favourite Things> Mathematics
Area
We chose to focus our
activity on Mathematics provision as it was highlighted as being an area of
priority in the setting Hannah works in. It is also an area that is a very
important part of children’s development and children should be able to explore
mathematical concepts through play and in creative ways.
The mathematics area of learning includes: seeking patterns; making connections; recognising
relationships; and working with numbers, shapes, space and measures, counting,
sorting and matching. It
also allows children to develop their abstract thoughts and generalise which develops logical thinking, such as problem-solving, reasoning skills; and analysing events
that occur in the world around them (Selmi, Gallagher and
Mora-Flores, 2014). By allowing
and giving opportunities to explore, practise, learn and talk, this area supports children’s
understanding in different situations and becoming confident and competent in
learning.
The activity we chose to do was called ‘My
Favourite things’ and involved a group of children collecting some things they
liked from the room and talking about the properties of the object eg. Shape,
size, colour. They were then able to weigh their objects using bucket scales to
see which were heavier. The children then explored these objects independently, with an adult there to encourage children, to think about the
shape, weight and size of their objects and engage children in mathematical
thinking.
Our activity was
a balance of adult led and child initiated. It is stated in the EYFS 2014 that
this type of balance is important for children as they learn both by their own
play and play which is guided by adults. The practitioner is there to be able
to demonstrate mathematic language and introduce children to terms and words they
may not be familiar with. An activity such as this would be planned
individually for a child or a group of children by their keyworker based on
interests and next steps gained from observations which the keyworker will have
recorded on a next steps sheet.
‘I think the shell will be heavy like
B’s. See it is heavy. Rocks are heavy too.’
‘It’s gone down’
‘That’s cos it’s heavy.’
‘Look at all these I have…mine is full.’
‘Mine is empty.’
‘Ok. I’m going to see
how deep it is.’
Through engaging in this activity the children demonstrated learning
outcomes from Development Matters in Mathematics: Shape, Space and Measure
30-50 months of ‘uses positional language.’ The adults were also meeting the
‘Positive Relationships advice for this area to “Demonstrate the language for shape,
position and measures in discussions, e.g. ‘sphere’, ‘shape’, ‘box’, ‘in’,
‘on’, ‘inside’, ‘under’, long, longer’, ‘longest’, ‘short’, shorter’,
’shortest’, ‘heavy’, ‘light’, ‘full’ and ‘empty’.” (BAECE, 2012, p.36).
The children engaged particularly well with
the second part of the activity, enjoying exploring the objects in a number of
ways combining all areas of learning. They used mathematical language in role
play, experimentation and resolving conflicts with their peers. This was a very
good demonstration of how holistic the learning of mathematics can be. This
activity demonstrated well the effective use of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal
development with social interaction between adults and children on how to find
things out and asking appropriate questions meant that their learning was being
advanced. The children were observed on a long observation sheet and a
keyworker could use this to further the individual children’s learning by
planning activities which allowed them to further their mathematical concepts
through play such as making a ‘cake’ with scales and ‘ingredients’ to measure
such as flour, water, oats etc. and different sized cake containers.
References:
BAECE,
2012. Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). [pdf]
The British Association for Early Childhood Education. Available at:
<http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf>
[Accessed 20 November 2015]
Broadhead,
P. and Burt, A., 2012. Understanding Children’s Learning Through Play:
Building Playful Pedagogies. London : Routledge.
DfE,
2014. Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. [pdf]
DfE. Available at: <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335504/EYFS_framework_from_1_September_2014__with_clarification_note.pdf
> [Accessed 21 November 2015].
Selmi
A,M., Gallagher, R.J., Mora-Flores, E., 2014. Early Childhood Curriculum For
All Learners. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
By
Hannah Lintott (SID 1434365), Melissa Buxton (SID 1432753), and Hyun Sul Lee (SID
1425811)
This looks like a very interesting presentation, and it shows that the mathematics area can be lots of fun for children. You could extend the activity, using different materials or even allowing children to bring their favourite things from home.
ReplyDeleteLooks fun! It ticks off bits from the EYFS as well as being fun for the children.
ReplyDeleteNext time you could develop it further by using more objects and like you said, baking a 'cake'!!
This activity highlights the importance of mathematics in development and creating new skills. You could go on to explore activities that are more child-led, and it would be interesting to see which other theorists support this area of learning.
ReplyDeleteIt is a good activity to tick some of the EYFS goals. Although I don't really agree that this kind of activity should be done as such early age. I am great believer on children led activities with adults support only when asked.I think children can learn more about mathematics skills when playing. For example when they are playing with water you can observe children filling objects with water and talking about weights or how empty or full is.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is what we found from this activity as the children were much more engaged and using much more rich mathematical language in the second part when they were allowed to explore the resources in whatever way they chose. The sorting objects are definitely one of the favourite toys in the room.
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ReplyDeleteI like how personal to each child this activity was, by asking them to find their favourite thing. Even though this activity centred on mathematics, by having the opportunity to come up with their own ideas about their object, it could lead in to all kinds of activities such as where the objects might be found in real life or what they could be used for.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a lot of fun, the various use of materials available gives children a lot of choice to experiment with!
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