Children between the ages of 3 and 6 are more than ready to develop their skills at expressing directions from different locations and understanding relative positions. They are fundamentally interested in modeling their world, whether in the block corner or the housekeeping area, and spatial relationships are a large part of what they grapple with there. The more such experiences they have, particularly in the company of adults who help to mathematize them, the easier it will be to make their own representations of space mathematically precise when they get to geometry class. © Erikson Institute’s Early Math Collaborative. Reprinted from Big Ideas of Early Mathematics: What Teachers of Young Children Need to Know (2014), Pearson Education.
October 14, 2020
With young children at home, there’s always cleaning to be done. So why not include them in completing the chores? Chores can engage everyone in the household in a little “math all around us” problem-solving.
En Español También. Warm weather and more daylight hours mean now is a great time to take advantage of outdoor spaces. There are so many ways to incorporate math into your child’s outside activity.
En Español También. Every day dishes need to get cleaned, and every day dishes need to get put away. By involving children in tasks like doing the dishes, you can help them see mathematics in this work.
En Español También. Going for walks is an excellent time to talk about math with your child. You’ll be surprised how much math talk you can have when you look for the math in your very own neighborhood.
En Español También. Jigsaw puzzles are a great way for children to develop their spatial thinking and problem-solving skills. Children enjoy doing all kinds of puzzles and making ones from materials found around the house keeps it fresh and new.
A tangram puzzle consists of seven pieces — five triangles and two quadrilaterals made from one square. Tangrams originated in China hundreds of years ago. They traveled to Europe in the 1800’s, where they gained…
This child successfully attempts to match geo-solids using triangular prism-shaped blocks. Focus on the Child videos are taken from one-on-one interviews with individual children. The interviews are designed to elicit evidence of children’s mathematical thinking. They are not teaching episodes or formal assessments.
Many classrooms are planning year-end picnics, so it’s the perfect time to read We’re Going on a Picnic! by the beloved author Pat Hutchins.
Instructor Lisa Ginet explains how to make tangram puzzles, an ancient Chinese game made from seven shapes cut from a square. Over 6500 different arrangements can be made from these seven simple shapes!
This article outlines the benefits to spatial reasoning and expanding the learning that children experience regarding spatial reasoning in the early years.