Count on it

Long-term planning

Children's mathematical learning should always take place in a context that is meaningful to them, and practitioners must plan opportunities for mathematical development in all areas of play provision. However, it is useful to have a permanent resource base that will stimulate mathematical exploration and investigation and support children's learning.

To maximise the potential of this area, the whole staff team needs to be involved in the careful long-term planning of resources and organisation and clarify the learning opportunities that can occur there.

Possible learning experiences

Real mathematical understanding is rooted in concrete experiences. An inappropriate emphasis on formal teaching at this stage is likely to have a negative impact on children's later development.

It is essential that practitioners give priority to motivating children and fostering high levels of involvement in activities to ensure they are challenged and can engage in deep learning experiences. As well as focusing on mathematical development, practitioners should also highlight children's personal, social and emotional development in this area. Here, children will be able to:

• handle equipment and explore purposes for tools
• make independent and informed choices of equipment
• use equipment in other areas of provision (both indoors and out) to support and extend mathematical learning
• learn about concepts such as number, counting, early calculation, pattern, shape, space and measurement
• use simple mathematical language to describe and compare, such as big/bigger, small/smaller
• use positional language such as behind, in front, next to
• develop ideas and interests over a period of time, deepening understanding through exploring concepts in various practical contexts
• explore everyday uses of mathematical understanding
• use mathematical understanding to solve practical problems
• become familiar with the conventions of playing games, such as taking turns, and learn the rules of games.

Organisation

• This area needn't be very big but it should be easily accessible and, ideally, in a central location.
• Present equipment in clearly labelled baskets or on templated surfaces. Open shelf units are ideal.
• Provide a sitting area where children can play games.
• Include a space for display.
• Plan for an adult to regularly spend time in the area supporting children in using the equipment.

Resources

• Number lines (vertical and horizontal). In addition, include such equipment as a hanging shoe tidy with numbered compartments and a soft toy to sit in each, a self-registration number line (children place a coloured disc next to a number as they enter the area), or trains with numbered carriages.
• Number cards.
• Number rhymes and props such as, stick puppets, finger puppets, small-world people or animals.
• Fiction and non-fiction books.
• Interesting items to count and sort, such as shells, polished stones, conkers, buttons, beads and pennies.
• Commercially produced sorting equipment with variable attributes, such as size, shape and colour.
• Collecting/sorting baskets and trays.
• Laces, beads.
• Pegs, pegboards.
• Sand timer, clocks.
• Tape measure, rigid measures (standard and non-standard such as laminated hand or foot prints).
• Solid forms (commercially produced and everyday objects).
• Flat shapes, small wooden shapes or large carpet shapes for comparison and tessellation.
• Card and board games, jigsaws.
• Clipboards, paper and mark-making tools.
• Challenge cards and props, for example, 'Tilly Teddy is coming to stay in our home corner, can you make a bed for her?'
• Annotated photos of children solving practical problems through play.

Adult role

• Teach children how to use equipment through demonstration.
• When working with children in other areas of provision, suggest links with the maths area. For example, suggest using a laminated number line in the sand tray as 'parking lots' for small-world vehicles, using a sand timer when 'boiling eggs' in the home corner and using the tape measure when building a castle from cardboard boxes in the outdoor area.
• Support data collection and recording of number (such as tally charts).
• Use and encourage the children to use key vocabulary such as circle, big and long.

Medium-term planning

Medium-term planning identifies how basic areas of provision will be enhanced to support a current topic, interest or curriculum focus. It highlights additional resources and outlines possible activities. These ideas feed into the team's short-term planning alongside responses to children's immediate interests and suggested activities from long-term plans.

Topic: toys and games

Additional resources
Laminated grid, photocopied grids, blank sheets of paper, crayons, sorting equipment (such as Compare Bears), dice (colour, spots, number), spinners

Activities

Exploring equipment, recognising numbers, playing simple board games, agreeing and explaining rules, recording moves (every time a red is thrown, a red sorting toy is added to the grid), counting (the spinner shows 5, so you move your bear five places along the grid), deciding how to use grids (vertical columns, horizontal rows, spiral from outside to centre), talking about pattern, recreating pattern (the winner is the first person to throw three reds).

Topic: Minibeasts

Resources
Photos of butterflies, ladybirds, etc; magnifying glasses, bug boxes, model insects, large ladybird on wall display with removable spots; caterpillar with removable numbered body sections

Activities

Looking closely at minibeasts, imitation insects and photos and counting their legs, wings, spots etc; comparing the size and length of minibeasts, counting spots on the ladybird display and playing with number bonds (if we have six spots, we can put three on each side or two on one side and four on the other), ordering numbers to recreate the caterpillar.

Short-term planning

Adults must recognise and respond to individual and group interests that may develop from the starting point of a topic or predictable interest. In responding to these interests, practitioners will want to plan in detail any focus activities or experiences so they can be clear about learning intentions and ensure high-quality support.

Case study: Kirsty

Observation
Kirsty has been fascinated by the autumn leaves. Every day she puts on her Wellingtons and tramps through the leaves in the outdoor area. Today she showed more interest in individual leaves, picking them up, observing them and outlining shapes with her finger. She put her favourite leaves in her coat pocket.

Staff response

The team had included a focus on 'autumn' in their medium-term plans, knowing the seasonal changes would interest the children. In response to Kirsty's interest, staff included in their short-term plans a leaf collection with a mathematical focus.

Early learning goals
Count reliably up to ten everyday objects
Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns
Use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes

Resources

Maths area: collection baskets, trays, rolls of lining paper, plastic hoops

Activity content

• Discuss with Kirsty and other children their observations of autumn. Talk about the leaves falling from the trees and gathering on the ground.
• Give each a basket and ask them to collect the leaves that interest them.
• In the maths area, examine each child's collection of leaves with the group, looking closely at their shape, colour and size, and encouraging discussion, description and comparison.
• Provide opportunities for the children to arrange their leaves, perhaps sorting them according to a particular attribute or creating patterns. Large, shallow trays, a length of lining paper or hoops can be used as 'bases' for the arrangements.
• Provide a display space where children can leave their arrangements for others to see. Record patterns and arrangements photographically.