Young children will be naturally drawn to a nursery's ideal resource for mathematical learning, says Denise Bailey
Most children enjoy sand and water play throughout their early years, and purposeful, self-directed play in this area can make an enormous contribution to developing children's understanding of mathematical concepts.
Exploring materials in sand and water enables children to try out mathematical ideas, develop problem-solving skills, pose questions and use mathematical language independently or with others in activities where a specific result or answer is not expected.
Child-led activities empower children to set challenges for themselves, and develop their understanding by experimenting with materials in different ways which will enable them to deepen their understanding of a wide range of concepts and build their self-confidence as mathematicians.
Learning opportunities
With appropriate resources and sensitive adult intervention, children can:
- simply enjoy exploring materials in sand and water
- develop understanding of concepts such as colour, size, shape, position, measurement, area, capacity, weight and time
- sort, match, order and sequence and explore pattern-making
- use mathematical language in purposeful independent play activities, including counting and creating number stories and games; these help to develop understanding of the principles of addition and subtraction, making sets or groups (multiplication) and sharing (division)
- practise and test out ideas and theories, predict outcomes, revise, change or consolidate ideas by engaging in deep thinking and learning
- work with others to plan, share, discuss and explore mathematical ideas
- observe and listen to others and participate as and when they wish.
Children's understanding of various mathematical concepts can, of course, be consolidated through other play materials and activities across the setting.
Resources and activities
The materials for use in sand and water are open-ended. Adults should be prepared to be flexible and value children's ideas about the materials they wish to explore in the area and the activities they undertake with them.
The following resources could be included to engage children's thinking and developing their mathematical language and understanding.
- Items to fill, empty, pour and squirt - including bottles of different shapes and (neck) sizes, squeezy bottles, funnels, tubes, pipes, watering cans, rubber gloves, buckets, spades, scoops and spoons - help children to understand concepts such as full/empty, heavy/light, shape, size, capacity and position.
- Tea sets in either the sand or water area provide opportunities for counting, matching and one-to-one correspondence.
- Sand/water wheels encourage children to think about movement and fast/slow.
- Large buckets or other containers enable children to transport sand and water for use in other areas while exploring shape, size, capacity and weight. They are particularly useful outdoors. Also provide items with holes, such as sieves.
- Natural materials such as wood, sticks, stones, rocks, shells, pine cones or acorns can be sorted by different criteria, counted, positioned to make curved or straight lines or enclosures and used to make patterns and shapes.
- Small-world figures such as animals, minibeasts, dinosaurs, fish or other seaworld creatures and playpeople provide opportunities for sorting, counting, ordering as well as comparison of shape, size and colour. Play hide and seek games using these materials to help develop recognition of numbers and number sets.
- Vehicles such as cars, trains and boats, together with ramps and tunnels, can be used to develop children's understanding of positional language such as over/under, above/below, in/out, up/down, in front/behind, forward/backward, left/right.
- Wooden sticks, paintbrushes and chopsticks stimulate mark-making in sand and provide opportunities to create different shapes, patterns or straight and curved lines.
- Building activities (with bricks and construction materials) and washing activities (on small items like dolls clothes to big items like bikes) also help develop mathematical learning.
- Making changes to the sand and water themselves will stimulate children's interest. For example, add small amounts of food colouring, washing-up liquid or different-sized ice blocks. Provide dry, damp and very wet sand, or colour it using powder paint (use the paint sparingly, as this does stain the children's hands).
Organisation
- Plan for regular opportunities for staff to engage in and observe sand and water activities.
- Make sand and water available indoors and outdoors. Outdoor sessions should provide opportunities for larger, messier activities and more movement of materials such as watering plants, making puddles, creating muddy areas, filling holes or creating independent sand areas away from the sand tray.
- Position sand and water provision together so that children can experiment using the same equipment in both areas. For example, they can use buckets or other containers to transport sand and water.
- Always make available a basic set of materials including buckets, spades, wheels, bottles, jugs, sieves, sponges, small-world and construction items.
- Storage of the basic resources should be well organised and accessible to children. Use shelving with laminated labels or plastic mobile trolleys, which can transport materials outside.
- Add other resources to the basic items available, observe their use, and provide additional materials to extend interest and exploration when appropriate. Do not change the additional resources every day, as the children will often wish to return to activities to repeat and extend their learning.
- Provide as much room as possible for sand and water play so that mess created in the area does not disrupt activities in other areas of the setting.
- Provide equipment for the children to clear up and tidy the area themselves during or after their activities.
- Consider safety issues caused by wet and/or sandy floors.
- Make aprons easily accessible for water play activities so that children can engage in activities without too many concerns about getting wet and staff don't have to waste precious time changing them into dry clothes.
Adult role
- Provide enough time for children to develop their ideas.
- Engage in activities alongside the children, modelling, posing problems and setting challenges to extend and consolidate children's understanding of mathematical concepts.
- Model appropriate mathematical language.
- Ask open-ended questions to encourage problem-solving.
- Be flexible when children choose to explore different materials and resources in the sand and water areas. Children are usually much more creative and imaginative than adults about which materials they use and how and where they use them. Trust their intuition and encourage their experimentation and exploration.
- Ensure materials are accessible to children with physical disabilities.
- Allow plenty of time for making observations.