Enhancements that are added to the environment can encourage children to compare quantities of objects, an important part of the Mathematics area of learning.
Our nursery staff have a key role in modelling the comparison of quantities and related language such as ‘more than’ or ‘fewer than’. Good opportunities for this occur when food, either real or pretend, is involved. At the snack table, the adults may make comparisons of quantities of different fruit slices, pointing out if one person has more banana but the other has more apple, for example. In the home corner, they may start discussions about the number of cups needed at the dinner table when more children join, or whether a child has more or fewer candles in their piece of playdough birthday cake. As time goes on, the children often initiate these comments and discussions on their own, having had these comparisons of quantities modelled to them.
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