Children are born with an innate interest in mathematics. Through their schematic thinking, they have a natural ability to sort objects and discriminate between groups of one, two and three objects.
They tune into shape, space and measure through sensory play with water and malleable materials.
By introducing rhymes and songs around counting, providing treasure basket and heuristic play collections and creating a number-rich environment, practitioners can support children’s ability to count reliably from one to ten.
Di Chilvers, advisory consultant in early education at WatchMeGrow and an Early Education associate, says, ‘Practitioners can support children’s developing understanding of number by modelling the use of number language in meaningful, relevant situations. Number isn’t just about counting; it’s about having that deep conceptual understanding of what “two”, for example, is.
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