Mathematical development: Make it count

Enjoying and exploring maths should not be a matter of worksheets, but finding it first-hand in everyday situations. Julian Grenier explains where carers can start looking

How many times have you heard colleagues saying that maths was their worst subject at school? Or that they can't do maths? Many practitioners enjoy children's early attempts to write with their own marks and symbols, but when it comes to introducing numbers and ways of recording them, they may feel less secure.

The Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage states that 'mathematical understanding should be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play, so that children enjoy using and experimenting with numbers, including numbers larger than 10'. So, there is no support in the document for the steady creep of maths worksheets into early years settings.

Instead, the document draws attention to real and motivating contexts for learning mathematics. For example, at home, children are learning about shapes and spaces by fitting shopping into bags, squeezing into the back seats of cars, spreading butter and jam on bread, and washing floors. Numbers are encountered as television channels are changed, food is heated up in the microwave, money is counted out and spent, biscuits are handed out and bus timetables are encountered.

Research shows that it is important for adults - parents, carers, and early years practitioners - to draw children's attention to number in these everyday contexts. Children will not usually choose to focus on number at this age, but they will engage with numbers if adults encourage them to. This type of encouragement in familiar contexts will support children's early numeracy, and will also provide one of many important links between learning at home and learning at school.

Learning mathematics is not inherently any more difficult for children than learning how to speak. Even very young children have powerful mechanisms for thinking about number, shape and space. Newborn babies are powerfully drawn to look at patterns and stripes, as they investigate where shapes begin and end. Very young babies can recognise sets of up to three objects and will show surprise if one of them is secretly removed.

This recognition of children's powerful ways of thinking has important implications for practice. Children should be encouraged to explore and develop their own ways of counting, and not always be told to count objects starting from one. They should be encouraged to find their own ways to record numbers and sets.

Mathematics has its own language. We should enjoy the ways that children create and make meanings, rather than trying to rush them into writing their numbers from 1 to 10 while they are still very young.

Reference: Supporting Mathematical Development in the Early Years by Linda Pound (Open University Press, 1999)

Julian Grenier is deputy head of Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, part of the London Borough of Haringey's Early Excellence Network

Case study: maths in daily routines

Courtney is a four-year-old boy at Woodlands Park Nursery Centre. When Ayse, a student teacher from the University of North London, plans to support his mathematical development she starts by talking with his family and by observing him in the nursery.

At home, Courtney likes to dance to the same music track by the Venga Boys over and over again. There are other sequences of activity that Ayse observes him following while he is in nursery.

Courtney enjoys pretending to prepare meals in the home corner, and when taking part in cooking he likes to follow the whole sequence through to the end, including the washing up.

Ayse's planning for Courtney aims to provide him with interesting experiences, through which she can support mathematical learning about shapes, sequences and patterns.

This type of approach is supported by the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, which states that, 'Children's mathematical development arises out of daily experiences in a rich and interesting environment.'

Ayse plans to work with Courtney in a small group making a carrot cake and creating rhymes with the children as they cook. She and the children sing different rhymes as they grate the carrot quickly and slowly in the kitchen.

Courtney is absorbed by the whole experience and enjoys the patterns and rhythms of the rhymes. Repeating patterns currently interest Courtney, and in the future they will help him to develop important mathematical concepts in algebra and using number.

Courtney loves the chance to dance to the Venga Boys in nursery, creating his own dance to the music with sequences of activity. He is creating mathematics with his body.

The next day, Ayse makes muffins with Courtney and they focus on the sequence of the recipe, and how the texture of the mixture will change after it has been cooked. The children also become interested in talking about the shape of the egg. This interest in shapes is followed up the next day, when Ayse spends time with the children cutting different shapes out of bread with them and spreading them with butter and jam. Courtney gains an important early experience of area, finding out how much butter and jam he needs to cover the different sizes of bread.

Careful resourcing of the home corner will allow Courtney to revisit these first-hand experiences in his play. Playdough in the home corner will allow him to create props flexibly - he can roll it out and make 'toast' for spreading butter on, or he can mould it into muffin cases to put in the oven. Through this flexible resourcing for his play, Courtney will be able to explore his preoccupations and engage in more deep-level learning.

Good practice goals Use these ten key points as starting points for discussion on good practice in promoting children's mathematical development at a staff meeting or with parents and carers.

1. Does your planning build on the early mathematical experiences that children have at home?

2. Are children allowed to show their competence as number users? Practitioners can encourage children to use their own ways of comparing sizes, or, for example, recording how many teddies are having a picnic.

3. Are children given long periods of time to use rich resources? Through block play, for example, children can explore length, height, shapes and patterns.

4. Are children given many opportunities to practise counting in situations such as laying the table or organising milks and snacks?

5. Are different areas resourced to support mathematical development? Number posters and grids could be displayed in the graphics area, for example.

6. Do practitioners plan action songs and stories to support children's mathematical development? Songs like 'Five Little Speckled Frogs', coupled with energetic jumping, help children to practise counting and give them rich experiences with rhythm and up and down movements.

7. Do planned experiences focus on particular areas of mathematical development? Linda Pound points out that if a cooking experience is to support counting, it is best to choose a recipe that involves counting eggs, spoonfuls and pieces of fruit.

8. Does your setting's provision support a range of mathematical experiences? By providing sponges in the water tray, for example, you could support learning about mass as children experience how the sponges get heavier.

9. Are children encouraged to become aware of their thinking? You could try replying to children's questions with phrases such as 'Let's see if we can imagine a way of doing that'.