The importance of family and community is recognised in the principles of Te Whāriki:

"Children learn and develop best when their culture, knowledge and community are affirmed and when the people in their lives help them to make connections across settings" (p. 20).

Early Learning settings can connect to the diverse maths knowledge in the community by inviting whānau to share expertise in cooking, sewing, weaving, gardening etc or sharing news about what families are involved in. For example, watching or participating in sports might include experiences with timing, scores, measurements, ordinal placements (first, second, third).

Knowing about whānau interests and maths experiences, allows kaiako to build on this knowledge through rich resources and intentional teaching. For example, bringing maths alive through meaningful use of images, pūrākau (stories), waiata (songs), and other resources. There are many opportunities in te taiao (nature) for sorting, categorising and counting etc. Kaiako can draw children’s attention to patterns on items such as shells or leaves, and patterns in nature such as “the birds always come after morning tea to eat the crumbs.”

Stories and rhymes are helpful ways to explore maths (Rees, 2019). Kaiako can help children to notice maths concepts in illustrations and stories and encourage mokopuna to find similar symbols in their environment. For example, a book might have house numbers visible on a street, or a nursery rhyme might include counting items.    

Excursions are opportunities to broaden children’s maths experiences in different locations, for example, during walks in the local community, in nature, or on longer trips. Kaiako and mokopuna might enjoy shared activities such as:

• ‘number spotting’ – looking for numerals in the environment (on letterboxes, cars, signposts)
• ‘pattern sniffing’ - finding patterns in nature, on buildings, in paving stones, fences and walls
• counting – steps, how many blue cars, how many dogs, birds or gates we can see. 

Mokopuna may like to photograph some of what they notice, so the pictures can be discussed when they return to their setting.

Visiting events or places of cultural significance can also offer chances to explore different types of maths. For example, a cultural performance including music and dance might offer examples of pattern, sequence, repetition, rhythm and beat, or visual pattern in fabric, weaving, lei and other cultural costumes. A marae visit may include observing kōwhaiwhai (decorative patterns on the rafters) in the wharenui (meeting house), an order in steps of a pōwhiri (welcome), carvings telling stories or the pattern of routines.

Imaginative play ideas

Through imaginative play mokopuna can experience maths that reflects their identity, language and culture. The following are some ideas to spark rich maths learning through imaginative play.

Marae and significant cultural contexts

Mokopuna tend to play imaginary games set in the contexts they spend time in with whānau, including cultural settings such as marae, church, mosque, or synagogue. Each of these examples offer wonderful visual patterns, imagery, and sequences of events. Kaiako who know their communities well will be better placed to highlight these maths connections for mokopuna during play.

Cooking

Mokopuna often enjoy both real and pretend cooking. Imaginary cooking is a common play theme that emerges in early learning settings and offers rich possibilities for kaiako to weave in maths language and concepts. Planned cooking and following a recipe is a perfect small group experience for maths in action.

Cafes

Kaiako can support mokopuna to create a café. This play context can include setting tables with sets of dishes and cutlery, numbers of customers, menus, orders, and payments.

Shops

Children can create a variety of different shops incorporating different maths experiences. For example, shoe shops might include matching pairs of shoes, measuring feet to check shoes fit, prices and payments.  Supermarkets can include different shaped items, quantity, weights, prices, payments and change.

Airports

Mokopuna often enjoy making pretend vehicles such as an aeroplane from rows of chairs. This could expand to other maths activities like weighing bags, counting passengers, making tickets, and boarding passes.

Farms

Another common theme in imaginary play is farms, which can be especially meaningful when mokopuna have lived experience. Farm play offers maths opportunities to classify and sort toy animals into groups, fencing around fields, designing paths, roads, and buildings.

Building sites

When mokopuna are interested in building and construction, kaiako can extend play with resources and equipment that fosters maths learning. A building site game can include blocks of different shapes and sizes, cardboard and other loose parts, rulers, tape measures, clip boards and pens. There are many examples of building play that happen outdoors, such as junk play, the sandpit, and using natural resources; these contexts can be engaging for mokopuna who might not be as interested in indoor maths experiences.

It is important to remember that maths concepts are enjoyed and used in meaningful ways in all cultures and communities (Hawera and Taylor, 2013). Kaiako can act as curious researchers alongside mokopuna to discover the different ways maths appears in different communities.