Rich resources for maths thinking

Examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore space and measurement

Space and measurement include concepts and language about shape, size, location, distance, and spatial visualisation. Spatial thinking also involves recognising similarities and differences when shapes are moved (turned, flipped, slid) or enlarged, shrunk, and so on.

Below are some examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore space and measurement.

Resources to explore space can include:

• Big and small spaces (blanket forts, boxes, tunnels, tents, whare, clear floor spaces, fields, playgrounds, bush), safe spaces for unrestricted movement
• Exploring positional concepts and use directional language, such as under, through, over, up and down through tunnels, large cardboard boxes, ladders, planks, draped sheets, climbing structures, hula hoops, challenge courses, dancing/action songs (Going on a bear hunt, Jack in a box), games (for example, twister, ball games, string games)
• Exploring, estimating and predicting space and distance (climbing, stepping/leaping off and between items, stepping-stones)
• Gardening: spacing seeds, digging holes, planting, climbing trees
• Exploring space in the arts (covering hands or objects in paint or gloop, position of objects in a painting or drawing, moving body and objects through space – for example., poi, rākau, interpretive or free dance, action songs, large- and small-scale painting or drawing.

What resources and activities do you have in your setting to explore space?

Intentional teaching prompt

Encourage mokopuna to have their own maths ideas. Thinking, wondering and predicting helps mokopuna to learn.

Examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore measurement

Mokopuna benefit from opportunities to use different forms of measurement for a range of purposes. This includes informal measures (string, ‘giant steps’) and formal measures (a cup, tape-measure). These opportunities help mokopuna to understand the purpose for measuring quantity such as when cooking or sharing resources fairly.

Resources to explore measurement can include:

• Cooking – explore recipes using quantity, scales, measuring cups and spoons, timer. ‘Pretend’ cooking in the mud kitchen or sandpit and potion making offer similar opportunities to explore measurement.
• Formal measures – rulers, tape measures, height chart, timers, clocks, cups.
• Opportunities to measure using the body such as hands, feet, steps, or informal measures such as string, skipping rope, lined up objects.
• Opportunities to predict, estimate and think about quantity – guessing how much or how many, filling and emptying containers in the water trough or sandpit, handbag full of toys, tissue box of scarves.
• Measuring position and location – maps, navigating by stars and sun, compass, scavenger hunts, games (hide and seek, and so on).
• Measuring time – clocks (analogue and digital), sundial, routines of the day chart or timetable.
• Comparison, and measurement (for example, this is the tallest tree, the heaviest kumara), items to sort, order and compare, racing (first, second, fastest).

What resources and activities do you have in your setting to explore measurement?

Intentional teaching prompt

Provide new ideas and opportunities to give mokopuna different perspectives, thinking and learning opportunities.

Examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore shape

You can provide resources with a variety of shapes, lines and objects. You can provide opportunities to explore shape in a wide range of contexts.

Resources to explore shape can include:

• Objects in a wide variety of shapes, such as straight or curved, circles or half circles, familiar and unfamiliar shapes (circle, parallelogram), regular and irregular shapes. These can include books, natural resources, collage materials (paper shapes, wool, string, ribbon or fabric offcuts), and so on.
• Shape in the arts – dance and making different shapes with your body, action songs and rhymes (twinkle twinkle), acting out parts (pretending to be a snake or tornado, and so on).
• Exploring mirrors, light and shadows (reflection, flipped images, outline, proportion, prisms and rainbows)
• Building and construction materials including natural resources (stones, driftwood, shells), reusable and recycled objects such as shoe boxes, tissue boxes, cardboard tubes, tyres, planks, tree stumps, loose parts such as glass pebbles, cotton reels, fabric scraps, string.
• Resources that can form a variety of shapes –kaleidoscopes, puzzles, wooden blocks, interconnecting blocks, tangrams, images of architectural structures.

What resources and activities do you have in your setting to explore shape?

Intentional teaching prompt

Provide opportunity for mokopuna to revisit previous learning experiences. This helps them solidify and extend their thinking and learning.

Examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore number

Mokopuna discover the joy of numbers when the adults around them provide intentional resources and show shared enjoyment of maths. Using the number system helps us arrange and count objects and compare quantities. Over time, mokopuna can come to recognise that numbers can amuse, delight, comfort, illuminate, inform and excite.

Resources to explore number can include:

• Calculators, tools with numbers such as rulers, tape measures, protractors.
• Games such as What’s the time Mr Wolf, hide and seek, and Taupunipuni.
• Board games like snakes and ladders – moving a number of spaces, using dice, and turn taking.
• Pretend play – cash register, calculator, items for sale, play money, receipts. Plane trips (for example, how many passengers, numbered tickets, number of seats).
• Action songs with number, quantity and counting (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive,” “5 speckled frogs,” and so on).
• Books – The Very hungry caterpillar, 3 little pigs – any books where you could notice and discuss number and quantity, for example, “How many birds can you see on the page?” Pūrākau (stories) such as ‘The nine stars of Matariki,’ ‘Mahuika and her fingernails of fire,’ ‘Rata and the totara tree,’ ‘Ngā atua Māori, the seven brothers.’
• Number, number pattern and quantity in routines and everyday objects, for example, two crackers each, the dots representing number on dice, divide the playdough up equally, in half or in quarters.
• Explore discrete objects that can be counted (for example. blocks) and continuous materials that can be measured for example sand and water.

What resources and activities do you have in your setting to explore number?

Intentional teaching prompt

Observe, listen and interact with mokopuna. Pay attention to what each child knows and is interested in.

Examples of resources that support mokopuna to explore pattern and relationships

The early years are ideal for arranging objects that reveal pattern and recognising visual pattern that explore the concepts of regularity and relationship, for example, blue, yellow, blue, yellow.

Resources to explore pattern and relationships can include:

• Pattern in nature – any natural resources such as leaves, shells, flowers, pinecones. Changes in nature - to explore pattern and relationships, such as ‘the clouds get darker before it rains.
• Objects that can be arranged, rearranged ordered or grouped (natural resources, loose parts, toys, furniture, outdoor equipment).
• Pattern in stories, rhymes, poetry and songs (to explore sequence, rhythm and beat, repetition, order and reverse order).
• Pattern in the arts – Māori patterns such as kōwhaiwhai, indigenous patterns such as symbols, textiles and art, listening to and making music, visual art, dance, mosaic tiles, creating ephemeral art, playing with design, order and patterns in art, watching performances and viewing art.
• Pattern and relationships in everyday routines and rituals – pairs of socks, knife and fork, the order of events, for example, mat time then pickup time, sorting items into correct recycling containers, tidying up by returning items to the correct spaces (for example, all the same size blocks together on the shelf).

What resources and activities do you have in your setting to explore pattern and relationships?

Intentional teaching prompt

An enabling environment includes responsive kaiako, intentional teaching practices, time and space for mokopuna to think and explore, and a variety of thoughtful resources.