Describe opportunities that support children's understanding of mathematics?
 

I need help on unit 3.6!!
Question 4.1
Describe opportunities which support children's understanding of
-shape size and pattern
-weight volume and capacity
-space and time
-matching and sorting
-data representation
-problem solving

Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

solve problems – for example, which brand and size of tinned beans is the cheapest?
analyse and make sense of information – for example, how many wins does my team need to get to the top of the competition?
understand patterns – for example, what number would the next house in this street be?
make choices – for example, which bike is the best value?

Use shape sorters or cut out different shapes from paper. Talk with your child about each shape by counting the sides, describing colours and looking for other objects that are the same shape.
Help your child arrange her favourite toys in order from shortest to tallest.
Gather a mix of small toys, pegs or pebbles together with your child. Sort them into groups based on size, colour, shape or what they do. Just make sure none of the pieces go into your child’s mouth, and put them away when you’re finished.
Sing the alphabet song while clapping or jumping its rhythm. Sing songs and read books that have numbers in them that repeat, rhyme and have rhythm. This will help your child understand patterns.
Try simple board games, card games and puzzles with shapes and numbers, like ‘snap’, or matching pairs or dominoes.
Play outside games like ‘I spy’, hopscotch, skittles and ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’.

:smile:Small children seem to be instinctively attracted to all the things the planet is made of, and above all to sand and water. These materials offer rich learning opportunities for children but the learning would not take place without the children’s own delight in the substances themselves – it is pleasure which provides the motivation for their play.
Children learn about the world through their senses and their first response to sand and water is a sensuous one: they touch, pat, swirl, smell and stroke it, sometimes for very long periods, taking pleasure just in the tactile experience.

great reply already given :) page 249 of the EYE handbook goes into greater detail for each of these areas. Search for 'mathematical concepts' then click the link to page 249

This picture is an example of the possible resources your setting has and the activities it might plan for the children to explore concepts and vocabulary associated with mathematics. As you'll see they can interlink so that one resource provides the opportunity for children to problem solve, learn about shapes, size and also use the toy to match and sort.



Think about what happens in your setting xx