The overview for this area of learning is taken from the consultation version of EYFS - this will be amended following the consultation.

Practitioners must support children in developing their understanding of problem solving, reasoning and numeracy in a broad range of contexts in which they can explore, enjoy, learn, practise and talk about their developing understanding. Practitioners must offer opportunities for these skills to be practised, in order to give children confidence and competence in their use.

What problem solving, reasoning and numeracy means for children

This Area of Learning and Development includes seeking patterns, making connections, recognising relationships, working with numbers, shapes, space and measures, and counting, sorting and matching. Children use their knowledge and skills in these areas to solve problems, generate new questions and make connections across other Areas of Learning and Development.

How settings can effectively implement this Area of Learning and Development

Mathematical understanding should be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. To give all children the best opportunities for effective mathematical development, practitioners should give particular attention to:

• many different activities, some of which will focus on mathematical development and some of which will draw out the mathematical learning in other activities, including observing numbers and patterns in the environment and in daily routines.
• practical activities underpinned by children's developing communication skills.
• activities that are imaginative and enjoyable.
• real-life problems, for example: 'How many spoons do we need for everyone in this group to have one? ' .
• modelling mathematical vocabulary during the daily routines and throughout practitioner-led activities.
• giving children sufficient time, space and encouragement to use 'new' words and mathematical ideas, concepts and language during child-initiated activities in their own play.
• encouraging children to explore problems, to make patterns and to count and match together.
• the balance between learning and teaching indoors and outdoors (e.g. having read a story about washing clothes, there might be laundrette play indoors and washing line play outdoors; streets of clothes shops built out of recyclables; bikes and other wheeled vehicles being used as delivery vans; numbered (and lettered) parking spaces. The staff would spend time in both environments and the level of child-initiated and practitioner-led activity would be monitored and divided more or less equally across both environments. Displays would include examples from both environments).
• help for those children who use a means of communication other than spoken English in developing and understanding specific mathematical language.
• opportunities to observe, assess and plan the next stage in children's learning.
• relevant training to improve practitioners' knowledge, skills and understanding.

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