Overview of learning 10

Example of mathematics planning and resourcing 10

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Objectives in bold refer to Early Learning Goals.

Mathematics objectives

Share objects into equal groups and count how many in each group

Using and applying mathematics

Describe solutions to practical problems, drawing on experience, talking about their own ideas, methods and choices

Related Early Learning Goals

Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others (PSED)
Recognise the importance of keeping healthy and those things which contribute to this (PD)

Possible contexts

Provide resources such as number lines, tracks and staircases and interactive displays using numerals.
Engage in practical activities that are underpinned by children's developing communication skills.
Set sharing and grouping activities that are imaginative and enjoyable and that follow children's interests.
Give children sufficient time, space and encouragement to use new words and mathematical ideas, concepts and language during child-initiated activities in their own play.
Exploit problem-solving opportunities, for example with 'small world' play.
Provide collections of objects for children to sort, match and count.
Share, recite and encourage joining in with number rhymes and stories using games and books involving sharing and grouping.
Use photographs in the learning environment to ask, for example, how many children at the water?
Share out objects within the group, for example fruit.
Develop interactive displays of objects with prompts for 'more' or 'less'.

Example of adult-led activity

Context: Sorting fruit

Collect an assortment of fresh and dried fruit (choose small fruit like cherries and raisins that won't need cutting) and one small paper cake case for each person.

Explain that everyone will want an equal share of fruit and that you need to decide how many of each fruit to put in each case. Give pairs of children responsibility for working out how they can share equally one of the kinds of fruit. Suggest that they don't touch the fruit too much but after counting it together the children could then use beads and pots for sharing out and paper and pencils for mark making.

Count (together and out loud) each type of fruit as you place it in a paper bag. Write the number on each bag.

Encourage their different strategies and mark making, and support them in finding a solution. They may need to alter their strategy. Help them talk and think through their problem and possible solutions. Ask them for suggestions if they have some fruit left over. They may show this in their mark making. Allow the children to share out the fruit equally into paper cake cases to hand out to each child.

Adult role

Provide practical real-life activities that are underpinned by children's developing communication skills.
Model mathematical vocabulary during the daily routines and throughout adult-led activities.
Encourage children to explore objects and groups and provide resources to encourage mark making and representation, for example adding up tally marks of scores in a game.
Provide help for those children who use a means of communication other than spoken English in developing and understanding specific mathematical language.
Exploit opportunities for sorting, matching and then counting groups and totals, for example counting fruit at snack time, registering children, organising games.
Share books and exploit the number potential for using vocabulary of addition and subtraction.
Encourage children to choose numbers for problems and to make up their own story problems for other children to solve.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

Add trays with small compartments for sorting to the making area. Add collections of things: bottle tops, sequins, threads, tiny pieces of fabric, etc. Model sharing out the objects equally. For example: do you all want sequins? I'll put 5 each on your trays. Can you give everybody the same number of these? Have you got the same?
Add objects into role-play that fit back into sets when tidying up. For example: each cot has 2 blankets and 1 sheet. Each pet has 3 biscuits in its bowl, and so on.
Hang up 3 bags outside for making collections. Put a number 2 on each bag. Encourage the children to collect 2 of any treasured object in each bag, for example fir cones or smooth pebbles. The collections could be used inside and outside in the learning environment for different purposes, for example as a gallery of natural objects or for adding to the making area.
Tidy up the pencil pots, making sure each pot contains the same number of pencils of each colour.
Encourage the children to hand out things to others, for example enough pencils for each group.

Adult role

Provide practical real-life activities that are underpinned by children's developing communication skills.
Model mathematical vocabulary during the daily routines and throughout adult-led activities.
Encourage children to explore objects and groups and provide resources to encourage mark making and representation, for example adding up tally marks of scores in a game.
Provide help for those children who use a means of communication other than spoken English in developing and understanding specific mathematical language.
Exploit opportunities for sorting, matching and then counting groups and totals, for example counting fruit at snack time, registering children, organising games.
Share books and exploit the number potential for using vocabulary of addition and subtraction.
Encourage children to choose numbers for problems and to make up their own story problems for other children to solve.

Look, listen and note

How do children find the sum of two numbers? Adeola picked up as many conkers as she could, working out how many she had altogether: 'Five and four - nine! That's my best go.'
Observe the variety in responses when children work out a calculation from a story. For example: Merrie said, 'If two more come there will be seven, because five and two make seven.'
How do children count in steps/groups of, for example, 2 or 10 from given numbers and make use of this when solving problems?
How do children use the language associated with sharing out quantities into different groups?
How do children solve practical problems and puzzles and respond to questions such as 'How did you do that?' or 'Why have we got in a muddle with this?'

Assessment opportunities

Observe how children use everyday objects, for example counting pennies in the role-play and seeing how many there are altogether and how many are left when some are spent.
In outdoor activities with small apparatus are children able to solve practical problems, describing their solutions, for example sharing a number of objects equally into a given number of groups? Do they use appropriate strategies?