Maths in early years: Making maths matter
Maths in early years is an important area of learning for all children and embedding a good foundation in maths is essential for developing life skills.
As well as developing number awareness, maths also impacts skills such as spatial awareness, problem solving, shape knowledge and creating and describing patterns.
Maths is everywhere!
Engaging children in the world around them offers an abundance of maths learning. From looking at the patterns found on leaves, to the shapes they can see in and around the setting, not to mention how many sticks they can collect on a nature walk or looking at the shapes in a spider’s web.
Practitioners talking about maths they find in the environment will inspire children to look for, and then describe it for themselves.
Make maths real
By giving a purpose to the maths you want the children to learn, the children will be more motivated to take part and are therefore far more likely to retain the learning.
Purposeful maths includes activities such as:
- Counting the fruit/utensils to make sure there is enough for everyone
- Putting in the right number of ‘spoons/cups’ of ingredients to make something
- Counting how many children are at nursery today. How many are missing?
- Counting the chairs/cushions to make sure that everyone has one. How many would we need if someone else joined us?
Songs and rhymes
Accompanied by actions, songs and rhymes can be a really powerful way of teaching children about maths. There are so many songs to help with counting and the order of numbers – here are five of my favourite:
- One elephant went out to play
- Five currant buns
- 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive
- Five little men in a flying saucer
- Five little speckled frogs.
Remember you can change the words of familiar songs to count up in songs, as well as take away. For example:
No little speckled frogs
Sat on the speckle log
Eating the most delicious bugs, yum yum.
One frog, she came along
Jumped out onto the log
Then there was one green speckled frog, glub glub.
One little speckled frog…
Then there were two green speckled frogs, glub glub.
How can nurseries encourage the development of maths skills?
Practitioners are well placed to help children develop their maths skills. By talking to children about the world around them and finding maths learning in whatever they are doing, practitioners can support children to reach their full maths potential.
Looking for more support with maths in nurseries?
Find more support for early maths with our Maths Champions programme. We also have a range of early years maths online courses: ‘Maths in early years for England‘, ‘Making maths matter‘ and ‘Mini maths explorers outdoor challenge‘. Plus our ‘Supporting maths using rhymes‘ publication.
- Maths
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