Nurturing Mathematical Thinking Skills

How can adults support the development of mathematical thinking skills during the first three years?

Birth to 12 months

• Provide logical, orderly, predictable daily routines. Routines are patterns that help the child make sense of the world and develop mathematical thinking skills.
• Play body games. (i.e., This Little Piggy, Pat-A-Cake, Open-Close) Body games help the child develop a physical sense of where she is in relation to the world.
• Encourage the child to reach and grasp. This helps to develop spatial reasoning.
• Provide blocks and toys with different shapes, colors, sizes, textures and sounds. Play together and talk about the toys’ attributes.
• Explore mathematical concepts in books. Talk about numbers, sequences, patterns and attributes.
• Engage in musical experiences together. Music creates connections in the brain that later help children solve math problems.
• Clap! Bounce to the beat! Shake a rattle or tambourine! Beat on a pot or drum! Beats are intervals which relate to number concepts.
• Sing songs that introduce basic math concepts (i.e., counting songs).
• Talk with the child! Use words that encourage comparison and counting: longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, more, less, up, down, square, round, one, two, three, hard, crunchy, soft, mushy, one, two, three. Name groups of things with numbers and shape names. (i.e., "Look at those three funny jack-o-lanterns. What shape are the eyes?") By talking with the child about how she is playing or what she is doing, you will help her become aware of math and build a mathematical vocabulary.

12 to 24 months

• Provide logical, orderly, predictable daily routines. Routines are patterns that help the child make sense of the world and develop mathematical thinking skills.
• Play body games. (i.e., This Little Piggy, Pat-A-Cake, Open-Close) Body games help the child develop a physical sense of where she is in relation to the world.
• Provide blocks and toys with different shapes, colors, sizes, textures and sounds. Play together and talk about the toys’ attributes.
• Explore mathematical concepts in books. Talk about numbers, sequences, patterns and attributes.
• Engage in musical experiences together. Music creates connections in the brain that later help children solve math problems.
• Clap! Bounce to the beat! Shake a rattle or tambourine! Beat on a pot or drum! Beats are intervals which relate to number concepts.
• “Sing songs that introduce basic math concepts (i.e., counting songs)
• Talk with the child! Use words that encourage comparison and counting: longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, more, less, up, down, square, round, one, two, three, hard, crunchy, soft, mushy, one, two, three. Name groups of things with numbers and shape names. (i.e., "Look at those three funny jack-o-lanterns. What shape are the eyes?") By talking with the child about how she is playing or what she is doing, you will help her become aware of math and build a mathematical vocabulary.
• Play Peek-A-Boo and hide things! This helps to develop the concept of object permanence.
• Ask the child to pass out objects (i.e., napkins at the table). This encourages the development of one-to- one correspondence.
• Provide opportunities to open hinged boxes. This promotes problem solving skills and the perseverance to test hypotheses.
• Encourage dramatic play with props that promote sorting, comparing and contrasting, exploring size and exploring shape.
• Supply boxes, tunnels, pillows, climbing structures, blocks and simple puzzles. These allow the child to physically explore spatial relationships. These physical activities provide a foundation for understanding geometry and numbers.
• Make patterns together using blocks, large beads or objects, sounds and movements.
• Provide a system of organization and clean up together. This is a good way to practice categorization, sorting and seriation.
• Turn Bath Time into Math Time! Provide containers of different sizes and shapes. Pour and explore. Count. Make comparisons and predictions.
• Model mathematical behavior. Talk about what you are doing as you grocery shop and cook. Think out loud as you use math to solve problems, explain an idea or plan for a project. Establish and identify patterns in daily routines. Label shelves and return materials in an organized way.

24 to 36 months

• Provide logical, orderly, predictable daily routines. Routines are patterns that help the child make sense of the world and develop mathematical thinking skills.
• Provide blocks and toys with different shapes, colors, sizes, textures and sounds. Play together and talk about the toys’ attributes.
• Explore mathematical concepts in books. Talk about numbers, sequences, patterns and attributes.
• Engage in musical experiences together. Music creates connections in the brain that later help children solve math problems.
• Clap! Bounce to the beat! Shake a rattle or tambourine! Beat on a pot or drum! Beats are intervals which relate to number concepts.
• “Sing songs that introduce basic math concepts (i.e., counting songs)
• Talk with the child! Use words that encourage comparison and counting: longer, shorter, bigger, smaller, more, less, up, down, square, round, one, two, three, hard, crunchy, soft, mushy, one, two, three. Name groups of things with numbers and shape names. (i.e., "Look at those three funny jack-o-lanterns. What shape are the eyes?") By talking with the child about how she is playing or what she is doing, you will help her become aware of math and build a mathematical vocabulary.
• Ask the child to pass out objects (i.e., napkins at the table). This encourages the development of one-to- one correspondence.
• Encourage dramatic play with props that promote sorting, comparing and contrasting, exploring size and exploring shape.
• Supply boxes, tunnels, pillows, climbing structures, blocks and simple puzzles. These allow the child to physically explore spatial relationships. These physical activities provide a foundation for understanding geometry and numbers.
• Make patterns together using blocks, large beads or objects, sounds and movements.
• Provide a system of organization and clean up together. This is a good way to practice categorization, sorting and seriation.
• Turn Bath Time into Math Time! Provide containers of different sizes and shapes. Pour and explore. Count. Make comparisons and predictions.
• Model mathematical behavior. Talk about what you are doing as you grocery shop and cook. Think out loud as you use math to solve problems, explain an idea or plan for a project. Establish and identify patterns in daily routines. Label shelves and return materials in an organized way.