This month I have a blog post featured on the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) website regarding how to engage children in math learning during risky, outdoor play. You can read the article here: Eight Ways to Encourage Math Learning During Risky Outdoor Play.
Joyful Learning in the Early Years
I am a Reggio Emilia inspired Full Day Kindergarten teacher and mother to three young children. This blog is meant as a communication tool for the families of our children and as a learning tool for the many educators who follow us. Please feel free to comment on posts and participate in our collective understanding of emergent curriculum.
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Sunday, May 28, 2023
STEAM in the Garden: Constructing Insect Houses from Natural Loose Parts
"Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better."
Albert Einstein
Where's the math?
- considering and comparing the characteristics (e.g., size, shape, colour, texture) of different loose parts including stones, sticks, acorns, leaves and flowers
- spatial awareness as loose parts were pieced together to form the house
- spatial reasoning as children considered how an insect might move through and manipulate elements in the structure
- proportional reasoning as the house and its characteristics needed to be constructed to an appropriate size for the insect
- process of design as houses were planned, built and refined to best suit the interests and needs of the children (and insects)
- counting the number of loose parts needed
- sorting as the loose parts were collected and placed into groups
- calculating area and perimeter as the outside of the structure was made (e.g., rocks as the walls) and the inside decorated (e.g., sticks for the floor)
- growth mindset, flexibility and perseverance revising the plan when it didn't work as anticipated
- articulation of math ideas as children explored one another's designs and asked questions for clarification and made observations about one another's work
- the sharing of math thinking as photos were taken of each structure and children presented their work during the end of the day consolidation circle.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Calendar Math: Daily Date-Inspired Prompts to Inspire Math Talk

Math talks are regular, short conversations about purposeful math problems with children. These are intentionally crafted to invite children into specific math situations, helping them to improve their mathematical confidence and abilities. Math talks are meant to be open-ended opportunities that have multiple entry points and approaches for interpreting and solving the problem. To learn more please read my article Joyful Number Talks in Kindergarten available here:
The Journal of Teaching and Learning
Vol. 13, No. 2 (2019) pp.43–54
https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/5684/5082
In my classroom I engage children in daily math talks during our first whole group time together. I often use the date as a focus for the number talk. For example, if the date is December 10, I use the number ten as the focal point of our math exploration.
Over the years I have shared my math talks on social media and have been asked repeatedly to create a guide to support educators who wish to engage their students in math talks. This served as the inspiration my book Calendar Math. This book provides photo prompts and accompanying questions is that educators can use these to engage children in regular conversations in the classroom. In the book each calendar date (numbers 1 through 31) has four different pages with accompanying prompts. Use them for different months and also as sparks for creating your own daily number talks with children.
To help educators get started here is a collection of photos representing the numbers 1 to 31 available as a PDF file. They can be digitally projected or printed and used as part of your morning math talk. Feel free to use them to support and supplement math discussions with your students!

Saturday, April 22, 2023
Creating Geometric Art Outdoors
“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
Wassily Kandinsky
Step 2 is to invite children to colour the inside of each shape using a different shade of sidewalk chalk.
Step 3 is to remove the tape once the shape is completely coloured and admire the artwork!
It's fun to create different sizes and shapes of chalk art...
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Using Outdoor Discoveries to Inspire Rich Math Talks
"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."
John Wooden
Now that spring is emerging muddy conditions are common in our school yard. Although some educators shy away from messy spots, I find they are often one of the best places to notice and name rich, authentic math.
One morning the children were exploring the yard and noticed interesting tracks on the path. They took their time observing the different prints they found. They wondered who had been visiting the space and how the markings were made. They noticed that the prints appeared to be dried in the dirt and preserved in the thick mud.
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Thursday, January 5, 2023
Daily Math Talks with Young Children
“Mathematics is a very broad and multidimensional subject that
requires reasoning, creativity, connection making, and interpretation of
methods; it is a set of ideas that helps illuminate the world; and it
is constantly changing.”
―
Jo Boaler
Math talks are a great way to engage children in open-ended explorations that invite them to think critically and creatively about a concept. An effective math prompt to facilitate a rich math discussion will be layered; it should be open-ended with multiple entry points for engagement. Even children as young as kindergarten are capable of participating in complex math conversations. In our classroom I aim to invite children into a math talk at least once a day; I sometimes use the numerical date on our morning message as the spark for exploration. Other times an interesting photo or collection of loose parts will be engaging and incite children into further exploration. I try to vary the invitations I provide in order to diversify the math we discuss and to reach as many learning interests as possible.
Recently
I posted two Instagram Reels regarding our daily math talks that has
generated many questions regarding how we engage young children in
robust discussions about math each morning. There was much interest in
these math prompts and many educators reached out with questions
regarding how I create these prompts.
To help support educators who are interested in starting daily math talks with children, I have published a book called Calendar Math: Daily Prompts for Math Explorations with Children.
To help give an idea of what this book is about, and to help educators create their own math prompts, here are the first few pages of the book!
