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. 

 

 

The tracks that fascinated us the most were those made by animals. Our school is located near a wooded trail and our yard is frequented after hours by coyotes, deer, geese, wild turkeys and dogs. The children compared the different tracks and used their prior knowledge to try and identify the animals. We also used a handy animal tracks identifier to help us as the difference between some tracks is minimal.

 

               

The children were also very curious about the shoe/boot tracks that they found alongside the animal tracks. Within each we noticed intricate shape and line details that differentiated them from one another. We identified many shapes including circles, diamonds, hexagons and squares. There were also many different lines in each - straight, wavy, and zigzag.

 

      

     

We wondered if our footwear matched any of the tracks. The children examined each other's feet to see if they could find a match between their shoes and any of the tracks. This inspired rich observation and discussion as small details were noted and comparisons were made. 

 

In order to capitalize on this interest I printed large photos of a shoe and animal print and brought them to our whole group discussion. I asked the children to consider what was the same and different about each print. I also used the thinking routine 'see, think, and wonder' to facilitate math talk and help the children mathematize the photos. 

We also brought this interest in prints to our art center where children were invited to paint our spare classroom boots and stamp them to see what kinds of prints they made. 

Once the tread prints were dry the children brought them to our whole group gathering time and we continued to observe and discuss the shapes and lines we saw in each. The children grouped the prints according to similarities and also compared the size of the marking to their feet in order to see which was the bigger foot. 

 

As spring weather continues to bring rain, the children's interest in tracks endures. The children are now curious about how long an entire track path is, how deep the prints are in the mud and how much space is in between each print. They wonder about how far and fast the person or animal might have been travelling and use these clues to help them hypothesize the speed and distance. Each time a discovery is made in the yard I carefully document the findings using photos and videos so we can bring the information back to our whole group conversations and build our collective knowledge about tracks. 

Our next step will be to record ourselves making tracks in the mud using digital tools. We will use the different recording options on our smart device including time lapse photography and slow motion recording. These will be interesting to watch and will hopefully help us understand more clearly how the distance, pressure and speed of movement will affect the way a print is made in mud. Stay tuned! 

Looking for a resource to support mud play? Check out my book Muddy Math available on Amazon!