Let me count the ways – to learn about number outdoors!
If you love outdoor learning as much as I do, you count the minutes until you can get outside again with your students.
When I first became the outdoor learning educator at my school, I wanted to ensure my students were exploring math outside. We are an IBO World School, so I got out the PYP Mathematics Scope and Sequence and spent some time thinking about how my students could achieve as many of the learning outcomes in Phase 1 in each strand (Data Handling, Measurement, Number, Pattern & Function and Shape & Space) as possible outside.
This is for those of you who want to see curricular connections. Click here to see some of the ways the children experience number in the outdoor learning environment throughout the school year.
Teaching number is easy to do in the real world.
How many binoculars do we have? What colors are they?
We count our resources. We notice which toys we have more of, which we have less of and if we have the same amount of any of them.
“Above, below, beside” Positional language helps us locate what we need.
We use positional language to help us find resources. The basket of animals is above the basket of trucks. The red shovel is beside the basket of trucks.
When it’s tidy up time, we count our resources again. If we have three out of five magnifying glasses, I ask the children how many are missing. We figure it together, then search until we find the missing number.
We count brooms. Then we count children. There are fewer brooms than children. How many more children than brooms are there?
By the way, having fewer brooms than children ensures we must share and take turns.
Learning about number comes naturally in the natural environment.
How many magnifying glasses are missing?
How many water snails did we catch?
