These deceptively simple data-handling activities will add a creative element to wildlife surveys and pond-dipping, much more exciting than simply recording on a worksheet. Looking forward to the start of term and testing them out! In Messy Maths: A Playful, Outdoor Approach for Early Years, Juliet Robertson offers a rich resource of ideas that will inspire you to tap into the endless supply of patterns, textures, colours and quantities of the outdoors and deepen children's understanding of maths through hands-on experience. Juliet believes being outside makes maths real. In the classroom environment, maths can seem disconnected from everyday reality - but real maths is really messy. All around the world there are strategy games, which were developed using locally found materials on a board that can be drawn onto an outdoor surface. Games involve looking for patterns and knowing the cause and effect of moves undertaken in particular sequences. This usually involves playing the game lots of times and experimenting with different moves. Some basic points include:

Messy Maths by Juliet Robertson eBook | Perlego [PDF] Messy Maths by Juliet Robertson eBook | Perlego

Our children are playing shape team games, learning about measure through natural materials, counting, sorting and problem solving whilst smiling, hopping, skipping and dancing as they learn! Mud kitchens can be used to encourage group learning and social skills can be developed as children learn together in cooperative play. Children enjoy inventing their own games. Whether you have a pile of stones or a few leaves lying under a tree, challenge them to create a game to help them learn a specific maths concept or skill.Fantastic Ideas for Outdoor Maths Published in 2013 – suitable for early years.Kirsteen Beeley is a prolific early years Featherstone author. This is one of several outdoor books she has written. In her book, Messy Maths: A playful, outdoor approach for early years, Juliet Robertsonoffers early years practitioners a valuable collection of resources and ideas that can support embedding early mathematical skills in a most practical and relevant approach possible. Portioned into 13 chapters, Juliet offers ideas to support teachers in thinking about how to place mathematics into everyday experiences, along with explorations of functions, fractions, time, measurement, patterns, shape and symmetry. Within each chapter Juliet offers tips, ideas and crucial vocabulary that should be used with young learners, accompanied by a collection of images that demonstrate the joy and curiosity experience by children. Messy Maths will motivate the reader to harness the outdoors' special nature for embedded, meaningful mathematical thinking and satisfying, deep-level learning - I particularly love the mathematical garden. Why would you stay indoors? Children need time to learn each game by just enjoying the experience of playing it. Older children can assist younger ones. Hold a games session so that parents and carers can learn different games too. Developing Early Maths Skills Outdoors Published in 2015 – suitable for early years.This book has been less widely-publicised and is part of a series by Marianne Sargent, which focus on literacy, science and maths outside.

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What I really like about the book, is that whether I read it as a mother, or as a professional responsible for supporting development within early years, I can see the possibilities to further enhance the experiences of children. If a game isn’t going well, ask the children for their ideas about making it better. What rules could be adapted or changed? How can they make the game more exciting? I have always been a big believer in the Steiner Waldorf approach of teaching the whole child and was thrilled to read in the intro: Many of these ideas are expanded upon in her book: Messy Maths: An Outdoor and Playful Approach for Early Years. There are also more than 750 outdoor ideas and suggestions on her blog, I’m a Teacher Get Me OUTSIDE Here! www.creativestarlearning.co.uk/blog I highly recommend Messy Maths to teachers working at all stages and in all manner of early years settings. You'll come away inspired - ready to get outdoors and help the children you work with feel super confident in their mathematical language and practical application of mathematical reasoning. I bet you'll get better at estimating weights and lengths too!Use lining up to reinforce key data handling skills. For example, request children make two lines, e.g. those who are wearing green, those who are not wearing green. This creates a human line graph and can be used for counting and discussing differences between the length of each line. Change the attributes each time you go out. Your children will have plenty of suggestions here. Wildtime Learning– Free collection of resources, many very simple and doable in a range of subjects. Use the filter to find the maths suggestions.

Messy Maths: A playful, outdoor approach for early years by Messy Maths: A playful, outdoor approach for early years by

Even if you are simply planning a fun and educational activity at home, with your own children, it is good to consider these 3 I’s and how they will increase the learning opportunities for all children regardless of their age.There is such a wealth of activities included in the book which highlights the way that Maths can be promoted through outdoor activities. The chapters are easy to use and the activities could be easily adapted for a range of ages and preferences of children. This book is already a firm favorite in the staffroom and I have had difficulty keeping hold of it!!! Go Teach Outdoors – KS1 and Go Teach Outdoors – KS2 Published 2017. These books provide a set of lessons in maths and English at each level.