Maths Awareness Month: Mathematical moments matter
10 April 2025
Lauren Grocott, our early years content and engagement specialist, explains how we can support childrenās mathematical learning in child-led contexts. This is the first of two blogs to celebrate Maths Awareness Month.
Lauren Grocott
Content and Engagement Specialist (Early Years)
In the two-year olds room, Nasir wants to play with the cars and garage. Sienna has already tipped out the basket of cars and gathered most of them towards herself. Nasir picks up a car, before Sienna puts an arm around the rest of them. Nasir looks at the cars in front of Sienna and the one in his hand. He shouts out, looking towards his key person for help as he points to the cars.
Children are naturally curious ā they often notice differences in quantity, shape and position as they play and explore. In the example above, Nasir recognises the difference in the quantity of cars between himself and Sienna, even if he cannot yet verbalise his observation.
Nasirās key person, Fadeya, says, āIt looks like Sienna has lots of cars, Nasir, is that the problem?ā Nasir nods. Fadeya responds āYou only have one carā. She points to the car in Nasirās hand, before gesturing to those in front of Sienna, adding āI can see more than one car in front of Sienna. I count 11 cars. That means Sienna has the most cars, and Nasir has the leastā.
Our settings are often rich with opportunities for children to make comparisons and connections between quantity, shape or position. Above, Fadeya models mathematical language - āmostā, āmoreā and āleastā - to compare the two sets of cars.
Making comparisons and connections
Fadeya could have focused solely on encouraging the children to share in the example above. However, she takes an opportunity to introduce an evidence-informed approach to early maths into this child-led context.
The approach, teaching and modelling how to make comparisons and connections, can improve childrenās understanding of mathematical relationships.
Evidence tells us that comparing sets of objects, as Fadeya has, is an effective way to support childrenās early mathematical development. Educators could also provide opportunities for children to:Ā
- Arranging objects in order of size, location or position
- Identifying the āodd one outā from a set of objects
- Using weighing scales
- Using ordinal numbers (first, second, third).
Planning your environment and provision carefully to provoke mathematical exploration and language is important. But, to make mathematical moments matter, itās crucial to focus on the role of the educator.
Evidence into action
In the video below, you will see educator Vicky modelling making comparisons and connections, and facilitating mathematical language. She does this with a group of three- and four-year-olds, during guided play with some clay.
As you watch, notice how Vicky:
- Models her thinking aloud, and encourages the children to do the same
- Emphasises, verbally and with gesture, the comparisons she makes between different pieces of clay.
Next steps
The context of your setting might be very different to what you have seen in this clip. We firstly recommend looking at the evidence at the approach level, and then āsense-checkingā what it tells you, using your expert knowledge of your children and setting. Finally, consider how you might implement the approach ā who, when, where and with which children?
Keep reading
Maths Champions ā A winning programme!
Early Years
Early Years
Discover our evidence and resources for early years educators.