Mark making during play can be encouraged and used as a tool to reflect and review after play. Observe the type of language children use to explain their play. Children’s discussion about their mark making embodies mathematical language naturally in order for them to explain ‘what is going on’ in their picture. Adopt the mantra ‘Notice, Explore and Talk about Mathematics’ when discussing mark making with the children. Below you can see some examples of mark making and mathematical language opportunities.
Child: ‘My house has 4 layers. ‘
Teacher: ‘Four layers, can you show me what you mean?’
Child: Points to each level ‘1,2,3,4’
Child: ‘My house is a very big house, I have lots of windows’
Child: ‘We have a window on top’
Mathematical Language Opportunities explored:
- Number
- Size
- Spatial awareness
- Shape and space
Child: ‘I built your house teacher’
‘It is a very big house’
Teacher: ‘Why did you build Teacher a big house?’
Child: ‘..because you are big and I think you are great’
Teacher: ‘Thank you very much, can you tell me more about this big house?
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Number
- Size
- Spatial awareness
- 2D Shapes
- Problem-solving
Teacher’s house inspired by construction.
A coffee shop inspired by role play
‘These are my customers, they use a lift, they press number 3’
‘I have 10 tables, loads of people can eat here’.
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Number
- Operations
- Size
- Spatial awareness
- 2D Shapes
- Problem-solving
‘We built our cafe together all of us did it‘,
‘It is a cafe for 90 people’,
‘It has four layers’
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Numbers
- Operations
- Size
- Spatial awareness
- 2-D shape
- Problem-solving
Building a cafe inspired by construction
A Roof Top Restaurant inspired by small world
‘My restaurant has no roof, you go upstairs, you go up 6 sets of stairs’.
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Spatial awareness
- Size
- Number
- Sets
- 2-Dshape
‘This is my granny’s house. She lives in the first house. It is a big house’.
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Ordinal number
- Number
- 2D Shape
- Spatial Awareness
- Size
Houses and homes inspired by weekend news.
Sets of 3 inspired by mathematics that we are learning
‘I made 3 houses’
‘They all look different’
‘They are different sizes’
‘I drew 1 big house, 1 small house and 1 medium house’
Mathematical Language opportunities explored:
- Number
- Size
- 2D Shape
- Spatial Awareness
References
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