Children’s play often contains rich mathematical opportunities. Noticing and responding to children’s ideas in both formal and informal settings can support children to build connections between what they know about the world and important mathematical ideas.  An important part of this work is drawing out children’s varied ways of describing and communicating their ideas about measurement and spatial relations. In this video clip, Ms. Torres has observed a student playing with Magnatiles, and decides to ask her more about the “house” she is building. As you watch, think about the ways that Ms. Torres supports connections between play, mathematics, and communication.

Questions for reflection

• What mathematical ideas emerged during play?
• What was Ms. Torres’ role in supporting children’s sense-making and varied ways of communicating?  
• In what ways were the children given space to participate?  
• Where could you look for opportunities to “mathematize” play in your work with young children?

As they make sense of themselves and the world around them, children naturally compare things to each other.  Their intuitive ideas about what or who is taller, longer, or heavier provide entry points into the mathematics of measurement. As you watch the clip below, think about the ways that the teacher elicits and responds to children’s ideas as they relate to important measurement concepts.

Questions for reflection

• What ideas about measurement emerged for children? How is their intuition treated as a resource?
• In what ways does the teacher support students to connect their language of “bigger” to ideas about length?
• The teacher chooses to draw attention to a student’s comment about “tippy toes.” Why do you think she decided to do this? How is the idea of “tippy toes” related to important ideas about measuring length?

Ms. Torres engages her 3- and 4-year old preschoolers in a data activity where children respond to the question “Which insect do you prefer?” and choose between a butterfly and praying mantis.  Watch as children add their names to the representation, wonder about others’ choices, and engage with each other in comparing the groups of responses.

Questions for reflection

• What do you notice about collecting, organizing, and interpreting the data?
• How were children invited to participate in a way that supported them to see themselves in the representation?
• [Pause at 1:15] Priscilla in the blue shirt is wondering about what Michelle chose. How might a teacher leverage this opportunity to discuss the complexities of data collection?
• How might we build from the ideas in this video to continue to open up for space for children to take the lead? What questions might they ask, what data might they collect, how might they represent their data?

Watch a follow-up video where Ms. Torres leverages this data context to support children's work on operations.