Math Emerges From Our Andy Goldsworthy's Exploration

As we mentioned the day before, our collection of natural materials filled several bins and we recognized that in order for the children to have the opportunity to use them in a creative, artistic way we would first need to sort and organize them. We revisited the beautiful photographs of art that Andy Goldsworthy created and noticed that he was very intentional in selecting specific materials that he wanted to use to create his art. For example, the children noticed that in one photograph Andy used only red leaves of a similar size from a Japanese Maple tree to create the image he wanted.

We talked about collections and what it means to group and sort.

Miranda said, " I know. It's like putting things in places where they look the same, like color". Sania exclaimed, " If I had a red bowl and a red teddy bear , I'd put the teddy bear in red bowl".

Kailyn"s response was "If I had a pine cone, I'd put it with other pine cones".

Cristian added, " If you put a green bowl, we need to fine something green to put inside it".

We spread all of the materials out and had various natural containers for the children to begin to sort. In a rather spontaneous manner, one child said " I have the pine cones here" and children immediately started sorting and passing pine cones to that child. The children self directed their own sorting and organizing and within moments a system had been established! Pine needles , branches, acorns, leaves, bark, gumtree seedlings and sticks were separated form each other and the children had a full hands -on experience of the mathematical concepts associated with classifying and creating sets.

It was quite amazing to observe the children take full charge of their own learning. Along with learning and experiencing important math concepts, this activity required collaboration and the integration of mature social skills. The excitement and joy that followed as the children began to use their creative talents in exploring the materials we gathered was wonderful to see . Keep posted to our blog ... we have so much to share with you!