Out We Go! (6-8)

There is a lot outdoors that can help children, not just with math but with their physical development and we should try to let them explore often. When taken outside, children can observe their world and experience new things that will expand their mind in beneficial ways. Ask children ages 6-8 to describe things that they notice.

Children will naturally observe, wonder, and reason about the things around them, but to make going outside more mathematical, we can point out colors, shapes, count objects, and see different things each season.

• Fall - point out the symmetry between the sides of a leaf where the points and veins match up on either side of the middle vein, and this symmetry can be found in other aspects of nature.

• Winter - talk about the shape of snowflakes and we can predict the amount of snow we will get and measure it.

• Spring - predict how big the baby plants we see will grow to be and talk about the different colors and the patterns that they may have while discussing which ones are similar and which are different.

• Summer - talk about the temperature and the probability of rain or sun throughout the day.