Tag: maths

Maths with intention – the new guide will save you hours of planning

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

I created this because I kept seeing the same thing…

Educators know maths matters, but feel unsure about the how.

How do you teach maths in a play-based room? How do you document it using EYLF language? How do you move beyond counting to real understanding?

So I put everything I know into one guide.

Maths With Intention

Early Years Maths Through Active Learning

Maths With Intention: Early Numeracy Guide

Ages 3–5 EYLF 2.0 aligned 67-page PDF Play-based

The play-based maths guide Australian early childhood educators have been asking for.

Most educators working under the EYLF know that mathematics belongs in their program. What they struggle with is the how. How do you move beyond rote counting? How do you document mathematical thinking in play? How do you talk about subitising or spatial reasoning in a learning story? Maths With Intention answers exactly those questions — practically, beautifully, and without a single worksheet in sight.

This is a 67-page guide for early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers, and ECT students who want to teach maths the way the Early Years Learning Framework actually intends: through play, movement, language, and intentional teaching moments that turn everyday play into powerful mathematical learning.

What’s inside

  • My story — how I taught my son to count to 1000 using Montessori and Zaitsev methods, and what it taught me about how children really build number sense
  • What is early numeracy? — number sense, pattern, measurement, spatial reasoning, data sense and mathematical language explained in plain English
  • Early maths and the EYLF 2.0 — exactly how mathematical thinking maps onto Outcome 4 (Confident and Involved Learners) and Outcome 5 (Effective Communicators), with sentence starters for your observations and learning stories
  • Theoretical background — Dienes, Vygotsky, Piaget, Howard Gardner and Zaitsev, made practical for the play-based room
  • Counting songs at circle time — my three go-to songs and the movement strategies that make them stick
  • Go-to room resources — how to use the number line and 100-chart as active teaching tools, every day
  • My favourite group activities — 12 ready-to-run games for circle time and small groups
  • First Nations Mathematics — embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in early maths, drawing on the QCAA Mathematics Storytelling resource and the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning framework
  • Quick reference: writing a maths observation — sentence starters you can use the very next time you sit down to document
  • Language Guide: What to Say When — questions and prompts for counting, comparing, building, problem-solving and extending the confident young mathematician

Who this is for

  • Early childhood educators working under the EYLF 2.0 (Belonging, Being and Becoming)
  • Kindergarten and preschool teachers in Australia, New Zealand, and any play-based setting
  • Educators studying for or holding a Bachelor’s or Master’s of Early Childhood Education
  • Educational leaders building pedagogical practice across a centre
  • Relief ECTs, nannies, and family day care educators who want to teach maths confidently in any room
  • University students on Teaching Practice (TP) placements

Why this guide is different

Australian early childhood education is strongly anti-worksheet, but most educators have never seen what intentional maths teaching actually looks like in a play-based room. This guide shows you — with real classroom photos, real children, real language, and the EYLF-aligned wording you can lift straight into your documentation.

It’s grounded in 18+ years of teaching experience, a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Early Childhood Education, and certified Zaitsev teacher training. It’s designed to be read once, then opened weekly for the rest of your career.

Format: 67-page A4 PDF. Print, laminate, or read on screen. Yours to keep forever.

About Storykate

I’m Kate — early childhood teacher, university educator, certified Zaitsev teacher since 2007, and the educator behind Storykate. I’m passionate about giving Australian educators practical, evidence-based, beautifully designed resources that make the EYLF feel achievable on a Tuesday afternoon.

You can find me on YouTube at @Storykate.

Get your guide here https://payhip.com/b/IcLXG

Mosaic Pegbord Magic: A Mathematical Treasure Trove

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

“This isn’t just a game—it’s a real treasure chest of geometry, combinatorics, logic, and pattern recognition tasks,” says the author of a hugely popular child development book.

There are quite a few varieties of mosaics available—plastic, magnetic, ones with letters, and ones with little pegs. For mathematical purposes, a rectangular mosaic board with colourful peg buttons works best. This way, we develop not only spatial thinking and concentration, but also fine motor skills. Ideally, you should have several boards (it’s convenient for working with multiple children, and you can also “connect” boards to each other). The larger the pegs, the better. As children grow, you can reduce their size.

Get your mosaic kit here https://amzn.to/3XWHsUY

Following a Pattern: Pegboard

The first task is to create a figure following a pattern. Usually, these come with the mosaic sets, but if you don’t have any, you can make up patterns yourself by drawing them with markers.

https://amzn.to/3Mw5fbR

Symmetry

Mathematician Alexander Zvonkin recommends starting with the principle “from simple to complex.” First, lay out an axis on the board with pegs of one colour—a vertical line running down the middle of the field. This line will be the “mirror,” and different figures will be reflected in this mirror.

Build a simple figure on one side—a square, rectangle—and ask the child to repeat it on the other side of the “mirror.” You can vary the colour, size, and position of the figures. To check how accurately the children managed to mirror your figure, take a real mirror. If it’s the same, everything’s fine. If not, let’s try to fix it.

In the next session, you can change the axis position: first, make it horizontal, then diagonal. The figures you create can become progressively more complex. Make multicoloured diamonds, create butterflies. Check with the mirror. Symmetry, according to Zvonkin, is a rich topic—definitely search online for photos of snowflakes and other examples of symmetry in nature, or look in H. Weyl’s book “Symmetry.”

Learning to Write

According to Maria Montessori’s definition, reading is the transformation of sounds into symbols. That’s exactly what we’ll do with the mosaic. We’ll compose keywords, and then move on to sentences. This is especially useful when learning a foreign language.

I give the child cards with so-called sight words or basic words, and they copy them for me on the mosaic. The spelling rules pass through the “hand.”

Why This Works:

The mosaic board is a brilliant multisensory tool. Children aren’t just seeing letters and patterns—they’re building them, peg by peg. Each placement requires precision, planning, and physical engagement. When a four-year-old recreates the word “the” or “cat” with colourful pegs, they’re encoding that word into muscle memory. The tactile experience of pushing each peg into place creates a stronger neural pathway than simply writing with a pencil.

And for symmetry work? There’s something magical about the moment a child places that final peg and realises their butterfly’s wings are perfectly balanced. Mathematics becomes visible, tangible, and deeply satisfying.