When Maurice Uses His Spatial Sense and finds mme rigolotte.
Few weeks ago, with our first post on early mathematics, we briefly introduced the concept of “spatial sense“.
What a better way to continue to dig into this concept than following Maurice, who, as you may remember, went on a quest those past couple of weeks to find the owner of the red glasses and the rainbow scarf.
Throughout their daily life, young children are naturally exposed to the concepts of position (I am on my bed!) and direction (my friend is next to me!), as they explore the world they live in.
Those daily experiences, hence, provide plethora of opportunities for people around them, for a “more knowledgeable person” (see our previous post referring to Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development), to strengthen those young children’s spatial sense even further.
An easy first step towards our journey in supporting young children’s spatial sense is to simply is to become aware of all the vocabulary related to spatial sense, so we can natually highlight it to young children. Mathematics is all around, and so are spatial words. Let’s use Maurice’s journey to highlight a few.
Maurice went on a walk. He found a pair of glasses and a scarf on a stone. He looked around to see if the owner was here. He picked the forgotten items up, and put them in a bag.
Then, he went on a quest. He took a plane and flew across an ocean. He went on a hike into the woods. He climbed on the top of a tower. He picked up a pyramid to look underneath. He stayed on the edge of a river. Alas, he could not find the owner of those beautiful glasses and scarf. He decided to come back home, and walked around one more time.
And finally, here she was, Mme Rigolotte, coming from the Land of Seven Colors, looking for her glasses, and delighted to see that Maurice had found them.
Once aware of those language opportunities, a second step consists in encouraging young children to use those words.
For instance, where is Maurice?
Similar questions can be raised throughout the day — Where are your shoes? How did you find them?
Another fun activity is to take turn with a young child to hide an object of their choice, and find it only based on the direction the person who hid the object provides. When the child hides the object, they can practice using spatial words they already know. When the more knowleadgeable person hides the object, they can add on details, and introduce new spatial words.
With time, a third step would be inviting the young child to represent what they see, to complete their description. I personally find this step fascinating to observe, as we can learn so much from young children as they draw (see our previous post on drawing). Here is an example of a drawing made few years ago by Rosie, taking a ferry for the first time, and trying to understand how it worked.
Young children love maps, all kind of maps. Making a map of their home, or their school, a treasure map, to find a hidden object is often an engaging activity for 4- to 5- years old, that stimulates not only their spatial sense, but also their fine motor skills, attention to details, and so on. With the use of GPS, paper maps are less common nowadays, but they are still fascinating for young children, with the way they fold and unfold, their dots and lines, their colors. And zooming in and out of the map provided by a car GPS can lead to endless discussions strengtening spatial sense of the young brains in the car.
To celebrate the arrival of Mme Rigolotte, and officially introduce our first Rigolo, next post will be around colors! All the shades are indeed another great topic to enter into, and elevate young children’s thinking.
As always, thank you so much for being here. Please, share your experiences with young children and spatial sense in the comment section, or through our contact form!
Turrou, A. C., Johnson, N. C., & Franke, M. L. (2021). The Young Child & Mathematics. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Washington, DC. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Clements & Sarama. (2003). Engaging young children in mathematics. Routledge.