Foundations of Math Through Open-Ended Materials

Foundations of Math Through Open-Ended Materials

Since C&C’s unit blocks are all fractional units or multiples of one another, they present many opportunities for learning mathematical concepts such as numbers, symmetry, patterns, mapping, measurement, sorting, classifying, spatial orientation, multiplication, fractions, and geometry. Through repeated exploration and experimentation with the unit blocks and other materials, the children come to intuit these concepts, then hone their understanding of them. And because children at City and Country have ample time to work with the materials, learning becomes an integral part of their daily lives. By the time fractions are formally introduced at age seven, the children are simply being given the language and symbols to illustrate ideas they already understand and have been thinking about since they were two years old.