“Math Is Everything.”
Written by Jane Clarke, Director of Lower School
A comment was made by a VII the other day that struck a chord with me that felt important to share with you. The VII said: “Math is in everything.” This VII continued by sharing, “All of your thoughts have to do with math, actually. And everything in the world is math. Cooking, building, even thinking.”
My own experience with “maths” (that is what we called it in the UK!) was unusual and, I believe, shaped a passion that was quickly and dramatically distinguished at age 11 when I attended a very traditional all-girls, public (state-funded) High School. I attended a small independent primary school in the countryside from 5-11 years old. From the outside, we could have been seen as traditional (we wore school uniforms, and in the area of math, some of the curriculum was competitive, involving rote memorization and “house points” for correct answers). However, the unforgettable and exciting part for me was a newly designed space named the Maths Room. In this room, we delighted in solving problems that involved integrated hands-on research and data collection within the school community. For example, what is the average shoe size in the school? How would we go about answering that question? This connected mathematical essence is what we champion in the Lower School. Math facts are essential, but accessing the relevance and connectedness of mathematical thinking is where the lifelong passion lies.
We see many examples throughout C&C, and the discovery a group of VIIs recently made and then spread within the Group spoke to this journey specifically. Here are some pix that tell the story connected directly to a Brooklyn Bridge design:
Recording information in new and exciting ways in the VIIs
As the teacher in this Group recorded:
“It was the middle of a busy and bustling Social Studies, and I hadn’t noticed that a VII had gotten a piece of paper, a clipboard, and a pencil and had sat down in front of the Brooklyn caisson. When I realized that he was naturally coming up with a coding system to map out the caissons and label each type of block, it was incredibly illuminating for me as an educator– a “light bulb” moment. It encapsulated what I know is happening all of the time, all around us at City and Country: math, social studies, social justice, science, writing, reading—they are all integrated and embedded into our daily lives, and this falls into place through the children and their natural curiosity about the world around them. It was beautiful to see a child feeling empowered to put his idea into action and to share it with others in the Group and beyond.”
This example speaks to the socially motivated learning that we see throughout the Lower School, which is, in this case, connected to mathematics. As children work together, they create extraordinary structures. In addition to directly teaching crucial mathematical concepts embedded in the curriculum, our children explore balance, symmetry, patterning, shape, and many foundational mathematical concepts. For example, our VIIs will soon gain an abstract understanding of fractions. Also upcoming is the moment everything falls into place for them, and they realize they have been exploring these mathematical relationships from the very moment they began working with unit blocks. Another magical moment!
I will leave you with just a small selection of other examples of integrated mathematical moments throughout the Lower School, and remember:
“Math is in everything!”
Fitting shapes together in the IIs Yard
Visual representations on the Vs
Calendar
VIIs use their beloved finger knitting skills as they measure the length of rope needed for Brooklyn Bridge cables
Math and Daily Pick Up
Pick up is a daily routine in most of our younger Lower School groups. As the children get older the process becomes more complicated and strenuous as the number and shape of blocks used expands. Here are the Vs sorting, categorizing and working together as they break down their block scheme after a week of work. More fundamental math skills embedded in a routine of working together to bring order back into the classroom (at the same time as having some fun!)