Play today, solve tomorrow: Practicing problem-solving through play

A recent EdWeek article, Why Word Problems Feel So Hard and What Teachers Can Do, identifies two obstacles many children face when asked to solve word problems: a lack of background knowledge and lagging reading skills. A child from Michigan has more context to visualize a word problem about sledding than a child from Alabama who has never seen snow. And a child struggling to decipher the words in a problem may be challenged by language or literacy; for this child, solving the word problem may have little to do with math.

PreK educators support children’s school-readiness by growing children’s internal library of knowledge and experiences. Providing opportunities for quality, make-believe play, early childhood educators support children in developing language skills and building the background knowledge needed to create a solid foundation for problem-solving.

Authentic learning experiences with Tools

Tools play themes engage children in learning about the world around them and exploring scenarios they may come across in their communities. Children acquire background knowledge and vocabulary, in context, through reading together and hosting visitor “experts” from their communities. During guided make-believe play, children step into theme-based scenarios, visualizing and playing out scenes using new knowledge they will build on throughout their elementary, middle, and high school years.

Building language skills...

Make-believe play experiences naturally support oral language development. Children practice using language pragmatically in make-believe play. They try out new vocabulary and build an understanding of grammar and syntax as they engage in conversational turns with peers. Make-believe play provides opportunities to practice using language and actions specific to play themes, roles, and scenarios. Through peer interactions in make-believe play, children use language to problem-solve together within play scenarios.

...While still building math skills!

They do all this while also developing an understanding of number sense, geometry, measurement, and other mathematical content. Children playing out a scenario in a make-believe pizza restaurant may play the role of parents dividing up a pizza for their children, servers ordering the number of pizzas they need from the kitchen, or chefs satisfying a customer’s request to top their pizza with three tomato slices and two pepper slices, for a total of five toppings. Children playing customers may choose between square or triangular-shaped slices on the menu.

Tools takeaways

Tools make-believe play gives children an opportunity to develop and practice foundational math skills and also build the vocabulary and background knowledge that can support them in solving word problems down the road.

Word problems don’t have to feel so hard. Let’s get children ready to approach them with confidence.