Recently we had out the colourful threading shapesand gems for nga tamariki (the children) to explore. The children selected their desired piecesand carefully thread them onto the string. Nga tamariki concentrated very hard while threading the beads and continued to repeat this process over and over untilthey had long trains of beads.
As nga tamariki threaded the beads the kaiako (teachers) asked them what colour the bead was. When they had finishedthreading many of the children then counted how many they had on theirstring. Some were even able to compare numbers and say who had most andtherefore the longest bead train.
During this experience the childrenwere using their fine motor skills and showing off their maths skills ofcounting, colours and more or less. The children helped each other tofind the colours that they were looking for and shared the space. As thesmiles show they were very proud of their finished mahi and being able to showtheir maths skills.