Margaret McIntyre in Early Childhood and Science said “Young children take a long time to understand the concepts of mathematics that are basic to science. One reason is that children must discover these mathematical relationships for themselves. Another is that repetition is required for children to master the more precise vocabulary needed at this stage of development. Discovery comes first, and practice in the form of play follows.”

Infants: Encouraging Exploration - Adults must provide children with both the environment and the materials that encourage exploration and discovery. If the beach is not available provide infants with a plastic dishpan filled with sand and spoons, trays, pails and containers of many sizes, and shapes. Placed them on a sheet on the floor. These have the advantage of being portable and make it simple for infants to explore both wet and dry sand.

Toddlers: Wet Sand and Spatial Relationships - Encourage toddlers to describe what they are doing as they fill and empty containers. Comparisons are natural during discovery play. Toddlers can use words such as big, bigger, and biggest. They can use small, smaller than or larger than without understanding their precise meaning. Wet sand is a perfect material for exploring spatial relationships and shapes. Ask toddlers to produce a row of two sand pies from small to large. This is not an easy task for toddlers so allow much time, for them to be able to arrange them in a sequence from smallest to largest. Don’t explain what to do, allow the child to discover it.

Preschoolers: Counting and Mass – Encourage preschoolers to count even if they miscount or get ahead of the motor skill of pouring the sand in the pail. It is difficult to do two things at once when just beginning to work on coordination, so allow plenty of time to practice. Once preschoolers are interested in “how much” some will discover that more sand in a container relates to greater weight and mass. A sand filled pail is hard to hold because it pulls their hand and arm down and makes them tired, while an empty container rests easily in their hand. Introduce a simple balance scale, which will provide endless possibilities for discovery and exploration. Such as, how does a cup of wet sand differ in weight from a cup of dry sand which looks similar?

All of these explorations lead to the development of critical thinking skills. Adults can help with questions that encourage the building of children’s vocabulary to understand what they have discovered. Adults need to realize that children do not internalize a concept on the basis of a single experience or an experience repeated over and over in the same way and with the same material. They must be provided with different kinds of materials for extending and deepening the initial discovery.

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.
(Rachel Carson)