Space... to mathematics!

Abstract

The article traces the journey experienced by the pupils of a section of the last year of kindergarten in the world of mathematics: during the entire school year the children, accompanied by the mediator Galileo Galilei, tried their hand at significant experiences that have allowed them to approach mathematical concepts in a profound and at the same time playful way.
A variety of proposals have been tested, in the belief that learning, in the preschool age, must take place through concrete experience through direct contact with objects, through bodily action, movement and play.
The aim of the educational path was to initiate the children to develop those important prerequisites which allow them to face primary¹ school with greater confidence such as the knowledge of topological concepts and spatial relationships, the strengthening of executive functions, the ability to enumerate and count.

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¹ The primary school in Italy lasts five years and corresponds to the grades from 1 to 5.