[0:00] Victoria Zablocki

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. We're back with another fantastic interview for you today, and this one was stellar. I got the opportunity to chat with Lauren MacLean about teaching elementary math outside.

Lauren is on today to share with us the benefits of teaching elementary math outside, ways to integrate subjects while in nature, activity types for teaching elementary math outside, a realistic view about math manipulatives in nature, how to document learner progress, and so much more. She gives us so many examples of ways to take elementary math outside. You'll be walking away with multiple things you could try today.

But before we get started, I just wanted to share some of Lauren's experiences with you. Lauren is an experienced teacher, former Nature School educator, and the author of Me and My Sit Spot, Finding Common Ground, and Sitting with Nature: an Educator's Guide to Sit Spots. She's also the host of the Teach Outdoors podcast and works as an outdoor learning consultant, helping schools take their curriculum outdoors. As a mother of two young children, Lauren brings both personal and professional passion to her mission of connecting kids with nature. Now let's get started with this amazing interview.

Teaching elementary-aged children is a rewarding experience, but as educators and parents, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary. I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator.

With over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective teaching methods, I'm passionate about teaching the whole child with authentic and place-based experiences in school and home settings. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews, and more. So let's grow together.

[1:50] Victoria Zablocki

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary podcast. I have Lauren MacLean here today, and I'm super excited for her to tell you about how to use math in nature. So I'm going to let her give us a little background about how she got into outdoor ed, but I'm also just going to let her throw her expertise at us. So Lauren, if you could take it away, that'd be great.

[2:12] Lauren MacLean

Amazing. Thanks so much, Victoria. Hi everybody. So excited that you're joining us here today. A little bit about my background. So I'm from BC.

So I'm on the west coast of Canada. I trained and worked with the Soaring Eagle Nature School over in North Vancouver. And I also took most of my classes from the Wilderness Awareness School, which is in Washington, as well as many weekend land-based courses from the Squamish Nation.

So what I love is that I feel like I've got so many different teachers and continue to have these teachers to help inspire me, which is just, I'm so lucky. I am now working in the public school system, so I'm trying to merge my passion with nature-based, land-based learning and public school system, which can be an interesting triangle to be in, but it's been so beautiful triangle to weave everything together. So I'm so excited to share this with everybody.

[3:13] Victoria Zablocki

That's fantastic. And that's what makes you such a great teacher of taking nature outside, is because you don't have to do this. You choose to do this, and that shows the benefit of nature.

So I don't know if you want to say anything about that, but that's one of the things that talks to my teacher heart, is the fact that you are not required to do this. You do this because you love it.

[3:34] Lauren MacLean

Right. And I think a big part for me, if I can speak selfishly, I am someone with ADHD. And so to be locked up inside a classroom all day is not something I can handle. The lights hurt my eyes. I become noise sensitive all of a sudden, even though I'm a very loud, energetic personality. All of a sudden, little noises start to irritate me.

And so I'm not my best self inside. I really need that balance. And I think so do all of our learners.

[4:07] Victoria Zablocki

I agree 100%. Not just our students with special needs, but they all benefit from going outside tremendously. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. I didn't know that about you. So that's a nice little personal insight.

[4:20] Lauren MacLean

Yeah. And I think it's quite a gift. I mean, I got it from my father, he got it from his father, and I gave it to my children.

[4:29] Victoria Zablocki

I'm glad you look at it as a gift because I can see so many benefits to that, like even just for your learners, to be honest, because that kind of almost gives you your own timer to be able to know like, oh yeah, we should probably move on.

[4:43] Lauren MacLean

I'm bored. Are you bored? Let's move on. We'll come back later.

[4:47] Victoria Zablocki

Awesome. So we're here to talk about some math today. So could you walk us through what it looks like on a typical day for you to take your students outside, not just to practice science or reading, but practice math in particular?

[4:59] Lauren MacLean

Yeah. I go outside every day with students. This year, I actually rotate what students I take outside.

So even though I teach Grade 2-3, I only take my Grade 2-3s out outside on Mondays, and then I take another group of students out on Tuesdays, and then an older class outside on Wednesdays. So I'm only in the classroom Tuesday to Wednesday. When I'm outside with my students, it's between recess and lunch.

We want to try to limit how many transitions the students have to do, coming inside, getting dressed, all of that sort of thing. So when they're outside for recess, bell goes, most of the students go back inside, we stay out. We always start with some sort of movement break, either a nature walk or a nature game.

Really just helps bring us together, collaborate, get that fresh air, notice whatever's happening outside that day. Once we're done, the nature walk or the nature game, I typically do bring out a picture book with me. I don't often read the entire book, usually just a few pages as some inspirational, usually seasonal inspiration.

And during that book, we talk about the connections to the land, what we're noticing. Then we're setting up our activity as a group. So, “okay, it sounds like we want to look at what's different today than it was yesterday, because now we're noticing all these different winter seasonal changes.”

So we set up a few different stations or some unstructured playtime. Once we've sort of wrapped that up, we end in a sit spot, sometimes with our nature journal. And then after that, we have our circle where we debrief, we get to share, consolidate our learning, and then we go back inside for lunch.

So every day looks like that sort of framework. And every day we are able to incorporate math somehow. Lots of different ways to do it, which we will get into.

[6:55] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. And even though you talk about like two, three grade level learners and up, that routine is still just, it's so important. And it reminds them that it's not recess.

It's a different time and it's learning time and they have those expectations. But you're also recognizing that they do have some wiggles that need to come out. And so you're front loading the lesson, which is very, very smart.

So you talked about daily going outside, and you wouldn't do this, especially in the wintertime, unless there were true benefits to going outside. So I know you've addressed some of them in your podcast episodes, but could you speak about some of the benefits that you've noticed personally about taking your students outside to practice math each day?

[7:41] Lauren MacLean

Yeah, I, it's wonderful. And, you know, we are from a very cold part of the world, and no, our snow hasn't come yet. It's on its way.

So even in the winter, when we're outside, we have such improved focus and engagement. They are thriving in the fresh air. It's so exciting. They feel more awake. They're not stuffy air kind of feeling. They also on the flip side of that sort of excitement feeling, they also have that calming effect that nature can have.

Even when we go back inside, they're able to focus a bit better than they were before we went outside. I also find that when we're outside, they're so creative. It really does inspire such a different way of looking at the world, the imaginative thinking, how creative they have to be to solve certain problems that we might ask them to engage in, some sort of STEAM activity.

In terms of the social benefits, our students, I like to call them learners, our learners have developed such strong social connections because our activities are so collaborative in nature, in nature, where their teamwork, the communication skills, the learning and activities are so hands-on. So, the curriculum, the learning seems more relatable. They can understand it and they memorize it.

[9:07] Victoria Zablocki

I found that too a lot that giving them those experiences out in nature, there's a relationship with the community and they take ownership of it because it's part of them and where they live. And then, yeah, like you said, so hands-on, it's so wonderful.

[9:22] Lauren MacLean

It's so wonderful, yeah.

[9:24] Victoria Zablocki

It seems very intimidating to start, but then once you start a little bit, like you're kind of hooked because of all those benefits you talked about, the focus and the excitement, they're actually interested in learning.

[9:36] Lauren MacLean

Yeah, and I think that nervousness about getting started, I think comes from this sense that we have to know everything, and we don't. So you don't have to know every tree, you don't have to know every plant, you don't have to know how the trees communicate with the mushrooms. Yet, you will naturally discover it.

Your students will discover it. The more you spend time outside. So I think it's less about knowing about nature. It's more about patience, consistency, perseverance, developing that empathy, and the learning naturally comes.

[10:14] Victoria Zablocki

And there's a beauty too in figuring things out with your students, and recognizing that you're human, and sharing with them that you're human, because a lot of students look at you like you should know everything, but the reality is, is you're just a human, and you're a lifelong learner. And so if you're willing to go outside and say, “you know, I don't really know what that tree is, but let's pull out this field guide and let's figure it out together.” Like, that is a special moment and a special gift you can give your students. But a lot of us don't have the confidence to do that.

[10:47] Lauren MacLean

Yeah.

[10:48] Victoria Zablocki

I feel like nature gives that gift as well, so.

[10:50] Lauren MacLean

It does, right? Because we don't get the answers right away sometimes. And I think that's what makes a question so special. Sometimes it's lovely having those questions that you can ask students. You know, what color is the slug? I can see it. We can answer that. That's wonderful. It builds their confidence.

And then we can ask different questions that they don't know until they spend more time observing it. And so then they really are connecting to themselves and their observational skills and their critical thinking skills. And it's those questions I love.

[11:24] Victoria Zablocki

For sure. It sounds like you do a lot of integration of your topics. Could you speak about that for a minute? I know we're here to talk about math, but integration is one of the most natural ways to learn your math and your reading and your science when you make it a real world experience. Could you talk about that?

[11:42] Lauren MacLean

Yeah. And I think having it, the integration of your curriculum be as frequent as you can makes it so special. So we have a garden classroom, we have a forest classroom, we have a grass field, we have a gravel field, we have a lot of very different spaces at our school.

But if we take the garden classroom, for instance, while we're gardening, we can incorporate the entire curriculum. So activities could involve measurement, they can involve observing plant life, the cycles, we could be doing design. So different art projects in the garden, making storystones about the garden, storytelling, it's all consuming.

And so there's so many options in that one space. It's so exciting. And definitely depends on the season that you're listening to this episode, because I think depending on the season, you can choose a different subject area like life cycles, which is probably better done in the spring, not so much in the winter.

But it doesn't mean we can't talk about it in the winter. But I do find it to be so beautiful to have one thing that we're looking at and then trying to find all the different access points into the curriculum.

[12:57] Victoria Zablocki

I agree. That was one of the things that I did in my position at the Nature Center was help develop a nature curriculum. Instead of saying, this unit is going to happen in the fall, it was, this is what's happening outside in the fall, and we're going to take this piece from this unit, this piece from this unit, and it makes the right story.

It makes the story of what's happening with the land, and the animals, and the plants, and that just makes it more organic and understanding, again, a way to be able to create those relationships with the land and nature, but then also that deeper understanding in your students, the connectedness of all of it.

[13:34] Lauren MacLean

Yeah. I'm sure most people have snow right now. If I were to think about a snowy day activity, again, the math connections could be about measuring or estimating the snow, looking for different animal tracks in the snow, measuring how far apart the tracks are, can we decide if it's walking or running?

Maybe we are going to be doing snowflake observations, or testing how fast snow can melt. So again, there's the science part of things. Or something that we did last year with the snow is we talked about why animals burrow under the snow.

Kids were so confused. The snow is so cold. Why would I want to go deeper into the snow? It's a really good question. Why do animals want to burrow under there? There has to be some scientific reason about the insulating properties of snow.

That took us a while to dig into. Social studies with snow, we can talk about different natural materials that are used for winter tools. If we're thinking about twigs and bark in the winter time, talking about shelter building and that thing.

Of course, having the indigenous lens to survival in the winter. We've got lots of different winter berries that we can talk about as well. Then definitely the language arts is everywhere when you're outside.

Again, if we're talking about a snowy example, we can ask students to, if you have got young learners, fill in the blank. Winter looks like, winter sounds like, winter feels like, so we can make a little sensory poem just as we're on a nature walk. Something so simple.

[15:14] Victoria Zablocki

That's awesome. That's like so many different examples all in blank a 45 second time period. No, it was wonderful.

[15:21] Lauren MacLean

Just blah, blah, blah.

[15:22] Victoria Zablocki

No, I love it. I love it.

[15:23] Lauren MacLean

I get so excited.

[15:24] Victoria Zablocki

I know. And I feel it. And I hope everybody at home can feel it too, because it's wonderful. This is the sort of thing I could talk about for hours.

[15:31] Lauren MacLean

Me too.

[15:32] Victoria Zablocki

But we only have a short amount of time. So do you happen to have, like one of my favorite ways to teach is using games. Do you have any go-to activity types that you like to use when teaching math in particular outside or just outside in general?

[15:46] Lauren MacLean

Yes. Some of my two favorite things in math, because math is definitely one of my favorite things to do. And for those of you looking for other math inspiration, definitely listen to Janice Novakowski. She is so inspirational.

A lot of what I've learned is from her. Estimation and data collection are things that not a lot of people think is a big part of your math curriculum, and I love it. So a few months ago, so in the fall, I was out for a wander with our students and we noticed some Usnea, so some lichen, and Usnea only grows one millimeter-ish a year.

And so we were doing a lot of estimation skills, just knowing that small little nature effect. Can you find an example of Usnea that might be 10 years old, 50 years old, 100 years old, probably not 100 years old, right? So there's a great weight, again, hands-on estimation in real life.

Data collection, because I love birds so much, we count, we categorize the birds, we do it by colors. What bird was most popular that day, that month? We do a lot of different types of data collection.

And spatial reasoning is a big math concept as well. So we can do things outside, like mapping, creating shapes with natural materials, and that developing spatial reasoning skills has been proven to be such an important indicator for future mathematical sort of success, if you put it. Success is a terrible word to use, but for someone to feel confident in math, spatial reasoning is a really important skill to develop at a young age.

[17:27] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. That actually kind of leads into my next question, because we think about a lot of manipulatives when you think about math in the classroom. So this is kind of a two-parter.

Do you bring out manipulatives when you do the math piece outside? If so, which ones do you find most helpful? And or, do you use nature to aid your math learning outside?

[17:50] Lauren MacLean

So I love this question, and I flip-flop in both camps. So especially when I first started taking any type of learning and play outside, I brought a lot of stuff outside with me. I brought clipboards. I brought field guides, magnifying glasses, binoculars, chalk, little containers to save little creatures in, and to look at them closely and then release them. We had our wagons full of stuff. We brought out dice.

I don't need to bring out dice with me anymore, right? There's so many other ways that we can incorporate math without bringing dice outside. But definitely when you're first starting to go outside, why not?

It's comfortable. It's what you're used to. It's what the students are used to. So it actually makes the transition from indoors to outdoors a bit easier. So again, when I first started or when you're first starting, bring out the colorful teddy bears to do patterning. They already know how to do it inside the classroom.

So we're bringing it outside. It's a new environment. I'm doing something comfortable just in a new space. And now I can go get the natural parts to use to make the patterns. Definitely one of our rules and expectations is we don't pick living things. So anything that is loose on the ground, we may collect to create our patterns.

And then we always put things back like we do inside the classroom. This past week, just a couple of days ago actually, the only tool that I brought outside was just a length of twine. And we were using that as a non-standard way to measure different things outside in nature.

So I didn't bring out rulers, no clipboards, just a little piece of twine and we were out there for 90 minutes. So not a lot that you need to bring outside to be inspired and to connect deeply with the curriculum.

[19:36] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. I appreciate that you recognize that that's kind of like a comfort piece for teachers that are just starting to go outside. And that that's perfectly wonderful and a great transition.

Thank you for sharing that. That's wonderful. I know that when I was teaching new teachers to go outside, they really did feel better when they had those extra things with them, because they didn't feel confident, they didn't know what was outside.

So having those extra pieces, yeah, it's a pain to drag it all out there. But if it makes you feel better, that will transfer to your students as well. They'll feel better while they're outside too. Then as you become more comfortable, less comes out with you naturally.

[20:14] Lauren MacLean

Exactly. Yeah, everything works, right? Just whatever suits you and the context that you're in works best.

[20:23] Victoria Zablocki

Yes. That's wonderful. Thank you. I listened to a lot of your podcast episodes before bringing you on. Thank you. They're wonderful.

[20:30] Lauren MacLean

Thank you.

[20:32] Victoria Zablocki

But I heard you describe in the podcast episode titled “The Hidden Potential of Documentation in Our Outdoor Classroom”, that you use formative testing through documentation versus like a typical pencil and paper test to be able to keep track of how your students are progressing. So you talked about things like taking pictures, documenting student quotes, and then your observations as they worked outside. Can you share a little bit about how that works with teaching elementary math in particular outside?

[21:01] Lauren MacLean

Yeah. So those are the three perfect ones to talk about in terms of triangulation when we're documenting. So the purpose of triangulation is to make sure that I get that round picture, that full picture of what the student is able to do.

Sometimes learners are great with their written output, but they might not be able to verbalize it or transfer it to other areas. So if we can get, again, more than one area that we're trying to figure out their understanding, then we get such a great picture of what they're able to do. So pictures, student quotes, so I'm listening as they're talking or telling a story, and then some sort of written thing.

So it might be journals or a comic book or they've made a field guide. So again, I'm not collecting that every single day. It takes a while for me to be able to get a picture of Victoria, a student quote that I heard Victoria tell her other partner, and looking at a journal from Victoria.

But if I'm thinking about my main math idea that I want to do this term, which for our grade 2-3s right now is we are, well, there's so many. So what would be my example that I want to pick? Let's go with our patterning activity.

So we are, in this term, we are trying to extend into an increasing pattern. So not just ABAB, AB, ABC, ABCD, looking at spiral patterns, that sort of thing. So maybe on Monday, I saw Victoria make a mandala with a student.

Excellent. So I took a picture of your spiral pattern. Maybe on Wednesday, I heard you and a friend talking about why you were confused about patterning outside, because it doesn't always follow the exact same rule that we think it should follow.

So I'm noticing, “wow, you are really able to critically think about patterns, where you see them and where you don't.” And then maybe at the end of the week or the week after, we just watched some birds having a huge argument, which happened yesterday. So we had these birds having a big argument.

So we started talking about the patterning of how birds speak to each other. It's typically fairly predictable. Birds have different voices and languages that they like to talk in.

But when that pattern changes, we know something's up. And so in her Nature Journal, I see that Victoria's drawn something about bird language and patterns or the absence of patterns. So holy smokes! Through all these different activities, I can see that you do understand it. You understand it even to the point where you can critically think about it. And so does Victoria understand patterning out in nature?

Holy moly! Yes, she does. So I have so many good examples to pull from because I've been watching you. I've got the pictures to sort of back up and share with the parents. And then what I typically do is I do little learning stories. And so I would take all that information, a picture of your journal, a couple of your quotes, and then I write up what I noticed about your math and about nature.

And then I send that home to parents saying, “wow, look at what Victoria has learned.” And they know exactly where you are in math. I didn't give you an A because we don't need to, where we're from. But they understand that you are proficient in patterning because of all those examples.

[24:31] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. And I think that provides the opportunity for students that can't write or can't necessarily read to be able to show you what they know. Because when you're testing with just a paper and a pencil, they have to be able to read what you're suggesting.

They have to interpret what your answers might mean if it's a multiple choice question, and they might interpret it differently than you. So by giving them these other opportunities, you're actually seeing what they actually know or the places that they need more help. So that's wonderful.

Thank you. So we're going to wrap it up a little bit, I think. So can you share with us three tips teachers and homeschool parents could use today to take their kiddos outside for math?

[25:13] Lauren MacLean

Love this. I think tip one, start small. You want to build your confidence, you want your kids to feel confident outside. So as I mentioned before, just start bringing your regular, quote unquote, regular math activities outside.

Bring out your journals or a clipboard, bring out simple tasks like counting or basic number games, and then you will slowly start replacing those materials with the natural materials. I think my second tip would be to get your kids to be the ones to discover math. So we often pose questions like, where do you see math?

What math story does this tree tell? That way of questioning really helps spark exploration during free play. So again, I'm not setting up an activity.

We're just outside, and after a while, then I'm posing those questions. Maybe I'll nudge them. Can you see any patterns? Do you see any symmetry? Where do you notice geometry in the leaves or the flowers or even in the tree bark? There's a lot of different ways that you can categorize everything when you're outside, right?

So let's look and sort and categorize from there. Then my last one would be to really lean in to how interactive the learning and the play is outside. Start measuring the lengths and the heights and the volumes of different natural objects, sticks, the puddles.

Oh my goodness, you can measure everything in puddles. That is so much fun. We're doing it, or we did, we wrapped up in the winter because it's a bit harder with our weather right now, but doing a lot of measuring with shadows.

That's so hands-on. We set a timer, so we go back out every half an hour to see and measure the changing shadows. Again, when we're thinking about making it interactive, do lots of the games, make lots of charts, do scavenger hunts with math clues, find seven of this, find five of those, find something with rotational symmetry, do some estimation challenges when you're outside. I know I gave a lot of examples within those three tips, but hopefully that was concise enough.

[27:22] Victoria Zablocki

No, that's great. I honestly feel the more tips that we can give teachers and examples, concrete examples, that's what they need right now. And then as they become more familiar and more comfortable, then they can branch out into more like that general.

So I love it. Is there anything else that we haven't talked about yet that you'd like to share real quick?

[27:42] Lauren MacLean

I mean, hopefully we've sort of given a sort of well-rounded thing. I mean, the other thing about sort of my two days a week where I'm not in the classroom, I'm an outdoor learning consultant. So, you know, if teachers ever or homeschooling parents ever want to reach out, I am available.

If you want to chat or ask questions, I do author visits because I've got a couple children's picture books out about outdoor learning and a couple courses. And yeah, there's lots of fun stuff that people need support. Don't hesitate to reach out.

[28:15] Victoria Zablocki

And that leads into me asking you to share us what you have for teachers and homeschool parents. I know that you have lots to offer. So if you could share with us, like how people can get a hold of you, what you offer specifically, then that way people can contact you after this is said and done.

[28:35] Lauren MacLean

Sounds good. So Instagram is where I'm most often. So it's at teachoutdoors.ca. I'm also on LinkedIn, Lauren MacLean. My website is teachoutdoors.ca. It's in as is my podcast, Teach Outdoors.

So I try to make things as consistent as possible. In terms of programming or offering, I have something called Nature's Path: A Year of Monthly Sparks that schools, but also homeschooling parents have participated in. And there are monthly videos that I send you with downloadable resources.

And it really is this holistic view. So Nature's Path again, yeah, there's monthly videos, downloadable resources that everybody can use. I also have a group online coaching program.

It's called Thrive Outside, Grow Your Teaching Space. And it's a five-week program. So again, if you want to email me, it's lauren@teachoutdoors.ca if you want any more information.

And if you're looking for my books, the titles are Me and My Sit Spot. I also have Me and My Sit Spot for Early Learners. So it's the same illustrations, but only one sentence per page.

So if you're in a strong start program, Early Childhood Educator, that's more the book that I would recommend. It's also been translated into French. I have Finding Common Ground, which is another beautiful book, outdoors, about inclusion, diversity outside.

And then I have my first teacher guide published by the Outdoor Learning Store, which is called Sitting with Nature: An Educator's Guide to Sit Spots. And I've been working on that for four years. I'm so proud of it. And it is chock-a-block full of ideas, because it's basically my life's work in one little book.

[30:24] Victoria Zablocki

That's wonderful. I actually purchased Me and My Sit Spot. So I read that the other day, and it's lovely. I'm going to make sure to get a copy for the Nature Center that I worked for, because they use sit spots in camp. So I thought that would be nice for them to have. But yeah, it's wonderful, and it's got little prompts. And at the back, you share how teachers can use it with their students. It's a great little guide. It's from first perspective, from a child's perspective, but then it's really a great guide for teachers. So wonderful.

[30:50] Lauren MacLean

Thank you.

[30:51] Victoria Zablocki

Yeah, of course. Well, Lauren, this was fantastic. And like I said, I could talk to you for hours, but we're going to wrap it up for our listeners.

And I'll make sure to put all the links for everything that you mentioned in the show notes. And people can find that on my website naturallyteaching.com, and I'll make sure to put the link for that in the podcast episode description. So the link for the show notes will be there.

So awesome. Thank you again for your time. Very much appreciated.

[31:17] Lauren MacLean

Yeah, it was so lovely talking to you. Thanks so much, Victoria.

[31:21] Victoria Zablocki

Wasn't that interview awesome? Lauren is a wealth of information, and I absolutely loved talking to her. I would have loved to have even talked longer because she just is so incredible and so passionate.

[31:32]

But we had to wrap it up for you. But I wanted to take a second to talk about a teaching tip that could add to what Lauren already said. So another way to integrate ELA, math, and science in nature is to use nature-based picture books about math in your outdoor lessons.

So Lauren mentioned taking picture books outside with her during her daily nature time, and there are actually a surprising number of nature picture books about mathematical concepts. So I put together a list of 11 picture books for you that I'd like to share real quick, and these books are ones that you could consider taking outside with you, depending on what mathematical concept you want to introduce for that day.

So number one is What's the Difference? An Endangered Animal Subtraction Story by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Joan Waits, and it's a rhyming book about subtraction and endangered animals. Book number two is Multiply on the Fly, also by Suzanne Slade, and this time illustrated by Erin E. Hunter. And this one's a book about insects and multiplication. Book number three is The Great Divide by Suzanne Slade again, illustrated by Erin E. Hunter. And this is a book about animal groups and division.

You'll notice as I talk through this that a lot of these authors have found their niche in nature and in math because they tend to write more than one book about nature and math. So number four is Counting on Fall by Lizann Flatt, illustrated by Ashley Barron. And this one is a fall book with a focus on number sense and numeration. They also work together to create Sizing Up Winter, which is a winter book with a focus on measurement and time. And you'll notice they're going to finish out the seasons. So their third book is Sorting Through Spring. And this is a spring book with a focus on patterning, sorting, data management, and probability. And then lastly, they have Shaping Up Summer, a summer book with a focus on geometry, symmetry, and spatial sense.

Moving on to someone new, number eight is Snowman – Cold = Puddles: Spring Equations by Lauren Purdy Salas and illustrated by Micah Archer. It's a poetic book about scientific seasonal science presented as math equations. Book number nine is Flow, Spin, Grow: Looking for Patterns in Nature by Patchen Barrs and illustrated by Todd Stewart. And this one is a book about discovering patterns in nature.

Book number 10 is Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature by Sarah C. Campbell and photographs by Richard P. Campbell. And this is a picture book about fractals, mostly with examples from plants. And then they work together for book number 11, which is Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. And this is a picture book about the Fibonacci sequence, mostly with examples of plants as well.

So I'll make sure to put a link for all of those books in the show notes, so make sure to check that out. But there are lots of other picture books about nature and math. This is just a real quick grab at some titles of books that I know that are quality. So check out some of these titles and consider taking them out with you to enhance your students' elementary math experience in nature. So I want to thank you for taking time to listen today.

I know you're super busy and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in. If you have any questions, wonderings, or ways that you teach elementary math outside, get a hold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com. And don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode at naturallyteaching.com/episode41, where I'll have all the links Lauren mentioned as well as the links for the books I listed in the Teaching Tip.

And if you really enjoy teaching outside and you want to learn more about it, definitely check out Lauren's podcast. It is filled with wonderful interviews as well as lots and lots and lots of great ideas to go outside. She is a fantastic resource.

So thanks again for joining us today. And until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast.

I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Naturally.Teaching.

Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for teaching elementary-age children together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.