The purpose of this essay is to find out how pre-schools teachers use mathematics in the outdoors to promote and develop children's learning. The essay also focus on similarities and differences between pre-school teachers and their ways of integrating mathematics in the outdoor environment. A comparison is later made to the answers from pre-school teachers in two ''I Ur och Skur" pre-schools about what outdoor education is , how they use the outdoors for mathematics and what kind of mathematics activates they use practical.

The survey is based on a comparative method of qualitative interviews and observations. The study builds on Lev Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory in which we have chosen to focus on the concept of '' the proximal development''. It can be summarized as learning occurs in interaction with each other and that children learn better through social relationships. Another concept that we have chosen to use in our study is ''learning by doing’’ by John Dewey's. The concept means that learning takes place through the practice.The essay then tries to analyse how '' I Ur och Skur'' pre-school teachers use mathematics in the outdoor environment. We analyze by see similarities and differences with both pre-school teachers education, outdoor as a learning room and mathematics activates.

The conclusion of the study is that mathematics is infinite and therefore they are many different ways of working. We did not find such large differences in pre-schools teachers’ way of working with mathematics outdoor. We also came to the conclusion that nature is as a support tool to develop the interest in mathematics with more space for learning. At the end of our essay we want to point out that the theories helped us to highlight preschool teachers interview answers to more clearly linked to previous research and our observations