| Activity Ideas: Pass it around. Ask for your child’s help in distributing items like snacks or in laying napkins out on the dinner table. Help him give one cracker to each child. This helps children understand one-to-one correspondence. When you are distributing items, emphasize the number concept: “One for you, one for me, one for Daddy.” Or, “We are putting on our shoes: One, two.” Big on blocks. Give your child the chance to play with wooden blocks, plastic interlocking blocks, empty boxes, milk cartons, etc. Stacking and manipulating these toys help children learn about shapes and the relationships between shapes (e.g., two triangles make a square). Nesting boxes and cups for younger children help them understand the relationship between different sized objects. Tunnel time. Open a large cardboard box at each end to turn it into a tunnel. This helps children understand where their body is in space and in relation to other objects. The long and the short of it. Cut a few (3-5) pieces of ribbon, yarn or paper in different lengths. Talk about ideas like long and short. With your child, put in order of longest to shortest. Learn through touch. Cut shapes—circle, square, triangle—out of sturdy cardboard. Let your child touch the shape with her eyes open and then closed. Laundry learning. Make household jobs fun. As you sort the laundry, ask your child to make a pile of shirts and a pile of socks. Ask him which pile is the bigger (estimation). Together, count how many shirts. See if he can make pairs of socks: Can you take two socks out and put them in their own pile? (Don’t worry if they don’t match! This activity is more about counting than matching.) Playground math. As your child plays, make comparisons based on height (high/low), position (over/under), or size (big/little). Dress for math success. Ask your child to pick out a shirt for the day. Ask: What color is your shirt? Yes, yellow. Can you find something in your room that is also yellow? As your child nears three and beyond, notice patterns in his clothing—like stripes, colors, shapes, or pictures: I see a pattern on your shirt. There are stripes that go red, blue, red, blue. Or, Your shirt is covered with ponies—a big pony next to a little pony, all over your shirt! Graphing games. As your child nears three and beyond, make a chart where your child can put a sticker each time it rains or each time it is sunny. At the end of a week, you can estimate together which column has more or less stickers, and count how many to be sure. Five Little Babies Five little babies in the bed (hold up fingers; remove one each time) And the little one said,"Roll over, roll over."(roll hands) So they all rolled over and one fell out There were 4 in the bed And the little one said, "Roll over, roll over." (continue until there is one baby left.) And the little one said, "Good Night!" Skipping Chant One, two, buckle my shoe Three, four, open the door Five, six, pick up sticks Seven eight, lay them straight Nine, ten, do it again! Walk it off Taking a walk gives children many opportunities to compare (which stone is bigger?), assess (how many acorns did we find?), note similarities and differences (does the duck have fur like the bunny does?) and categorize (see if you can find some red leaves). You can also talk about size (by taking big and little steps), estimate distance (is the park close to our house or far away?), and practice counting (let’s count how many steps until we get to the corner). Notice the sizes of objects in the world around you: That pink pocketbook is the biggest. The blue pocketbook is the smallest. Ask your child to think about his own size relative to other objects (Do you fit under the table? Under the chair?). Consider: How will introduce Number Concepts in your curriculum? How can you introduce patterns and relationship to young children? What ways can geometry and spatial relationships be introduced? Enjoy sorting and classifying with young children and develop math concepts. |
| Math DAZE |
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| c. Marcia Arpin www.alltheDAZE.com established July, 1, 2002 |
| Words of Wisdom "Strive not to be a success, but to be of value." Albert Einstein You Will Find True Joy Using Your Potential Your greatest success and happiness in life will be found when you use your natural abilities to their fullest extent. Happiness is not having or being. It's in the doing. The essence of true wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is activity, laughter, and love. You were created to conquer your environment, to solve problems, and to achieve goals. You'll find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. Yes, there is true happiness. It's found in doing a job well done, in achieving a worthy goal, in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem. Your personal growth itself contains the seed of happiness. |
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