Math Monday: Sensory Play with Rice and Numbers

I bought two sets of these super cute magnetic wooden 

numbers for less than $1.00 on Amazon

I then buried them in a plastic shoe bin filled with rice:

The girls had a great time digging through the rice finding numbers 

to match to their identical counterpart on the table. 

My 4 year old said that next time it would be better if we had groups of items 

set out on the table and she would find the number that matched how many were in each group.

I then set out a bunch of different measuring cups and spoons on a sheet on the floor. 

We explored how many scoops of the various cups it would take to fill one whole cup with rice.

Math Monday: Preschool Geometry

I've mentioned loving this game before:

It's a set of magnetic shapes and 50 picture cards which targets visual thinking and fine motor skills.

But here it is again with a little change. 

The pictures that come with the set are about the same size as an index card making it a little too challenging for very young kids to work off of.

So to help my little one out, I constructed a few of the pictured items onto a piece of copy paper and then outlined the shapes. So she now has a true to size picture to work on:

I was actually really surprised and excited to see how nicely the girls engaged in cooperative play by helping each other figure out and find the pieces they needed. 

You can recreate this activity even without the Imaginets set. 

You can draw or print out pictures like the one below and have your kids glue on construction paper shapes. 

Get this template here

Pre-kinders.com has a great resource for printable pattern block animals like this one:

Monday Math: Number Fishing

Photo Source

Tie string to paper clip and use as fishing rod for magnetic numbers.

Use for:

Number recognition

Comparing numbers: greater/less than

Adding, Subtracting, Dividing, Multiplying 

Monday Math: NY Math Standards and Decomposing Numbers

I came across the NY State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for Mathematics and was looking through the Prek and Kindergarten math standards. I will likely use them as a rough guide in thinking about the upcoming homeschool year. 

One of my favorite goals is: 

"Decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 5 = 2 + 3 and 5 = 4 + 1)." 

Simply stated: understanding that to get to any given number there are several combinations that will get you there. 

I appreciate this goal for its focus on truly analyzing and understanding numbers. Kids will learn that that there are lots of ways to make a number. 

Math coach's corner had a fun way to play with this concept:

1. Give your child a target number and they count out that many counters (jelly beans, marbles, etc. )

2. Child covers her eyes, while you hide some of the counters under a cup or bowl.

3.  Child opens her eyes and tries to figure out how many counters are under the rock.  

   4. Take turns being the hider and guesser.

So for example, child counts out 6 marbles, you hide 2, child only sees 4 and has to figure out that 2 are missing to add up to 6. 

If your child is ready for it, you can have them work on  writing out equations for the combinations they discover. So for our example your list would look like this:

4+2=6

5+1=5

2+4=6

1+5=6

6+0=6

0+6=6

3+3=6

Math Monday: Shaving Cream Sensory Fun with Numbers

If you are looking for a fun filled sensory activity to help work on letter, shape, or number formation, shaving cream is definitely the way to go. 

So much more fun than sand and much easier to clean up.

Exploring with shaving cream all the way up their arms.

This morning we used shaving cream on a cookie sheet to do some individualized math instruction.

I put out Lego blocks for my 2 year old to count targeting counting in order and pairing each object with only one number name.

Being able to understand that the last number said is the sum of the objects, is a later developing skill so my 4 year old did that.

I then made a connect the dot figure of the numeral for my 4 year to connect to help her with number formation. 

Super simple and super cheap.
Easy and fun to erase and start again.

For 30 more fun activities with shaving cream, check out Play Create Explore!

Math Monday: Mazin' Math

Photo source

Mazes and puzzles are wonderful for teaching kids critical thinking, problem solving, strategy development, etc. All critical skills needed for success in math.

With my four year old, we have been playing with a ton of print out mazes. To decrease paper waste and increase re-usability  I slide the sheets into page protectors and she uses markers to solve her puzzles. Wipe off and re-use.  I love that I can see her brain in action as she goes down one path only to find a dead end and steer back and try another path. Awesome lesson in resilience and trial and error. A quick google search will come up with tons of free mazes.
Here is a pretty comprehensive list of online mazes and puzzles for kids: http://puzzles.about.com/od/familyfun/qt/KidsMath.htm


A game we love is Rush Hour Jr. "After setting up their game board according to pictures on various challenge cards, players steer their ice cream truck through a jumble of blocking cars, trucks and buses". Highly recommend this game-it's leveled, it's cars, it's travel sized, it's perfection.

Remember these little teasers from old school Sesame Street: 

                

We have been playing with the concept of " what doesn't belong"  with my two year old. It's another great way to work on critical thinking in addition to categorizing,  describing,  and divergent thinking. We keep it simple with obvious differences, but as she gets used to the concept, we can up the complexity so that there may be many different correct answers.  Like in the video above, the boot is an obvious choice, but you can also say the sneaker since it's the only one with laces.


I'd love to hear from others about brain teasers and other math puzzles their kids enjoy!