Addition

I Like Pinterest Activities That I Can Do ASAP

Y’all, I love Pinterest; I do, but I have to say – I do NOT like activities that I can not do with my kids almost immediately after I browse.

If I browse during nap time, I want to do the activities that I find that same afternoon. I like to get my inspiration from pinterest but then I want to actually DO the activities. Why use a pinboard if I don’t turn the ideas into experiences?

I think I have finally figured out what to do with my not-so-parent-friendly pins… Lately, if I see an activity that I can’t do right away, I find out a way to make a printable for it. That way, other moms can simply pin it, print it, and make it happen that day if they want to.

I also like sharing my experiences so that you feel that much more prepared to make the most of the activity… which is why I added an “ideas” page to my printable:

Yesterday:

1) I made the November Corn Printable during nap time, but I only printed one page. I printed a page of corn that had the numbers on the husks.

2) I put a small handful of candy corn in a cup.

**The order of teaching something is always I DO (I will talk about it and show my child an example), WE DO (we will do it together), YOU DO (encourage my child to try it on his own).

So, I DO first:

3) I talked to my three year old “Today we are going to use candy corn to fill the ears of corn, but we will stop counting the candy corn when we get to the number that is on the corn. Watch mommy…. See this is the number ONE, so mommy is going to count out candy corn until I get to ONE. (I place one candy corn on the corn with the number one and say “One!”) “Okay I am going to stop right there because I counted to the number on the corn.”

WE DO:

“What do you think this number is (pointing to two)?” (Two).

“Yes and two comes after one. Can we put the candy corn on that ear of corn while we count to two?” (one, two).

“Wow you are so good at this! Do you know what number this is if this is one, that is two, then this might be….” (Three!)

YOU DO:

“Yes, your turn, can you put three candy corns on top of the corn?”

4) We did this page again and then we ate the candy corn, but if your little one doesn’t like the taste of candy corn, it’s okay… I included little candy corn cut-outs so you can glue them on your candy corn. 🙂

**** If you want to download this activity, sign up to be a member for just $5 and get Access to ALL of my printables! – November Corn Printable

So, PIN this printable if you like it, and follow me if you’d like to see all the things I plan to do with my kids each month!

My original Pin-spiration was Candy Corn Counting – (I literally just ran out of construction paper and I love to make and save printables). Thanks No Time For FlashCards. 🙂

Isn’t Corny Math is A-Maize-ing ? {Okay, I think I’m done}

November 8, 2013 by Jessica | 2 Comments

Adding Can Be Sneaky

Hmmm…. I have a child napping and one at a birthday party that my husband brought him to. Adding those little nuggets together equaled getting my fingers to the keyboard and writing a long overdue post. You know me, I am SIMPLE. An idea can go a long way.

One idea you can take today and run with it (in your own way) is introducing the concept of addition if you havent already. You can start with language as simple as “You plus mommy equals happy together” OR “One cookie and one more is two for YOU!”

Addition sounds scary, but it is so important when kids start realizing that two groups of numbers can be put together to make one new number. And there are so many fun ways to practice…. drawings, crafts, and it gets really fun when you incorporate food 🙂

I usually start out by introducing the language for a while, like I mentioned earlier (examples are: and, is, more, plus, equals, together).

I cant help of think of that cheesy song “You (plus sign) Me (equal sign) us” that I’m pretty sure was one big joke and I actually cant believe I am bringing it up in this post…. don’t judge hah 😉

Then I simply incorporate all of this into every day learning opportunities like….

“Daddy has a fishing pole AND Sean Patrick has a fishing pole. How many fishing poles do we have all together?”

If he doesn’t know then I would say “Let’s count!” and then, “So, one and one is TWO.”

After there is familiarity with the language, I bring it to a more concrete level by adding our snack time foods together or adding two groups of blocks to one tower.

Finally, we might draw pictures to represent adding, and then introduce word sentence in writing (one and one is two) and then the symbols (+,= ).

Your turn mommy teachers…. how do you use addition in your every day home environments…. send pictures for me to share and post ideas for other moms to see! jessica (at) themommyteacher (dot) com.

February 2, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Busy Bag (Take Three)

I started adding step-by-step teaching tips for some of my recent Busy Bag activities that Sean Patrick is experimenting with but this is taking me some time for a few reasons:

1) I like to introduce one activity every few days and really spend time maximizing the teaching opportunties from that “game” as Sean Patrick calls them.

2) I am a mommy teacher so I don’t spend much time on the computer – this blog is my hobby and I try to carve out more time in my day actually spending time working with and playing with my little ones 🙂

3) I like to spend time adding teaching tips for older children as well because I believe that EVERY activity can be and should be accommodated to each individual child.

So….at that….here is another activity….and one just in time to make use of all those Easter Eggs floating around your house 🙂

Egg Counting (The Link attached has other GREAT ideas, but try not to take them at face value….make a little step by step teaching plan for each activity because a “lesson plan” can structure the pace and aid the learning process)

This activity has MULTIPLE uses… to teach counting one to one and to teach addition in the most organic way by teaching about all the ways to get to a number (1 + 1 + 1 + 1= 4 ; 2 + 2 = 4 ; 4 + 0 = 4)

I suggest that you work on counting to, or adding to, ONE number at a time.

1) Start with the smaller side of the eggs on their backs….if you are working on the number four then place four egg halves on their backs.

2) “Let’s use the Easter Eggs to see all the different ways we can count to four!” or for older kids “Let’s……ways we can add to the sum of four”

3) Place one pom pom in each egg (I switched to the small pom poms after the first try because I wanted all of them to be able to fit in one egg half when attempted) One and one and one and one is four! (four younger kids you can use “and” in place of “plus” and “is” in place of “equals” just for now while they are being introduced to adding.

3) Dump them out and say – let’s see if there is another way to fill the eggs to count to four …One, two and one and one is four so two and two more is four.

4) Continue this until you have exhausted every means of arriving at the sum of four. For older children model and demonstrate how to write out each problem.

5) Pick a number close in proximity to the number you worked on (like 5) and do it again….together this time.

6) Pick a number easier than the original number (like 3) and allow your little one to try on their own as you watch and make encouraging comments.

April 6, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments