Math

Math on my Fingers

In the last math post “Math Stories” I talked about the importance of hands-on activities when introducing and practicing new skills.  And in the post “What’s in a number?” I talked about children needing to see number sets represented in many ways.  Today, we are going to combine those two important concepts in a counting activity using their fingers.

Search around your house for something that can fit on your child’s fingers (rings, finger puppets, those Halloween fake finger tips, cubes/blocks that are open on one side, etc.)

Make a group of ten finger-sized manipulatives and ask your child to help you count them out.  Then explain to your little one that you want to play a game where you will call out a number and they will place that many cubes on their fingers (one on each finger) using both hands.  Then you will ask them to show you that same number of cubes in a different way.

Before you play the game you have to show the child on your OWN fingers.  This is important because in EVERY lesson, game, or activity you cant just tell your child what you are going to do…you have to 1) SHOW them.  Then, you will 2) play it WITH them.  Then you will just 3) TELL them.

This is the “I do”, “WE do”, then “YOU do” method to teaching that is really beneficial for the learner.

So, if I were playing this with my child, I would explain the game.  Then I would tell them that if I said the number “3” out loud I would place the cubes on my “right hand thumb, left hand thumb, and left hand pointer finger”  while I counted aloud: “One, two, Three” and then I would say “Now watch! I can put three cubes on my fingers in a different way…maybe I can put one on my right hand tall finger, stack one on top of that, and then put the other on my left hand ring finger.  Do you have an idea of how I can place these three cubes in a different way on my hands?  Show me!  Can you show me on your fingers next?  Let’s try a new number and we can both put that many cubes on our fingers and surprise each other to see if it looks the same or different.  Okay! Now it is your turn to try it by yourself while I call out a number…..”

If you have any questions about this activity or any activity for that matter….

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introduce a number set 5-10 Math Stories

In order for your child to learn math skills you will need to incorporate A LOT of hands-on practice and be ready to “play” hands-on games over and over again. The goal is to master 1) hands-on concepts (such as counting blocks) before moving onto 2) symbolic (counting pictures on a paper) and then 3) abstract (visualizing “three” when looking at 3 objects). I can’t even begin to tell you how much research has been conducted on these 3 steps to introducing a new skill to children. So, don’t get ahead of yourself trying to keep up with the Little Einstein’s.
So today’s activity is another hands-on activity for you to begin to introduce a number set of 5-10, in parts. This is an age-old game that I play with my friend’s kids making sure to ask them a lot of deductive reasoning questions while playing with them.
Here it is:
Math Story Activity

And here is a “work mat” if you want to just print one out….they are easy to make.  Make your page orientation landscape and insert clip art and blow up.  You could always print it onto cardstock and place it in a sheet protector so it will last longer 🙂
Park Work Mat

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Geometry Starts Here

There are actually a lot of elements to teaching and learning shapes because there are a variety of 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional shapes that are distinguished by lines, angles, bases, sides, etc. And believe it or not, 2 and 3-dimesional shapes are introduced in Kindergarten, as well as tangrams (combining shapes together to form images), and sorting shapes by two attributes. So children definitely need to learn their basic shapes, and learn them well, early on because there is more to come!
If I were to teach my son shapes I would start with one a day, or even one a week, and investigate it, study it, and have fun with it, in as many ways possible.
Below is a link of a pair of glasses I made that I want you to print onto cardstock, cut out, and then draw the shape you and your child are “studying” onto the middle of the lens where the eyes would look out. Talk about the shape while you are drawing it. For example, if you were drawing a square you might say something like “I am going to make our holes in the shape of a square. So to make a square I need to start at the top, draw a straight line down, across, up, and back. Let’s count how many sides a square has! Do you want to trace over it with a marker the same way I drew it? What else do you notice about it? What does it remind you of? “
Draw it on the other lens and then cut them out carefully by poking a hole in the center and cutting outward, or bending the glasses and starting the snip that way.

Now go on a search all around your house with your “shape goggles” to find as many of that shape as you can.
Shape Glasses

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Number Guessing Game

I just threw a baby shower for a friend yesterday and it is always a guessing game to estimate how many cards to get for the games, how many petifors, etc. Then there are games where we estimate how many jellybeans there are in a jar, how much toilet paper it would take to wrap around the pregnant woman’s belly, etc.

There are plenty of practical ways we use our estimation skills to problem solve. And that is exactly what we want to start instilling in our kids…problem solving skills.

So in order to work with your child on the beginning concepts of estimating, it is important to understand that until the age of 7 or so children have a hard time developing spatial skills.  This means that they might count out objects, place them into a jar, and then estimate a different number because the number may look greater or less than the number they just counted, depending on how it is arranged.   So understand that the activity we are talking about today is more of a READINESS activity than a formal lesson.

Remember that estimation is just the very best guess we can make based on our evidence.

Here is the activity:

Estimation

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Draw to write

Writing and drawing can be interconnected in many ways. Most of my writing posts incorporate fine motor skill development for 3-5 year olds because their writing skills go hand-in-hand with being able to have control and coordination. The other aspect of writing includes knowledge of formation; putting letters, shapes, and numbers images into their working memory.
Writing ability for a 3-5 year old is not just learning how to write letters, it can also include learning how to draw and put shapes together to make pictures that resemble real life imagery (such as a picture of a person, animal, place, etc.)
So, today’s activity is to start with a circle bear. This teaches your little one familiarity with an everyday shape, but it also teaches them how to use one in illustrations which builds confidence for a young child who is still in the process of acquiring writing and drawing skills.

Circle Bear

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