Pre Math
FEBRUARY PRE-MATH
Mathematical Knowledge Standard 2: Demonstrates an understanding of patterns and relationships (Algebra)
MK Benchmark 2.1 Uses the attributes of objects for comparison and patterning
Mathematical Knowledge Standard 3: Demonstrates an understanding of geometric and spatial sense
MK Benchmark 3.1 Recognizes and describes spatial relationships
MK Benchmark 3.2 Recognizes geometric shapes and their attributes
Activities to create higher level thinking skills in Pre-Math:
Age 1- Our theme for this month is valentines and love, we can look for those toys that have red or heart shapes. They will enjoy exploring the sizes and shapes in their immediate environment. Through trial and error they will begin to process those items they can fit together. During their tummy time, they may like to look at these objects up close. A large red heart next to their changing table may give some variety to look at.
Age 2- Take a long piece (like 15 feet or so) of red yarn and make it into a heart-shape outline in the middle of the living room. Play the game “follow the leader” as you walk, crawl, or hop around the heart. Talk about positional words for example the inside of the heart or the outside of the heart. Use a stuffed animal to illustrate the concepts of under, in, or out. For the older siblings, you could include in the words over, inside, close, far away, fast, slow, up, down, before, after, first and last.
Age 3- Purchase a bag of heart shaped candy (ones with words on them, m & m’s, cinnamon hearts) and sort them into colors. You could use something like an egg carton to help with the sorting or you could just make piles on the kitchen table.
Age 4- could take it one step further with the candy pieces. With a block write the numbers 0 – 5 with marker. Take turns rolling the dice and counting out that many pieces of candy. After 10 spins each, you can model for your child counting out the candy pieces to find out who has more.
Age 5- Let’s take the candy idea one step further... In old jars that you are saving, pick 4 of them that are similar in size. Fill each jar with a different amount; 25, 50, 75, and 100 candy pieces. Place a piece of masking tape on the outside of each jar and label each jar with the correct number. This will help to give your child a visual idea of how much each of these numbers represent. Remember it is not enough to have our children count to 10 by the time they start kindergarten, they need to know what each number represents.
When creating math experiences, try to include in real-life, hands-on math activities to introduce young children to numbers and math concepts. Here are some categories and words to use in a sentence and show in real-life experiences:
Time: hours, days, months, years; older, younger; yesterday, today, tomorrow.
Size and portions: large, small; tall, short; thin, thick; wide, narrow; half, whole; full, empty; light, heavy.
Shapes and patterns: circle, square, triangle, rectangle; round, sphere, star, cone.
Measurement: inches, feet, yards, miles, pounds.
TOOLS FOR MOTHERHOOD GRADUATES share some of the activities they did with their children.
Getting into "shape" running game By Heather, Topeka
1 & 4 years old I cut out shapes (i.e. triangle, square, heart, star and oval) from an old shirt. I spread them throughout the yard in no particular order. Then on an old red block I drew the shapes to make our "die". Then we took turns "rolling" the die and picking the corresponding shape around the yard. The first person to get 1/2 of the number of shapes wins. We had 14 shapes so we figured out what 1/2 was by putting them in two different piles and counting them, so 7. I also played that if you get a match for a shape you already had you got to roll again. Towards the end of the game we started running out of shapes that we were rolling so just because you start the game doesn't automatically mean you will win the game; In this case your turn is over without picking up a shape. Zoe "really liked this game and wants to play again." Lexi followed Zoe around to find the shapes and enjoyed "rolling" or throwing the block/die for us too.
Changes I would make: Well, I could have made less shapes and left a blank "lose a turn" side on the die. I think when Zoe gets to start reading instead of the shapes on a block I can write the words that she can sound out and read to find out what to pick up. For Lexi I would cut the shapes from different colors so she can learn both shapes and colors-again change block or just call out.
Would you recommend? Oh, yeah! Quick, easy, cheap, grows with the child. Easy and fun even for Lexi's age and burns off some of that excess energy. Also can play hide/seek with the shapes indoors.
3 years of age Patterns with Shapes... Kahle wrote, I cut out shapes various sizes of square, triangle, and circle. I then started patterns and had Kaihtlyn finish them. She did a great job of this. Next I gave her the shapes and asked her to put them in piles. She separated them by shape and then by color!
Any changes? I would add more shapes and maybe textures to this activity.
Recomendations: Yes, but realize it goes quickly and my three year old seemed to get bored by this fairly quickly.
Christmas Time suggestion: If you have several of the same ornaments on the tree, you could take them down and play a sorting game with them.
9 Months Old
I showed my son how to take the rings that stack o a tower and put them on in order. He struggles getting them on when we first began playing, but I can tell he gets the idea after a few trys. I have to help him and model for him how to do it as we begin to learn the activity, but we will keep working until he can do it along.--Joanna
18 Months I gave Lexi a muffin tin and 12 golf balls to put in each spot. She did that really well. It taught her one-to-one correspondence which is a very important Math concept... plus it kept her busy by herself for a time.--Heather
2 1/2 Years Old I got online and found some different sized pumpkin templates (small, medium and large) that I printed out on white paper. I am no artist and wanted to make sure the pumpkins looked like pumpkins. I made sure to make 10 of them. Seth then colored all the pumpkins orange and I put a number 1-10 on each pumpkin. We then cut them out. I also made separate numbers on little pieces of paper to sorrespond with the numbers on the pumpkin. We folded the little numbers and put them in a cup and spread out all of our other pumpkins so we could see what numbers were on them. Pumpkins numbered 1-4 were "small" pumpkins. Pumpkins numbered 5-7 were "medium sized" pumpkins. Pumpkins numbered 8-10 were "large/big" pumpkins. I made sure to point out the different sizes to Seth to start explaining the concept that some things are smaller/bigger than others. With the numbers in the cup I had Seth draw out 1 number at a time, after giving the cup a good shake of course. When he pulled out a number he told me what the number was and then he found the matching pumpkin. You could use whatever shape/item you want. Since it was October and Seth loves pumpkins it was the natural choice. I personally wouldnt change a thing on the activity, but someone else might want to change the object used. For example if it is November you could use turkeys or Christmas Trees for December.--Shannon
Getting into "shape" running game By Heather, Topeka
1 & 4 years old I cut out shapes (i.e. triangle, square, heart, star and oval) from an old shirt. I spread them throughout the yard in no particular order. Then on an old red block I drew the shapes to make our "die". Then we took turns "rolling" the die and picking the corresponding shape around the yard. The first person to get 1/2 of the number of shapes wins. We had 14 shapes so we figured out what 1/2 was by putting them in two different piles and counting them, so 7. I also played that if you get a match for a shape you already had you got to roll again. Towards the end of the game we started running out of shapes that we were rolling so just because you start the game doesn't automatically mean you will win the game; In this case your turn is over without picking up a shape. Zoe "really liked this game and wants to play again." Lexi followed Zoe around to find the shapes and enjoyed "rolling" or throwing the block/die for us too.
Changes I would make: Well, I could have made less shapes and left a blank "lose a turn" side on the die. I think when Zoe gets to start reading instead of the shapes on a block I can write the words that she can sound out and read to find out what to pick up. For Lexi I would cut the shapes from different colors so she can learn both shapes and colors-again change block or just call out.
Would you recommend? Oh, yeah! Quick, easy, cheap, grows with the child. Easy and fun even for Lexi's age and burns off some of that excess energy. Also can play hide/seek with the shapes indoors.
3 years of age Patterns with Shapes... Kahle wrote, I cut out shapes various sizes of square, triangle, and circle. I then started patterns and had Kaihtlyn finish them. She did a great job of this. Next I gave her the shapes and asked her to put them in piles. She separated them by shape and then by color!
Any changes? I would add more shapes and maybe textures to this activity.
Recomendations: Yes, but realize it goes quickly and my three year old seemed to get bored by this fairly quickly.
Christmas Time suggestion: If you have several of the same ornaments on the tree, you could take them down and play a sorting game with them.
9 Months Old
I showed my son how to take the rings that stack o a tower and put them on in order. He struggles getting them on when we first began playing, but I can tell he gets the idea after a few trys. I have to help him and model for him how to do it as we begin to learn the activity, but we will keep working until he can do it along.--Joanna
18 Months I gave Lexi a muffin tin and 12 golf balls to put in each spot. She did that really well. It taught her one-to-one correspondence which is a very important Math concept... plus it kept her busy by herself for a time.--Heather
2 1/2 Years Old I got online and found some different sized pumpkin templates (small, medium and large) that I printed out on white paper. I am no artist and wanted to make sure the pumpkins looked like pumpkins. I made sure to make 10 of them. Seth then colored all the pumpkins orange and I put a number 1-10 on each pumpkin. We then cut them out. I also made separate numbers on little pieces of paper to sorrespond with the numbers on the pumpkin. We folded the little numbers and put them in a cup and spread out all of our other pumpkins so we could see what numbers were on them. Pumpkins numbered 1-4 were "small" pumpkins. Pumpkins numbered 5-7 were "medium sized" pumpkins. Pumpkins numbered 8-10 were "large/big" pumpkins. I made sure to point out the different sizes to Seth to start explaining the concept that some things are smaller/bigger than others. With the numbers in the cup I had Seth draw out 1 number at a time, after giving the cup a good shake of course. When he pulled out a number he told me what the number was and then he found the matching pumpkin. You could use whatever shape/item you want. Since it was October and Seth loves pumpkins it was the natural choice. I personally wouldnt change a thing on the activity, but someone else might want to change the object used. For example if it is November you could use turkeys or Christmas Trees for December.--Shannon