Pre Math
Kansas Early Learning Standards
Benchmark 1: Demonstrates understanding of number concepts and numerical operations.
JULYACTIVITIES--
Age 0-1 --
Around 9 months of age begin to share rhymes or finger plays that have to do with numbers. Here is an example to try:
One Potato
One potato, two potato, (count on fingers.) Three potato, four, Five potato, six potato, Seven potato, more.
Eight potato, nine potato, Here is ten.
Now let’s count all over again.
Age 1-2 –Focus on toys that help contribute to mobility by pushing or pulling. Some suggestions would be pushing a plastic lawnmower, pulling a toy on a string. Create a toy to pull by tying a string to a small stuffed animal that they could drag. Talk with your child about what he is doing. Describe out loud to him what is going on in the experience, for example. “There is Johnny’s toy he is pulling. Did that surprise you when the toy made a squeak sound? Did the toy go, boing, boing, boing down the stairs?”
Age 2 -3---Provide toys that your child can play with independently, such as: blocks (stacking a tower), puzzles or riding toys. Begin with simple puzzles, and as they have success, add new puzzles with a few more pieces. The first time the puzzle is put together, you will probably need to model for your child where to put each piece. But as they become more familiar with the pieces, they can put several together in one sitting. Talk with him/her as the puzzle is being put together. Describe what you see going on: “Can you find the piece that is red and would fit into this red spot? Look how big this puzzle piece is. Where do you think it will go on the board? Does it go in the largest spot?
Age 3-4 --During your 4th of July picnic, you can use some of the days festivities to work on matching skills. If they have 10 smoke bombs, they can match the colors that are alike. When you pick up all the utensils at the picnic, you can have your child sort all of them into the ones that match; for example, into all the forks, spoons, and knives. Then they can separate them, so each person gets only one of each. Look for food items at the picnic that they could separate into piles, such as chex party mix.
Age 4-5 --At the picnic, create patterns on paper plates using squeeze bottles of catsup, and mustard. You can start off simple by making a dot of catsup, then a dot of mustard, then a dot of catsup. Ask your child what would come next? (A dot of mustard). That is considered an A,B,A,B pattern. Create other combinations of patterns, such as: A,A,B,A,A,___ or A,A,B,B, A,A,____,____.
Age 5-6 --If watermelon is served at the 4th of July picnic, save the seeds. On small paper plates, you can write the numbers 1-10. Have the child place that amount of seeds to correspond to the number written on each plate. While eating the watermelon, you can have a family seed spitting contest. Measure using foot prints to see who spit theirs the farthest.
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
Age 0-1 --
Around 9 months of age begin to share rhymes or finger plays that have to do with numbers. Here is an example to try:
One Potato
One potato, two potato, (count on fingers.) Three potato, four, Five potato, six potato, Seven potato, more.
Eight potato, nine potato, Here is ten.
Now let’s count all over again.
Age 1-2 –Focus on toys that help contribute to mobility by pushing or pulling. Some suggestions would be pushing a plastic lawnmower, pulling a toy on a string. Create a toy to pull by tying a string to a small stuffed animal that they could drag. Talk with your child about what he is doing. Describe out loud to him what is going on in the experience, for example. “There is Johnny’s toy he is pulling. Did that surprise you when the toy made a squeak sound? Did the toy go, boing, boing, boing down the stairs?”
Age 2 -3---Provide toys that your child can play with independently, such as: blocks (stacking a tower), puzzles or riding toys. Begin with simple puzzles, and as they have success, add new puzzles with a few more pieces. The first time the puzzle is put together, you will probably need to model for your child where to put each piece. But as they become more familiar with the pieces, they can put several together in one sitting. Talk with him/her as the puzzle is being put together. Describe what you see going on: “Can you find the piece that is red and would fit into this red spot? Look how big this puzzle piece is. Where do you think it will go on the board? Does it go in the largest spot?
Age 3-4 --During your 4th of July picnic, you can use some of the days festivities to work on matching skills. If they have 10 smoke bombs, they can match the colors that are alike. When you pick up all the utensils at the picnic, you can have your child sort all of them into the ones that match; for example, into all the forks, spoons, and knives. Then they can separate them, so each person gets only one of each. Look for food items at the picnic that they could separate into piles, such as chex party mix.
Age 4-5 --At the picnic, create patterns on paper plates using squeeze bottles of catsup, and mustard. You can start off simple by making a dot of catsup, then a dot of mustard, then a dot of catsup. Ask your child what would come next? (A dot of mustard). That is considered an A,B,A,B pattern. Create other combinations of patterns, such as: A,A,B,A,A,___ or A,A,B,B, A,A,____,____.
Age 5-6 --If watermelon is served at the 4th of July picnic, save the seeds. On small paper plates, you can write the numbers 1-10. Have the child place that amount of seeds to correspond to the number written on each plate. While eating the watermelon, you can have a family seed spitting contest. Measure using foot prints to see who spit theirs the farthest.
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