Math Games Mondays - Minions

BANANA!!!

Okay, who doesn't like the minions?  They are so funny!  My 3 year old nephew calls them BEE-BOs and even my 17 year old likes them.  One sure fire way to get your kids to learn is to center the games and activities around things they like.

When you think of minions, you think of math, right?  No?  Well, I cam up with a simple math game for Math Games Mondays series all about minions and math.

I found minions playing cards at my local Dollar Tree dollar store and the banana candies (because minions LOOOOVE bananas!) at a local toy store.  So, $1.00 for the playing cards and $1.99 for the candy.  You don't have to use candy.  You can use buttons, pennies, anything you want for counters.

It's a simple one to one correspondence game.  Your child needs to put one banana candy onto each spade or heart.  Have them count "one" then put the candy on, then count "two" and put the candy on.  Do this until they he has the correct number of bananas.  By counting out loud and one at the time, it is showing number value.

Repeat until all 5 spades are covered...

or all  hearts...

or all 3 clubs.

You can adapt this game for anything your child may be interested in at the time. Go with the flow and the learning will flow.

Have a fun & playful day
Mel

Mommies, Daddies, and Babies

 Children are fascinated with Mommy and Baby animals and are always pairing them.  When I taught preschool, I would gather several pairs of animals and have the children match the Mommies (or Daddies!) to their babies.

 Without them even knowing, they are talking about animal families, life cycles, characteristics of animals, & more.  This is science.

 Sometimes, the babies don't look exactly like their parents.

 Sometimes, they do.

 You can ask open-ended questions to your child to get the conversation going. How do they look alike?  How are they different?  What sounds do you think they make?

 Something that always interests kids is sometimes the mommy takes care of the babies.  Sometimes, it's the daddy.  The mommy seahorse actually gives her eggs to the daddy seahorse.  He carries them in his pouch (like a kangaroo).  The babies hatch in his pouch then >POP< out! They are miniature versions of their parents and completely independent.

 Where do penguins live?  When you ask that question, you are opening up a conversation about habitats and where animals live and why.

 What kinds of baby animals live on the farm?

 Another thing you can do is this.  I found these animal cards at the dollar spot at Target. (I love the dollar spot!)  The photography on these cards is amazing.  Children can match the card to the animal toy.

 I love that the cards show the animal AND has the name written.  Bonus! Science + literacy in the same activity.

 Most of the animals shown at Schleich animals - ranging in price from $1.99 & up.  Exceptional quality, all hand painted.

 I am not sure if that baby camel actually goes with the camel shown but...kids won't care.

 I just gathered up random animals to match the cards.  Any like animals will work.

We've done Alligator through Zebra!

Learning through play is the best way for children to learn.  It's fun.  It's hands-on.  It's investigative.  It's lead by the child's interests - which makes it more interesting to them.

Have a Fun & Playful day!
Mel

Sensory Table

Sensory is the most fun (and usually the most messy!) and kids love it!  Whether you visit a play place like The Wonder Place that has an a-MAZ-ing water table or you have a small one like this Step2 one, or you have a simple plastic container, sensory can be explored any time.  The Sensory Table lets children explore textures, scoop and pour, act at imaginary scenes, explore habitats hands-on, and more!  I have many posts planned on Sensory ideas.

Have a fun & playful weekend!
Mel

Classification Preschool Style

When I taught preschool, everyone always said, "Science is so hard for preschool."  What??? Science is thee easiest thing to teach preschools.  Preschoolers are naturally drawn to nature and animals and bugs and mud and...Guess what!  That's all science.

Classification is a fancy word for grouping.  You can do this when you play with your child.  "Hey, let's find all the hedgehogs."  Easy.  "Let's make a rabbit family."  Easy.  "Can you find all the birds?" So easy.

You can talk about what makes them alike - like rabbits all have long ears and four feet, and longer back legs.

Science for toddlers and preschoolers doesn't have to be hard.  It's not a thick manual of boring facts.  It's around us everyday.  It's weather.  It's nature.  It's habitats.  It's lifecycles.  It's baking.  It's gardening.

I had lots of visitors (other teachers, parents, administrators) to my classroom to see my science center.  They saw a basket of pinecones and twigs and forest animals and said, "Oh, I can do this."  Yes, of course.  Rock science may be hard, but science for preschoolers is fun!

Alpha Buckets

AlphaBuckets! That's what I call them.  They are a great way to teach phonics through play.

Simply gather up some random toys.  Here, I used Safari Ltd Toobs and animals plus a few random items.  I gathered 3-5 items that start with the same letter.

Here, we have bird, bug, bear, banana, and broccoli making the /b/ sound.  The child may be able to name the item.  Repeat the word, emphaszing the beginning sound then help them pick the correct letter bucket.

For younger children, only highlight 2 or 3 different letter sounds at a time.  For older children, 5 or so buckets would be good.

Here we have Gg for gnome, guinea pig, and gems.  Some letters are harder to find items.  I mean, come on, Xx is downright tricky! :)

I purchased these 2 inch tin buckets at my local Dollar Tree dollar store - 3pk for $1.00.  But you could use clear cups or even bowls.  The above fruit is from Safari Ltd Fruit & Veggies Toob.  As soon as Greta saw it, she exclaimed, "Oh!  That can be food for my animals!"  Lots of different uses for these Toobs, so they are a great investment.

I have done AlphaBuckets in my preschool classroom for years.  It's not always a bucket.  Sometimes, it's an AlphaNest or AlphaBasket.  Anything works really.  It's learning through play and playing together is key.

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel

Math Games Monday - Love Birds

 Happy Monday!

I decided to do a series of Math Games Mondays for preschoolers.  I was talking to a former classmate who is in the international banking field.  She said, "I think I like preschool math the best - you get to "subtract" M&Ms. Sounds yummy to me!"

Preschool math is sooo important and easy to come up with ideas.  I saw these bird cutouts at my local Dollar Tree dollar store along with the acrylic hearts and an idea sparked!

I simply added a large number to each one and the number word under it.  Add a cup to contain the hearts and wa-la! you have the Love Birds math game.

Easy peasy, right?  You could do duplicate this game a million zillion times using any kind of cutouts that you find.  I had a set for each letter (monkey cutouts for M day, frog cutouts for F day, etc) when I taught preschool.  They got beat up some by all the little hands using them, but these games are cheap to make.

So the child takes a Love Bird. He can read the number or you can read it to him.  Then, he takes one heart at a time and places it on the bird cutout until he reaches the right number.  It is important for the child to count each heart that he places on there and physically slides or places the heart on the bird.  This is one-to-correspondence - an important preschool skill.

The child may need help and that's okay - it's bonding time.  He may want to add too many or not enough.  Just say, "Let's count together."  You can model counting each heart individually.  Children learning by watching us.  :)

Play as long (or short) as he wants.  The idea is to keep it fun and light.  It'll be so fun that they won't even know they are learning.  That is how children learn - by playing.

This game teaches number recognition, number word recognition, one-to-one correspondence, the value of each number, and counting.

Happy Monday & Happy Playing!
Mel