The key to coming up with great ideas for math in early childhood is to focus on mathematical thinking. What will get your child to using math in play? Whether your child is sorting different sizes or colors of flowers into vases or graphing a set of bottle caps, your child is building the skills to think and learn about mathematical concepts.
Here are some ways we encourage mathematical thinking...
I Heart Math: Graphing hearts for Valentine’s Day
Have you ever invited your students to make their own graphs? Young children are so capable of doing things but sometimes, we get in the
Sorting stones in the outdoor classroom
We set up these recycled silver ware trays in our outdoor classroom for our students to explore sorting painted stones. We prompted our students with
Our day full of watermelon seeds
Have you ever swallowed a watermelon seed? Do you know what happens when you swallow a watermelon seed? Come see our day on watermelons and
Turn your magnet board into a graph!
The Magnet Board If you happen to have a magnet board, you might be looking for something extra you can do with it. How about
How does music build STEM skills?
Songs, fingerplays, and movement activites are an important part of learning and development in young children! How does music teach STEM skills? Well before I
Build up your math center with SumBlox!
If you are looking for a wonderful way to build up your math center, then you should check out SumBlox! SumBlox is a unique set of
Before you plan your next preschool math lesson, read this!
Before you start planning your next preschool math lesson, take a minute and read this… In a recent Bam Radio interview titled, “Math Phobia; Repeat After
Good morning math!
Every morning when my students come to school, we jump right into a little loose parts good morning math! What started out as a simple
Hurrah for math in preschool!
Our students love to fill their math bags with little objects from home then share them with the class. We get in all kinds of
The number line game!
A great way to incorporate movement and practice memory recall with numbers! The number line is a very simple game that invites the children to
Hurray for number lines!
Who knew that number lines could be so much fun? Well my students and I found out just how much fun they can be during
Exploring math with a holiday graph in pre-k
I have a nice collection of holiday trinkets that I have built up over my years of teaching and these trinkets make wonderful loose parts
Let’s make a pattern!
Today’s invitation to make a simple pattern was connected to our recent exploration of circles…
How many things can your hands hold?
We are always using our hands to hold things so I set up an invitation to explore how many things our paper hands (or real hands) can hold at the math table.
High five for hands!
I made up a little high five game on our clip boards for the children to try. My goal was to encourage the children to explore a little counting in the process and it worked out fabulously! Read all about it on my blog!
Designing with Qtips on the math table
I love offering the children everyday, simple things, like Qtips, to design and create with. I always hope that by supplying the children common household products, they might even be inspired to try the activities at home.