What math treasures are hiding in your game closet? If you’re like me, you have more games in that closet than children in your program. If and when you do play games, do you choose the same few games over and over again? When I repurpose the pieces from our rarely used games, I […]
It’s November and, here in Illinois, that means cooler temperatures and winter outerwear. Getting the children dressed for outdoor play is one more way that you can meet your math standards while engaging in everyday activities. Outdoor play in the winter months includes snow or rain pants, boots, coats, hats and mittens. Getting my […]
As the leaves begin to change colors and jackets and hats become a part of our days, our math play takes on a whole new dimension. Earlier in the year, we talked about all of the collecting that we do throughout our days here. These collections take on a new significance as we use […]
A parent recently asked me if we had been working on shapes because her two-year-old was quite knowledgeable about the topic. I just smiled, because we work on shapes all day long, starting with breakfast. Would you like circles (Cheerios), squares (Chex) or hexagons (Crispix)? Math is embedded in many of your daily activities […]
Two-year-old Elizabeth screams with delight, “I made a ball, I made a ball!” Finding the math in a ball of clay Ah, it’s another magical moment with clay. Making shapes, discussing length, adding loose parts or subtracting pieces of clay to share with a friend. There is a whole lot of math in […]
Whether you grew up with Schoolhouse Rock, Sesame Street, the Electric Company, Romper Room or Raffi, chances are good that you can still sing a counting song that you learned way back then. Ah, there are some really great songs from those days and many a Schoolhouse Rock version is being used to teach “skip counting” […]
Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin? Here I am. Here I am. How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you. Run away. Run away. Ah, kindergarten with Mrs.Smith. I assumed that all kindergarten teachers had a piano and worked on fingerplays and nursery rhymes with a group of children hiding Thumbkin behind their […]
Welcome back! A repeat visit to see me? Is this a schema? Haha, yes! Come visit me again and again and again. I hope that my last blog left you excited and intrigued about schemas. Let’s look at a few more schemas and share ideas about the ways that we can adapt our childcare environments […]
When two-year-old Harrison entered our family childcare program, his comfort zone included drains. He was fixated on drains and loved to watch the water swirl around and around until it disappeared down the drain. Harrison loved that drain…and toilets… and bathtubs, and …oh, rotation! Harrison loved all things that included rotation. Harrison was a rotation […]
Discover our math environment full of hands on learning fun! Come see what we did with our collections from last week!