"Summer Adventures" has brought new ways to play with math in the last two weeks.
Counting and Quantifying in Small Group: One way we practiced counting and comparing (most, more, less, least, and equal) was to play this Dice and Lego Game.
Each child would roll the dice, count the dots, and stack or line up that number of legos. Finally, we would put the stacks next to each other and talk about which had more or less, whether we would need to add or subtract legos to make the stacks equal, etc. Plus we worked our fine motor skills connecting legos! *This game can be made more challenging for more advanced players by having each child roll two dice and add the quantities of the two dice.*
Counting and Quantifying in Circle Time: We read the book Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina about the vendor who walked to the countryside for a rest when he could not sell his caps. After resting under a tree, he wakes to find his caps missing. They were stolen by many silly monkeys and the man had to trick the monkeys into returning the caps. He did not carry his caps on his back; he carried them carefully on his head. After reading this story, the children each got a turn to be a peddler and see how many "caps" (beanbags) they could carry on their heads! In addition to counting the beanbags, this required the children to hold their bodies very, very still! It was quite the challenge, but a fun way to practice counting!
Shapes in Work Time: The Alone Table was home to Imaginets, a fun magnetic suitcase with cards and shape magnets. Each children enjoyed using the shapes to create their own pictures, or to try to replicate the pictures presented on the cards. Preschool math is more than counting, number recognition, and naming shapes: spatial awareness is critical and often acquired through playing with shapes in the form of blocks, Magnatiles, or in this case magnets.
Another way we realized spatial relationships was by playing with geoboards and rubber bands. The children experienced hands-on ways to create lines, change lines into shapes, change shapes into different shapes by moving lines, etc. We made many polygons and standard shapes.
*Geoboards were also used during Planning Time by giving each child a standard shape on the board. Ms. Harmony then described the shape attributes, and whichever child's shape matched the description got to plan next. For example, Friend "H" had a square and made his plan when Ms. Harmony asked for the child whose shape had "four sides, all exactly the same size." We counted the pegs of each side to check if each side of the square was the same length. Friend "K" had a trapezoid and made her plan when Ms. Harmony called for the shape with "four sides, where the sides have different lengths, and two sides slant inward."
