Thousands of schools across the country have switched to e-learning this week, to help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. And many parents, like me, are having to find ways to work at home while caring for their child. It’s a huge transition for my whole family, and I knew it was important for Buddy and I to have a schedule for our day.
I made this schedule and am sharing it in case it is useful to you and your family. I included pictures since Buddy can’t read to help him understand the different parts to our day. Hopefully having a visual schedule will help Buddy understand when I can play and when I’ll be busy. I have included the word file below so you can adapt it for your family’s needs.
For our reading and learning time in the morning, I am planning to read a book and do a related activity. I have a koala crate subscription, and we already have some books and projects available. Also, I am planning to use some of the books we already own along with these virtual field trips. (Links to trip ideas here and here.) I am hoping to work with Buddy to make a report of our activities to share with my husband at the end of the day. I’m sure we will also revisit some of our Time to Read Tuesday activities from summers in the past.
In the afternoon, I plan to pull out play doh, kinetic sand, our bean or rice sensory bins, do an art project, or bake. Some of my favorite sensory play activities can be found here.
I hope this is helpful to anyone else who will be home with their kids during the next few weeks. If you have any other resources to share, please share in the comments.
I’m a seventh grade math teacher, and my husband and I have always both been mathematically inclined. (We even met in a math class!) Needless to say, both of us naturally see ways to incorporate math with Buddy. However, it isn’t something that comes naturally to many parents. We have all heard to read to young kids, but how many parents think about setting a foundation for strong math skills? Not many, I’d suspect. So I’m here to share my experiences with having fun building Buddy’s math skills.
*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*
The Common Core math standard topics for Kindergarten are: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. These are the skills that I’m working on with Buddy through play and everyday life experiences.
Counting and Comparing
Playing games and keeping score is my favorite way to build this skill. Buddy loves games, and I’ve blogged about some of my favorites here and here. We also predict and count different items as we play (how many animals do we have here?)
One of Buddy’s favorite games is Cars and Trucks, which is a kid version of war. When we are done with the game, at least one of us will have to count into the twenties to figure out who has the most cards. That game also involves special +1, +2, and +3 cards that help kids practice addition.
Adding and Subtracting
We started the idea of addition and subtraction with the game Uno Moo. You start the game with five animals, and after each game one person is out of animals, and everyone else has some left over. We just let the people with animals left over pick some more to get five. So I ask Buddy questions like, “I have two left over, how many animals do I need to take?”
Sometimes when we play games, we add how many we have together. Playing memory and Let’s Go Fishing are two great games for that. “I have three matches and you have five. How many matches have we found together?”
We’ve also started to do some addition/subtracting with Buddy’s physical therapy exercises. I’ll set a certain number of times that we are going to do an activity and then we count how many we’ve done. Part way through, we’ll figure out how many more we still need to do.
Understanding Two Digit Numbers
Buddy made the connection between counting past twenty with Advent calendars. Something clicked in his head, and he understood that once you hit twenty, you continue counting normally. Soon after that he started noticing two digit numbers everywhere, and he wanted to learn how to read them.
We practice reading and comparing two digit numbers at basketball games!
We point out numbers in the world around us, and Buddy points them out too. The grocery store is a big one for us. He will count the checkouts up to 28 on our way out of the store. And he’ll read the aisle numbers as we are in them. He also makes note of large numbers on packages (that package has 12 towels!). Other places we practice reading two digit numbers are restaurants with table numbers, street signs, and basketball scores. (March madness is very important in our house!)
Shapes
Since I’m a math teacher, I’ve always been very conscious about naming shapes correctly with Buddy. When he was learning names of shapes, if he called a square a rectangle, I’d say, “yes, but it’s a special kind of rectangle.” Some of my seventh graders have the hardest time understanding that squares are also rectangles.
We play with magnatiles often at our house. It’s one of Buddy’s favorite things to do. At first, we were calling the triangles: little, medium, and big. And then I realized that it would be so easy to call them by correct names. So we call the small ones with equal sides equilateral triangles, the ones that can be made into squares right triangles, and the tall, skinny ones with two equal sides isosceles triangles.
Pattern blocks are another fun way to play with shapes, and learn different names for shapes. There are trapezoids and parallelograms and hexagons, which are all shapes that are not often seen in kid’s shape activities. If you don’t have your own set of pattern blocks, you can have your kids use digital ones or print ones out.
Measurement and Data
Buddy and I sometimes pull out a ruler or measuring tape, and he measures different things. Occasionally, we will measure to see which item is longer or taller. But most often, he just wants to see which number is closest to the item’s length or width.
We also use measurement when we cook or bake together. Buddy and I made a Boston Cream Pie last weekend, and we needed 6 tablespoons of cornstarch for the filling. I asked him to help me count, and after we did four tablespoons, I asked him how many more we needed to add. Moments like that one combine several of those math standards (counting, addition, and measurement) into things we are already doing.
The kindergarten data standard is about sorting things into categories and then counting how many things are in each category. We’ve done something similar when we did a sort with attribute links. We also sometimes do something similar when we play with counters. Buddy loves to grab a handful to fill up one of his magnatiles creations, and sometimes I’ll ask him how many of each he has. (Two squirrels, three owls, and five apples!)
Buddy playing with attribute links, which can be sorted by color, shape, or size.
Great Math Resources
Hopefully I’ve helped you realize that you can easily incorporate math activities into your normal life without buying anything else. But I wanted to share a few more things if you are looking for something else to supplement the math in your home.
My favorite math books are Countablock and 123 Count with Me. Countablock is perfect for helping kids count to 100. It’s a chunky board book, and it’s so much fun! 123 Count with Me is great for helping kids read, write, and add numbers. There are grooved numbers to trace and flaps to lift to engage kids. The book counts up to 20, and then there are addition problems with flaps as well. (The alphabet counterparts to these books, Alphablock and A is for Apple respectively, are also great!) Buddy also loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and there is at least one math topic built into every episode.
Those are a few examples of some of the ways my family does math together. Some of those math moments might take a little extra thought initially, but then it will become second nature. If you can help to establish a comfort and curiosity with numbers before your child starts school, it could serve as a foundation for a lifetime of strong mathematical thinking.
Buddy has been studying the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at school recently, so he’s been extra interested in the alphabet. He notices letters around him everywhere! We’re constantly talking about letters and their sounds at our house. We have done a lot of different activities over the last couple of years to help Buddy learn his letters, and I thought I’d write a blog post so they could all be found in one place.
Alphabet Kaboom Game
All of the letters are written on popsicle sticks, along with a few sticks labeled Kaboom! You take turn pulling sticks, and saying the letter. If you pull a Kaboom stick, you have to put back all of your sticks. Whoever has the most sticks at the end of a set amount of time wins. Read more about this activity here.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom STEM Game
The STEM part of this game is to build a strong tree for the letters to climb. Then, you take turns pulling a magnetic letter and putting it on top of the tree. Whoever knocks down the tree loses the game. It’s so much fun! I’d like to play this one again soon. Read more about this game here.
Alphabet Easter Egg Hunt
We did this one at Easter and then again over the summer. I hid eggs that were filled with magnetic letters. Buddy found the letters and matched them to a pan. It’s so easy, and a lot of fun. Both times we did this activity, we had to immediately repeat it. Read more about this activity here.
Serving Letter Cookies
I wrote letters on paper plates, and Buddy scooped up the foam letter “cookie” to match it. We revisited this activity a few weeks ago, and Buddy had so much fun he made me make a plate for every letter! We also enjoyed pretending to eat our cookies. Read more about this activity here.
Magnetic Letters Sensory Bin
Buddy loves sensory bins, and rice sensory bins are his favorite! I hid magnetic letters in rice, and Buddy had to dig through and find all of the letters. The last time we played in the rice bin, Buddy asked me to pull out the letters to throw in the rice because he had so much fun digging for them. Read more about this activity here.
Magnetic Letters Busy Bag
Last summer I put together a tin of magnetic letters and some words to spell. Most of the words were names of family members, but there were a few other simple words in there too. Buddy really enjoyed being able to “read” and spell the names of his family. This was a great activity to keep him busy on long car trips. Read more about the magnetic letter busy bag here.
Floating Letters
I cleaned out the kitchen sink, and then I asked Buddy to find and scoop different letters. He loved this one! It’s been a long time since we’ve done it, so I want to try it again soon. Read more about floating letters here.
Fishing for Magnetic Letters
We started fishing for magnetic letters when Buddy was little. Buddy was not quite two in the picture above, and at the time, he didn’t know the names of the letters. But he loved fishing for magnetic letters then, and we still do it from time to time now. Read more about this activity here.
Spider Web Spelling
We did this activity at Halloween time. I put magnetic letters in different parts of a giant spider web. Buddy picked out a spelling card, and then he went trick or treating for the different letters. This was a lot of fun, and a great way to combine gross motor skills into literacy practice. You can read more about this activity here.
Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to practice the alphabet? Please share in the comments sections.
In the last week or so, Buddy has shown a lot of interest in letters and numbers. I couldn’t be more thrilled since one of my summer goals is to work on his letter and number recognition. He knows the letters in his name and a few others, but I’d like him to know all (or most) of them by the end of summer.
*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*
I spent a little time looking for alphabet activities, and I found a lot of great ones. This activity was especially exciting because we had already been playing with our foam letters a lot recently. When I saw foam letters used as cookies on Fantastic Fun and Learning’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it. He was already serving up stacks of these letters as pancakes and birthday cakes, so making them cookies was an easy shift. It also has everything I love in a kid activity – there is little setup, and we already had all the materials at home.
To start, I grabbed a baking sheet, a spatula, a sharpie, and some leftover plates from Buddy’s last birthday party. Buddy had already been playing with his foam letters earlier in the day, so they were already ready for us. I asked Buddy to pick out some letters and put them on the baking sheet. Then I wrote each one on a small plate and told him what the letter was. We also discussed a word that started with each letter.
I showed Buddy how to scoop up the letter with the spatula. Then I told him he had to serve the cookie on the matching plate. Again, we discussed the name of the letter as he was looking for each plate. Once the cookie was served, we took turns “eating” it.
Buddy had a lot of fun serving and eating the cookies. He had so much fun that he asked to do it again as soon as we finished serving up all of the letters. So I put all of the letters back on the baking sheet and we did it again!
Once we had finished the second round of this activity, I pulled out some magnetic letters (affiliate link) for Buddy. He started by scooping them up with the spatula and putting them on the baking sheet.
Eventually, Buddy wanted to spell things with the magnetic letters. He was able to spell his name on his own. Then he asked for help spelling out the names of different people in our family. It was a lot of fun, and a great use of the magnetic letters.
If you have any other great ideas for alphabet activities, please let me know!
Buddy is really into games right now. It’s really fun that he’s finally old enough for us to play games as a family. Before Christmas, we started playing memory and go fish with a tiny Thomas the Train card set, which was a favor from his Thomas the Train birthday party. We also tried a game from our library (Zingo), and he immediately fell in love with it. I asked my family to get games for us for Christmas, and we got some awesome ones! All of them are appropriate for both toddlers and preschoolers.
*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*
Most of the boxes for these games suggest them as for ages 3 and up, but they can be appropriate for younger kids. I’ve listed the needed skills for each to help you decide if it is appropriate for your child. Right now, Buddy is 33 months old, but he would have been able to play most of these at a younger age. Not only are these games a lot of fun, but they also help Buddy to work on many different skills, including learning to take turns and to be a good winner/loser.
Zingo
Skills Needed: Matching pictures
Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills, counting, comparing numbers
Zingo is Buddy’s favorite game right now. We play at least 3 rounds of it every day, and he can’t get enough of it! The idea is simple – be the first to match all of the pictures on your card. The red shooter dispenses the pictures, and they can be inserted in a slot on the shooter if they aren’t needed. We count how many pictures we have, how many more we need, and who has more pictures. There are two different levels of cards, and one side has more overlapping pictures between the cards to make the game more competitive. There are several other versions of this game including sight words, counting, and spelling.
Uno Moo
Skills Needed: Matching colors and farm animals
Skills Practiced: Colors, counting, fine motor skills
Uno Moo is a great version of the classic Uno game for young children. Each player starts with five animals, and you take turns putting them into the barn by matching either the color or the animal. There are figures that represent wild cards (the little boy) and draw two cards (skunks). Buddy loves the little figures, and it’s easy for him to know what can and can’t be matched. I got the older version of this game because I wanted the haystacks to hide the animals and the puppy figures. (Both are not included in the new version.) There is also a card version of this game.
Stack Up
Skills Needed: Stacking blocks
Skills Practiced: Colors, counting, fine motor skills
Stack Up is a cooperative game. Players work together to stack all 12 blocks before the smasher smashes the tower. Younger players use their hands to stack the blocks, but older players work together to use sticks to stack the blocks. You spin the spinner to determine what color block to stack. If it lands on the smasher, the figure moves forward one space. If any blocks fall, the smasher moves forward again. Buddy can hardly stand the excitement by the end of the game (see the second picture above)! There are challenge cards and two different types of sticks to challenge older players.
Seek a boo is a spin on the classic memory game. There are 36 large circle cards and 36 square find it cards. All of the cards are split into groups of six with a different color and a different topic (shapes, animals, clothing, outside objects, food, and toys). The child spreads out the six cards, and the parent shows a square card with a picture to find. We count how many times it takes for Buddy to find the matching card. After you do the first six, you can do another round with a different color. You can do two or more colors at a time to make it more challenging for older children.
Go Fish
Skills Needed: Matching farm animals
Skills Practiced: Find motor skills, counting, comparing numbers
Go Fish is a classic card game that is usually played with older kids. I really wanted to find a Go Fish deck for Buddy’s stocking since he loved playing it so much with his Thomas cards. But his Thomas set only had 8 matches, so it wasn’t really enough to play a good game. Most decks out there are made for older kids that can read numbers. But the set that I linked above just has pictures of farm animals. The deck is set up to get all four cards of each animal, but we just play with half the deck and have two card matches. We got this card holder to help Buddy hold his own cards, and it’s a great fine motor activity putting cards in and out of the holder. When we finish the game, we count the amount of matches that each person has and compare the numbers to see who wins. We have also played memory with these cards.
Memory is a preschool game that has been around forever. It’s a great way for young children to work on remembering things, which is a great skill to practice. I made the set shown above on Shutterfly with pictures of our extended family. We have a large extended family, and none of them live close to us. This is a great way for Buddy to learn everyone’s names. He loves seeing everyone’s pictures and pictures of himself with them. When we finish each game, we count our matches and compare to see which person won.
Candy Land
Skills Needed: Color recognition
Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills, colors
Candy Land is another classic game for preschoolers. Small characters travel a multicolored path towards the Candy Castle. Players draw a color card to figure out where to go on the path. Specially themed candy cards send players forward or back to specific points on the board. Whoever reaches the castle first wins. Picking one card off the top of the deck and moving the figure on the path are both great ways to practice fine motor skills.
Our family loves playing all of these games, and I ‘m sure your family will too. Have I missed any great toddler or preschool games? Please leave your ideas in the comment section.
