Children's Math Book: The Button Box

Button, button, who's got the button? Yesterday, I gave my 5yo a container of buttons and a bunch of tiny plastic containers. Left to his own devices, he prepared "snacks" for me; I got to choose the color of "snack" I wanted.

After our delicious purple and pink snack, we settled in to read a favorite book, The Button Box. In the story, a child sorts buttons from Grandma's button box, using a wide variety of categories, including looking at where the buttons may have come from: sparkly buttons from kings, leather ones from cowboy shirts, tiny buttons from old fashioned shoes, and shiny buttons from uniforms.  I've always thought this book a must-have for preK-kindergarten! ;) You might also read Grandma's Button Box, a Math Matters book.

How Many Feet in the Bed? (Math & Drama)

I picked up a cute book, How Many Feet in the Bed?, and thought it would be fun to act out with my 5-year-old. In the story, members of a family of five tumble in and out of the parents' bed on a Sunday morning. As each person comes and goes, the total feet left in the bed are counted.

First, I read the story aloud. Then I grabbed a doll bed and some Counting Bears. As I read the story a second time, we acted it out; my son added bears, counting feet as he went. Later, as the bears left, he counted again to see what remained.

Then we told our own stories. I made up one about Mommy and Daddy snoring in bed, only to be disturbed by one child after another (I named all our kids) who piled into bed on Saturday morning. I took them away as they left to watch cartoons, etc. After my story, my son told his own, adding and subtracting his own bears and counting as he went.

 This story could also be acted out with dolls and a tissue box bed...or even dramatized by a kindergarten class or homeschool co-op group.





Key Words: Math and Drama, Skip Counting Lesson, Teddy Bear Math

Children's Math Book Review: Apollo

Have you read Apollo? While this cute little book was probably not written with the intent of teaching math concepts, I love it for it's ability to explore basic vocabulary with simplicity and humor.

Summary: The owner of a dachshund describes how adorable, obedient, and clever his dog is from all sides and all directions.

Basically, the narrator introduces you to Apollo, looking at his back, middle, front, sides, etc. The reader is exposed to the words: horizontally, vertically, diagonally, left, right, etc. My favorite pages explore the concept of "half" when the pictures show the front half of Apollo but then show "different halves" by showing his top half and bottom half. Great humor and concept exploration for preschool and early primary children. The same author also has a book, Counting With Apollo, that I've not yet seen.

Vertical Stuffed Moose

I handed our older digital camera to my 8yo son this afternoon so he could take photos of stuffed animals, exploring the vocabulary and concepts from the book.

This would also make a great preschool or primary math workbox.

Horizontal Stuffed Moose

1/2 of a Stuffed Dog

Preschool Flannel Board Shapes (math gift)

Photo temporarily removed for security.

My 4yo ds enjoys geometric math exploration using flannel board shapes. The "board" is just a piece of cardboard with a piece of flannel material affixed to the front. The one above was attached with a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine.

The shapes, cut from felt, were made with patterns from the shape set from Box It or Bag It. When ds first starting constructing, he made a lot of abstract "fill the board" pictures. Then he moved on to making "pizzas" and feeding me his pizza board. ;) Now he's arrived at building vehicles and structures.

You could easily make a set like this for an inexpensive, educational holiday gift. I found felt at garage sales, received some as donations from friends, or purchased it. You can also find nice felt boards if you don't choose to make your own.

If you do this, comment with a link to your photo! ;)

This would make a great preschool workbox! :)

Milk Cap Math: MADS Elimination

Here is another milk cap math game for basic +/-/x/division practice. My 15yo daughter thought of the name, MADS Elimination. (Thanks!)

The object?

M: multiply
A: add
D: divide
S: subtract

...in order to eliminate all milk caps on the playing field. (Before you go completely MADs!)

You'll need:

• two sets of 10 milk caps (any color), numbered 1-10
• two, 1-6 dice

To play the game, each player forms a line of milk caps, 1-10. Players take turns rolling the dice. When dice are rolled, the player may choose to multiply, add, divide, or subtract. So, for example:

Dice rolled: 3 and 5

I can:

M: 3 x 5 (won't work since my caps are 1-10)
A: 3 + 5 = 8
D: 5 / 3 = 2.5 (won't work)
S: 5 - 3 = 2

So I could eliminate either the 2 or the 8 cap. If the cap(s) has already been eliminated, I lose my turn. The first player to eliminate all caps, wins.

You can make this a little easier (preschool) by using 6 caps (1-6) and one die (1-6) and removing caps from the table as you roll each number.

You can make this a little harder by using bigger numbers (on the caps) or having the option of rolling multiple dice. For example, you could roll three, 1-6 dice, and make a number sentence using all three numbers. (You could also use dice with different numbers: 0-5, 4-9, etc.)

Example using 3 dice:

I roll: 1,3,4

I could do any number of combinations...I won't list them all, but for example:

3 - 1 + 4

1 x 4 - 3   (You could even talk about order of operations here.)

4 - 1 + 3

Lots and lots of possibilities for this game!

Running out of math caps yet?? ;)

This is another great math workbox game! ;)

Milk Cap Math: Preschool Activities

I hate throwing things away. I'm less a hoarder than a I-don't-want-my-stuff-to-take-up-space-in-the-landfill kinda gal.

So, whenever possible, I try to recycle. Or, better yet, reuse.

We go through a lot of milk. A. LOT. My youngest came home from China drinking nothing but milk. LOVES milk. And with six people living here, we constantly buy milk.

I either recycle (on the good months that the local recycling center will take most plastics) or throw away 3-4 milk jug caps a week. Ever stop to look at a milk cap? They're actually sorta cool in a "I'm just a lowly milk cap" sorta way.

I decided to make use of 'em.

MILK CAP MATH!!!

I've come up with several games and activities. Here's the first few simple ones, designed for preschoolers.

Preparations:

1. Gather milk caps. Alternately, other caps would work great: juices, water, soda, etc. If they have writing on them, sometimes you can get that off with a little sandpaper. If not, stick to blank ones.
2. Have a variety of colors? Figure out a pattern. (Or, better yet, have the kids figure one out.) The pattern can be part of the math activities.
3. Lay out the caps in the pattern and number them. I first made one set of 1-12. I'm working on two sets for game playing. I put a line under 6 and 9 so as to distinguish between the two.

PreK-Grade 1 Activities:

Numbers/Patterning:

• Put the caps in numerical order.
• Do you see a pattern to the colors?

Sorting:

• Sort the caps by color. 
• Which color has the least caps?
• Which color has the most?
• How many more yellow are there than green? (various color combination questions)

Counting:

• Using tile or another manipulative, have the child place the correct number of tile below each number. If available, use the same color tile as cap.
• What do you notice about the lines of tile?

As soon as I save up a few more milk caps, I'll post another game for bigger kids. In the meantime, save caps. :)

P.S. I did NOT see this idea on any other blog. I thought I had an original idea. (A rare and exciting phenomena.) However, I thought I'd better do a search before I posted. Good thing. I discovered "nothing is new under the sun." Google search gave 120,000 results. Here are some ideas from folks who thought of this before I did:

Milk Cap Numbers and Animal Counting Worksheets--cool templates!

Milk Cap Letters--templates for words/letters

Bottle Caps Math Game--for middle schoolers

This would be a great Work Box activity!


Link up your math ideas at Joyful Learner! ;)

Who Sank the Boat?

Yesterday, my 4yo ds received a book at church; this was his reward for reading for 10 hours this summer. (Well, I actually did the reading. That could be a whole 'nother blog entry. Do you know how many hours my older son read on his own compared to how many hours I read to his younger brother? Shameful, I tell you! About 2.5:1 ratio!)

The book, Who Sank the Boat?, is one that I've wanted to buy.

Summary: The reader is invited to guess who causes the boat to sink when five animals of varying sizes decide to go for a row.

Spoiler Alert (as if you can't see this coming!): four huge animals (cow, donkey, sheep, pig) get in, but it's the final passenger, the mouse, that causes the boat to sink.

We did some math and science activities based on the story.

First, collect a variety of objects from around the house. Set out two objects at a time and ask child to predict which is heavier. For some comparisons, I use large, light objects (fluffy pillow) vs. small, heavy objects (rock). Place one object in each of the child's hands and ask him which one is heavier. If you have a balance scale, you can do a little informal work there as well.

We did some float/sink lessons. (pdfs available--I used the picture drawing one for the 4yo, the writing one for my 8yo) The site also links a BBC interactive video where kids get to predict whether various items will sink or float.

Although this lesson is primarily for my 4yo, my 8yo enjoyed participating in the sink/float scientific inquiry. Challenge question...find an object around the house that will trick mom...one that I think will float when it will actually sink or vice versa. (My son did it with Playmobile animals.)

Check out more Math Monday links at Joyful Learner or click on the Math Box below to find more math activities suitable for Workboxes.

Math Workbox: Preschool Activities

Lots to share from our first days back to school. Here are some highlights from preschool...

This activity from Making Learning Fun was a complete hit with my preschooler! We began by reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He then played a "Roll and Color Dice Game." He rolled the dice, counted the dots, located the corresponding numbers on the animal, then colored it to match the animal in the book.

For a 1st day surprise, we did a little M&M sorting and graphing. Each column corresponded with an animal color from Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We counted and compared colors.









My older son, 8, also did it for fun; he did a lot more with numbers. (How many total candies? How many more orange than yellow? Etc.)

This "Clothespin Number Review" from Confessions of a Homeschooler provided more practice with counting as GG matched number of dots with corresponding digits on clothespins. I printed the pdf on cardstock and covered it with contact paper so we could reuse it.

 

Get more ideas for preschool at Homeschool Creations.