Learning Activities for Last Year's Calendar

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Are you looking for some ways to engage your children in math (in fun ways!)?  Use last year's calendars (wall calendars, planners, free samples, etc.) to encourage your child's time and math awareness.  Try these activities to engage your children in creative ways:

*Tear apart the months and let children put them back in order.

*Using the calendar grid, have children color code the even numbers, then use a different color to code the numbers counting by 5s and 10s.

*Cut out the days of the week and have children put them in order.

*Cut out squares denoting holidays and have children match them to the correct months.

*Cut out a picture from the calendar in three slices (or more depending upon the age of the child) so children can work on sequencing skills to arrange the picture again.

*Cut out a grid of squares, then have children match single, double, triple, etc. squares to develop awareness of adding.  For example, cut out a grid of 10 squares.  Provide single, double, and triple square grids so that children can place those on top of the ten spaced grid to see how numbers add up to 10.

Have fun!  Look to our next post on developing a calendar for this year with your children.

Let us know how you use last year's calendars with your family!

Look Both Ways---City Math

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

We're excited to be looking at math books and ideas this month.  Some of the books we'll be reviewing are fiction and some are nonfiction. Look Both Ways (City Math), a Time Life Series book, is a fun book we found at a used bookstore.  Fortunately, even though it’s an older book, it can still be ordered. There are math mysteries, eye spy fun, computation, measurement, and lots more math to be discovered. Even the inside front and back covers have math games that can be played.  Children can readily find that math is everywhere, hopefully leading to an enjoyment of finding math fun. Elementary aged children (and parents) will find many activities in the 63 pages to return to time and again.  We hope you enjoy the math fun in this book!

Question Collection:

*Which activity is your favorite?

*Which math mystery was the easiest for you?

*Can you think of other math patterns in nature?

ABC School Riddles

ABC School Riddles, compiled and edited by Susan Joyce and illustrated by Freddie Levin, is a fun compilation of school words from A to Z.  This was another great find for us since we love reading alphabet books! 

Rhyming riddles give clues to a word.  The first letter is given with blanks that denote the number of letters that must be completed to answer the riddle.  This is a good book to read as a family activity.  I think even reluctant readers who like to solve riddles would be encouraged to try solving these riddles.  An answer key is given with additional ideas for parents and teacher.

Question Collection:

*Which puzzle was the hardest to solve?

*Which was easiest?

*Can you make up some riddles like these?

Floor Puzzles

Do you and your children like to put together puzzles?  We’re always looking for good quality puzzles so they can be used over and over again.  Floor puzzles are great for those rainy days when a more quiet gross-motor kinesthetic activity is needed. Melissa and Doug Farm Friends Floor Puzzle is one puzzle on our playroom shelf that we’ve used many times.  After it’s put together we spend some time on quality conversation talking about the animals, naming them, and making up stories about what might happen on the farm.  Sometimes we pull out some of our farm animal books to further the discussion.  We hope you enjoy puzzles too!

Question Collection:

*What's your favorite animal?

*Can you give names to the animals?

*What do you think is happening on the farm?