Gulp. I just re-opened Maddy’s Kindergarten folder and stumbled across a pretty important little guy–a summer math information sheet and suggested activities.
Math does not come naturally to me at all, but luckily for some of my bloggy pals it does. One in particular, Christy of Superheroes and Princesses, has discovered two very cool ways of incorporating math into your day through two books she found.
She has kindly allowed me to feature two posts of hers, and here they are: Math by Chocolate (yum!) and Ten Black Dots.
Last week we borrowed The m&m’s brand chocolate candies Counting Book by Barbara Barbieri McGrath from the library. C and R had a lot of fun with this book.
You only need 12 m&m’s, but you do need specific colors so plan ahead if you want to avoid dumping more candies than necessary for your child. I did not plan ahead and C and R had too many m&m’s in front of them, but I was able to remove the leftovers without any complaint once I told them they could each have 12 at the end of the book.
The book teaches the numbers 1 through 12 and simple math like addition and sets of 12. The directions were simple enough for R (3) to follow.
It also teaches three primary shapes: the square,the circle, and
the triangle.
The best part of the book for C and R was the subtraction. Subtraction is taught by eating the m&m’s. We had a lot of fun with this book and C and R only ate 12 m&m’s each – well worth it for the math lessons!
C and R had a lot of fun with Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. This book is great counting practice. We used black pom poms to count along with the items in the book. C and R also enjoyed playing with the dots and making their own creations. I put this book in a large ziploc bag with the pom poms so they can work on counting and creating independently.
Christy does an awesome job of sharing the activities she does with her children, and I love to read about their adventures through Tot School. Christy also is co-hosting The Super Summer Swap, and I’m so grateful that they shared such a cool idea; we sure had a blast with it. Be sure to check out Superheroes and Princesses for more of Christy’s ideas!
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I am so honored to be featured on your blog. Thanks for the kind words!
I just wanted to say I love your blog! I gave you a blog award over on my site.
I also love the book "food for thought" http://www.amazon.com/Food-Thought-Joost-Elffers/dp/0439110181
it's more of an independent read for the kids, rather than hands-on math, but I've found both of my kids (3 1/2 & 14 months) are very excited to 'read' it in the car. The bigger was reading & counting on the #'s page using 1:1 correlation today on teh way home from the grocery store. The lakeshore learning beanbags are great for interactive/physical math play (sorting games, tossing & saying what you're throwing – shape/color/counting). Food/dinner/sharing also lends itself well to real world math – let's each have 4 grapes, how many do I need to get from the fridge…; I have 15 grapes, how many do we each get… We've also worked on directionality/spacial relations while driving (left/right; now vs at the stop sign). And last night, while coaching my 3-4 running team, we did some balancing activities while counting – to 10 & to 20.
Christy is really awesome, isn't she?
I hadn't seen these posts before. I especially like the Crews book…pom poms, raisins, chocolate chips…fun!
Great posts; we love her blog too! And I'm just discovering yours and am looking forward to a look around.
I love the way you used pom poms with the book!
Wow! I am totally going to try that black dot book! I am a mathphobic (is there a technical term for fear of math?)
Too bad my son has a dairy allergy or we would be all over that M&M book.
Another great resource you may enjoy is Family Math for Young Children. It's available on Amazon.com and at most libraries, although I suggest owning your own copy.
Thanks for the book tips. I checked my library and they have both, so I put them on my list! Should be fun! Heading over to Superheroes and Princesses now!
~ Jennifer
http://thetoyboxyears.blogspot.com/
I love Christy's blog, and now I've just found yours… what great ideas you have here! 🙂
I have the book Ten Black Dots and never thought of doing this. Glad I found you via Christy.
We love Donald Crewes too, great post.
What a cool book, I may have to add this one to our christmas wish list!
What a cool book, I may have to add this one to our christmas wish list!