School Readiness: Mathematical Thinking

How can you help and support your child in the area of mathematical thinking development?  Create activities that address the following areas.

• Sorting objects by different traits (color, shape, size, etc.)
• Using words to describe things and what they are used for
• Identifying and copying simple patterns
• Using words to talk about position (over, under, in, out, top, bottom)
• Using words to talk about order (first, second, next, last, etc.)
• Counting objects
• Using words such as more, less, equal, etc. to show and understanding of numbers
  

We're playing with shapes, sorting like objects, finding patterns, and measuring today!  Math doesn't have to be scary.  It can even be a little fun!  This is coming from someone who is admittedly not a big fan.  Well, I'm not a fan when you start throwing letters, symbols, and punctuation marks into the mix.  Preschool math is a blast!  Besides educational games that are geared towards math, there are so many possibilities for things that you can do at home and around your neighborhood.  You will also discover that all of these school readiness skills come together and that these activities overlap in a number of areas.  That is not an accident!  This is preparing them for school and for life in general where everything jumbles together and overlaps.  Consider it early multitasking.

How to get your kids to help with laundry

Ask your kids to help you sort the laundry.  You can sort by color, by whose item it is, by type of clothing, etc.  You can also ask them to find matching socks and put them together.  I still do this with my 2nd and 3rd graders because I really, really, really don't like matching socks.

It's how big?!?!?

Visit your local library and check out a book with pictures that show the actual size of different objects.  Steve Jenkins is a good author to check out.  His books Prehistoric Actual Size and Actual Size are super cool.  It's wild once you start looking and comparing.

Shape sorters

Besides playing with actual shape sorter toys, you can also make your own.  Get baskets or even empty bowls and sort objects into different shapes.  You can also use baskets and bowls to sort things into different categories of your choosing.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt 2.0

Read the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt and act it out.  After that, work together as a team to create new verses that use spatial concepts like the ones in the story.

Create a new system of measurement

I saw something on Facebook that said that 6 feet is equivalent to 47 James Patterson books, so they tell their customers to keep 47 Pattersons apart.  You can come up with something similar to measure 6 feet, or develop your own system of measurement to compare something such as 5 mommy steps from the bathroom to the bedroom or she weighed a sack of flour when she was born.  Yep, my Natalie was equivalent to a  5lb sack of flour when she was born.  She loves this whenever I buy a new bag for baking!

Become a shape detective

Look around your home or neighborhood for different shapes.  Turn it into a scavenger hunt with someone looking for circles and someone else looking for squares.  You can even make it a competition if you want to add a little excitement to your day!

Get cooking!

There is so much math in cooking and so many opportunities to measure.  I have spent a lot of this crazy pandemic time cooking and baking with my girls.  Yes we are learning math, and yes they are learning life skills.  I am also ensuring that they can make and serve me food so I don't have to cook!  See above laundry activity for additional life skills teaching ideas. Ulterior motives are fabulous sometimes! 

Books

Keywords to search for books include perception, size, comparing, sorting, shapes, math, numbers, counting, patterns, addition, subtraction, geometry, fractions, and  spatial thinking.

• Pitter pattern / Joyce Hesselberth 
• Arithmechicks add up : a math story / Ann Marie Stephens ; illustrated by Jia Liu.
• Everyone counts / by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Marc Brown
• Our world is relative / Julia Sooy ; illustrated by Molly Walsh
• Crash! Boom! : a math tale / Robie H. Harris ; illustrated by Chris Chatterton
• Max's math / Kate Banks ; pictures by Boris Kulikov
• Bean thirteen / Matthew McElligott
• I'm trying to love math / words & pictures by Bethany Barton
• Pigeon math / by Asia Citro ; illustrated by Richard Watson
• Count on me / Miguel Tanco
• Albert's bigger than big idea / by Eleanor May ; illustrated by Deborah Melmon
• Who's the biggest? / Delphine Chedru
• Dive in : swim with sea creatures at their actual size / Roxie Munro
• Life-size farm : horse, cow, llama, rabbit, and more--an all new actual-size animal encyclopedia / editorial supervisor of Japanese edition, Teruyuki Komiya ; photographer, Tamaki Ozaki ; Japanese translation by Junko Miyakoshi ; English language adaptation by Barbara Hauley Kempe
• The M&M's brand chocolate candies counting book / by Barbara Barbieri McGrath
• Count it! : fun with counting & comparing / Rachel First ; consulting editor, Diane Craig, M.A./reading specialist       
• Chicka chicka 1, 2, 3 / Bill Martin, Jr., Michael Sampson, Lois Ehlert
• 1-2-3 peas / Keith Baker