Tuesday July 21st / Preschool Chalk Outlines
Preschooler

You need:
chalk
body outline
blocks

This activities objective is to introduce your preschooler to measuring. Measuring as a concept should be introduced using objects, not a ruler.

1. Have your child lay on the ground and draw their outline with chalk.
2. Bring your blocks outside and only use blocks that are the same size.
3. Ask your child how many blocks long they think their arm is (hypothesis).
4. Lay out the blocks first and them count them.
Tip: Do not use only one block and move it, they will not have the same depth of understanding as they will if they can visually see the blocks lined up along the arm.

5. Tell them "Your arm is ________ blocks long!"
6. Now ask, "How many blocks do you think your leg is?"
7. Repeat all steps! Move on to their head, hands, etc.

Tuesday June 2nd / Fine Motor and Money / Number Sense
Todddler and Preschooler

You need:
Piggy Bank
Coins
No piggy bank? Use a small box with a slit

Toddler:
You can not leave them unattended with small coins! Show your toddler how to hold the coin with a pincher grasp and put it into the piggy bank. It makes a wonderful sound! It is a great fine motor activity as well.

Have your own coins to drop in as well. Name the coins as you drop them.

Preschooler:
Show them how to drop them in. Help them examine each coin. Who is on it? How much is it? What is the name of this coin? They will love the noise too!

If / When they are tired of dropping the coins in, dazzle them by showing them how to SPIN them like tops!

Tip: Have a lot of coins ready, they will enjoy this longer than you think.

It is a big part of mathematical thinking to be able to sort and classify. Help your preschooler with this concept by having them match socks. Extend their thinking and discuss pairs and after you have all you matches count them up by two's.

You can use your laundry socks or go through your drawer to find socks with different colors, shapes, and patterns. Take out your holiday socks! knee high socks! and booties! Make sure they are not hooked together and dump them in one big pile. Sit down on the floor with your child and show them how to make a match. Put matches in a special place and continue.

Discuss colors, size, and pictures. Use the words: sort, match, big, and small. DOn't forget to also use words like fun and I love you!

Today divide up EVERYTHING!

Having a snack? Eat some goldfish, teddy grahams, marshmallows, raisins, etc. Start with a BIG pile and divide them between everyone. One for you and one for me! Any left over? Put them back in the bag, add enough to make it equal, or work it out another way...

Now count how many each person has.

Playing with cars? Little people? Barbies? Divide them up! Same game and you can play it all day with everything!

Create your own little counting wizard!

Parent Info: Math includes being able to compare objects by size. Today let's talk about BIGGER and SMALLER.

Toddler:
Today go on a bigger and smaller hunt. Find tings in your house bigger than YOU (your toddler). You could find things inside such as; BIGGER refrigerator, furniture, bathroom sink, or bookcase. SMALLER a book, crayons, potty chair, or kleenex box. You could find things outside such as; BIGGER trees, street signs, swing sets, or fences. SMALLER ants, shovel, grass, leaves, or chalk. It is never ending really.

Preschooler:
Game:I Spy except today you can say "I spy with my little eye something bigger than_____________" or "I spy with my little eye something smaller than_________________"

Game: Pick up an object. "Let's find something BIGGER than this car." or "Let;s find something smaller than this drum." Then join your preschooler and go on a hunt looking for objects.

Parent Info: Give your preschooler three of soemthing to count. Now hand them two more objects. You will notice at age 3-4 they start to count over again; 1, 2, 3, 4,5. At around 4 1/2 or 5 years old they advance to "counting on". They will say "4,5 without starting over at 1!" Try it!

For toddlers it is a big deal when they recognize to count one objects per "point", meaning they understand each object only gets one number.

Today both Toddlers and Preschoolers can count! Tell them today is a COUNTING DAY.
First we have to find something that has only 1! Then find something that has 2! You can keep going until your child is no longer interested. We made it to 20 with the preschooler.  Your enthusiasm will rub off on them quickly, and you could be searching the house for items.

There are no rules. If your child picks up one block froma pile of 20 blocks, GREAT they know we count each one seperately! These are big accomplishments!

Toddler: Show your toddler everything about their faces and how they have two of some things and one of another.

Two-eyes, ears, cheeks, eyebrows, nostrils
One-chin, nose, mouth, lips, tongue.
Be silly: Wink, blink, sneeze, stick out your tongue, PLAY!

Preschooler-Same as toddler but they have a longer attention span so you can move onto fives and tens.

Two-legs, arms,knees, wrists, hands, feet
Five-fingers on one hand, toes on one foot
Ten- fingers altogether, toes altogether

Extent this and talk about symmetry!