Math
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Professional Development and Parent Resources
Children have an intuitive ability to understand basic math concepts. Help them uncover math and pre-math skills in everyday play. Through art, literacy, and music children learn addition, sorting, counting, and basic shapes. Early math experiences also help children build vocabulary and develop language skills.
The following are some fun projects that you can use to explore math skills such as spatial awareness, size and shape recognition, countng, sorting and classifying.
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Play Dough Exploration
Children will explore shape, texture, molding and 3-Dimentionality with play dough while using their hands and popsicle sticks.
Developing Skills:
• Fine Motor Skills
• Imagination
• Math Skills
• Sensory Recognition
Materials:
Play dough and wide popsicle sticks
Note: each time you explore with play dough add, a new “tool” to work with: shape cutters, shaping tools, pipe cleaners (great for bending and sticking into play dough)
Set-up:
Place a large round ball (size of the palm of your hand) of play dough in front of each chair and place a wide popsicle stick next to each ball.
Introducing the Project:
Take time to help children explore the play dough and not feel pressured to make something representational right away. Demonstrate how to pat, pound, squeeze and roll the play dough. This helps build the sensory experience of using and feeling the play dough without getting messy. Some children will use their hands right away while others will feel more comfortable using the popsicle sticks.
Encourage children to feel, touch, roll and squeeze the play dough. Help them discover new ways to make the play dough smaller, smoother or larger. Count how many balls they make and pieces they can cut. Support their creative thinking, but don’t make representational objects for children. Instead help them find ways to make things on their own by rolling, patting and cutting.
Exploring the Process with Children:
What does the play dough feel like? Is it soft or hard?
How can you move the play dough? Can you roll it? Can you cut it?
What happens when you tap it, pound it, roll it or squeeze it?
When you pat and pound the play dough, feel how smooth and flat it becomes.
As children become comfortable with play dough, you may also want to introduce long colored pipe cleaners for further exploration.
Building Vocabulary:
Rolling, patting, cutting, soft, pounding , pulling, tapping, squeezing, shaping
Guiding and Supporting the Parents Role:
Play dough exploration provides a rich sensory experience for children as well as a great outlet for imagination and creativity. It may be difficult for some parents to step back and allow their child to explore the play dough in his or her own way. They will probably want to make representational concrete objects, which is what we want to avoid. Children at this age don’t have the fine motor ability to make representational objects. Try to convey that this activity is about the process of experimenting and creating with the play dough. Help parents to encourage children to manipulate, change and explore with the play dough by rolling, cutting and patting the play dough.
Clean-up:
Give the children a five minute signal. Always let the children know that you will be ending and transitioning. After the signal, sing a clean-up song to encourage all the children to assist in the clean-up process. One example is: “Clean up, clean up, one two three. I’ll help you and you help me. Clean up, clean up, one two three. I’ll help you and you help me.”
Book Connection:
You may use the books before or after the art projects to encourage the themes explored.
I Pretend by Heidi Goennel
Little Cloud by Eric Carle
I Can Do It Too! by Karen Baicker
What Shall we Play? by Sue Heap
3-Dimensional Wood Sculptures
Children will become familiar with structure and 3-Dimensionality through the use of wooden shapes and glue.
Developing Skills:
• Fine Motor Development
• Self-Confidence
• Shape Recognition
• Spatial Awareness
Materials:
Balsa wood, Styrofoam trays or 8 ½ x 11 oak tag paper (card stock or thick paper), school glue, glue containers, paint brushes
Set-up:
Place a piece of 8 ½ x 11 oak tag paper or a Styrofoam tray at the edge of the table. Tape down the Styrofoam tray down or the four corners of the oak tag paper. Pour the glue into painting bowl. Place the balsa wood assortment in the middle of the table where each child will have access to materials.
Introducing the Project:
As each child sits down, invite them to pick up and touch the balsa wood. Talk about the different sizes of wood and how it feels. Point out the glue and paint brush. Explain that the glue looks just like white paint but it will actually help the pieces stick together. Dip your finger in the glue and place a piece of balsa wood on your finger to illustrate how it can stick.
Some of the children will be interested in experimenting with the glue rather than creating sculptures with the balsa wood. Encourage use of the balsa wood, but do not force it. Children first build horizontally then vertically, so many of the sculptures will mostly likely not be very 3-Dimensional.
This will be a messy, hands-on project so be sensitive to the children who don’t enjoy getting messy and offer them a paper towel to wipe their hands as they work.
Exploring the Process with the Children:
How did you make these pieces stick together?
How did you build this part here? Look at the different pieces of wood that you used.
What shapes do you see in your structure? Which are big? Which are small?
What happens when you put a small piece on top of a larger one?
Building Art Vocabulary:
Big, small, smooth, sticky, long, short, wide, thin
Guiding and Supporting the Parents Role:
It may be hard for parents to take a step back and allow their children to explore the materials fully and at their own pace. Many parents will want their children to make structures with the balsa wood, while the children will simply want to experiment with the paint and glue. Help grownups understand that this is not a “building” project so it is not important to have a clear structure at the end of the exploration. The pieces of wood are used in this project to give an added texture and shape. Help parents enjoy the process over the finished product.
Clean-up:
Give children a five minute warning. You should always let children know that you will be transitioning and ending the project soon. After the warning, you should sing a clean-up song to focus children and encourage participation in the clean-up process. One example is: “Clean up, clean up, one two three. I’ll help you and you help me. Clean up, clean up, one two three. I’ll help you and you help me.”
Book Connection:
You may use the books before or after the art projects to encourage the themes explored.
Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Fish Eyes by Lois Elhert
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judy Barrett
Apollo by Caroline Gregoire
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