Structured Play

I gave Jacob a bag of shells to count. He said it would take a year to count all 7 billion shells in the bag. I told him he could organize the shells to help him. He decided to organize the shells by the look of the shell. I let him do it and just said, "that is one way to do it." He quickly lost count and started over numerous times before telling me he could not do it wil us in the room, we were too distracting. I suggested he organize them in another way to count. He couldn't possible think of any other ways to organize the shells and was getting frustrated so I stepped in. I suggested we put them all together again. He did not like that idea so we kept them in 3 piles. I suggested we do one pile at a time and put them in small groups of 10. Explaining it would be easy to count by 10s. (He does know how to count by 10s. He liked this and put all 3 piles of shells into groups of ten by himself. He ran into a problem when we did not have for a pile of ten. I suggested we...

We read, The pout-pout Fish Goes to School. It is a cute story but also counts to 4 repeatedly. I used the number cards (1-4) while reading. I used this to start out counting activity. After the story I laid out the number cards randomly. I told Joey we were going to put them in order. Numbers 1-4 were fairly easy for him since we just used them for the story.  After 4 he knew 5 but was confused by 6 and 9. I had him look at the fish on the cards to help him. The fish were placed similarly to the Touch Math Method (Google it, it is a great resource!)  He had to count the fish for 8 and nine but was able to put them in order using that method. After finishing placing them in order, I mixed them up again and asked him to hand them to me in order. I did this as a little assessment to see which numbers he knew by recognition and which he did not. He knew 6/9 and the higher numbers were the ones he had trouble with. This data collection will help me know what to focus on when we do...

We are well into our Airplane Theme and the boys are having a fun time. I was able to click a few pictures (on my phone) as Jacob worked on his color by number picture. All I did was print the picture and add numbers and colors. (see top left of picture) I explained to Jacob what to do he and he got busy right away. He enjoyed having to follow the directions, surprise! At first he just colored the numbers so I had to clarify to him that he should color the whole section.  He did a nice job and stayed in the lines for the most part. Usually he colors all around inside and outside of the lines, which is developmentally appropriate but not so appealing. I was happily surprised to see him staying within the lines. Notice how he is holding the crayon.  As you can see from this chart, Jacob at 4 years old at the end of August, is right on track. If you have been following the blog for a while, you will notice his progression with holding a crayon. This absolutely happ...

Today we took a nature walk and picked up some leaves. The leaves are just gorgeous right now in Tennessee. We were able to find green, red, yellow, brown and orange leaves. I encouraged Jake to pick up only the ones he loved, the ones he thought were beautiful! We picked about 30 leaves or so before heading home. Once at home I had a graph ready for us to do as an activity. Jake was not into it too much and decided that he needed to cut the stems off of the leaves before we could start the graph. I thought this was a great idea, he would practice motor skills and use his focus to settle down a bit after the walk. He loves cutting so I told him to just cut the stems and not the leaves. \ Next, we sorted the leaves and started the graph. I held the brown leaves and moved one in front of him as he colored each box. I did it this way at first to help him understand a graph and what how we create one. (Excuse the scribble on the paper. He did that as he was waiting for me to ...

I found this fun Pumpkin Roll activity at Young & Lively Kindergarten . I printed it off and grabbed one of our large die. I had Jake roll  throw the die and count the dots. He then had to color the corresponding digit on the pumpkins. He really enjoyed completing this activity. His coloring is not a scribble mess but rather his coloring. I was kind of frustrated with his coloring until I recently saw a little 3 year old girl coloring the exact same way. I am sure there are 3 year olds that have better motor skill control and better coloring but this is Jake filling in the entire pumpkin, to the best of his ability and attempting to stay in the lines. He really tries to take his time and stay in the lines but this is what happens. It is just what he is capable of at his ability.  As far as the number recognition goes, he totally surprised me! He new all digits, 1-6, without any assistance  We have worked on letters but I was not sure of his maste...

Today we used Pretzel M&Ms to do a little math today. I started by having him sort the M&Ms by color. We then counted the number of M&Ms in each circle. Next we counted the M&Ms all together.  Lastly, we ate the M&Ms! I had him count them as we subtracted the M&Ms by eating them. He cannot count backwards yet but he did not mind recounting each time he ate one of the candies!

Today we did some Apple Picking! I drew (sorry for the lack of ability) an apple tree and some baskets. I taped apples onto the tree with numbers on them and behind them on the tree. I then added numbers to the baskets. I told Jake we were going apple picking to practice letter recognition. I asked him to pick an apple and place it in the basket with the matching number.  He, of course, grabbed 9 instead of starting with number one. But I let him keep going moving backwards. He was still matching and saying the numbers. I took turns with him we both said the numbers while matching. After we picked all the apples and placed them in the baskets we decided to put them back on the trees. This time I told him to start with one and count up to 9 as he put the apples back on the tree.  He enjoyed sticking the apples in the baskets and back onto the tree. It is amazing how much kiddos like tape. He loved that they stuck when he pushed them onto the paper. Keeping him in...

We have been practicing counting for quite a while and Jake is great at counting and seems to enjoy numbers in general. I saw this activity on Deceptively Educational . This is an exceptional blog. Please take some time to check out her amazing activities! We started by gathering some trucks to use as reference. We pretty much have every type of truck so this was not difficult! Next, I showed him our supplies. Deceptively Educational provided a printable . I printed it and glued it to a file folder. I then pulled out a round stamp and stamp pad. I told Jake we would need to count the wheels in the picture and that we could use our toy trucks to help too. Then we would stamp the amount of wheels for each truck. He quickly picked up the correct truck (of course) and started counting the wheels. He is very careful to point to each wheel as he counts. I emphasized pointing while counting when we began counting and he usually does it without prompting every time....

Ten Little Fish by Audrey and Bruce Wood, is a fun counting book! It fits in perfectly with our theme this month! I made number cards to go along with the book. You can find these attached to the Monthly Theme Plans . After reading the story, I pulled the cards one at a time and talked with Jake about the number and how many fish they represented. In my teaching career I found that so many children could recognize numbers/digits but did not have number sense and did not know the value of digits. My attempt with Jake is to really teach number sense.  Next I mixed up the cards 0-5. I then asked Jake to find the number I called out. He did great finding each number card without difficulty. I was so surprised that he did so well I decided to take it just a little further. After asking him to find 3, I asked how he knew that was the number three. (I wanted to see if he was using the fish to help identify the digits). He said, "Don't you see? One, two, three fishies....

Today we started a new way to practice numbers. Jacob can count to ten without difficulty or error and he can count to twenty with assistance. So I thought we were ready to start number recognition. He is really into dinosaurs so I thought we would start with these dinosaur puzzles so he wouldn't become turned off to learning something new. My plan worked! He was totally into the puzzles and noticed they were numbers without me pointing it out. He loved counting the dinosaurs and when I asked him to put them in order he was more than willing. We practiced counting and then looked for the numbers.  I only had him do 0-3 but he wanted to do  more so we went through all the digits. He really enjoyed this and didn't even complain! Hopefully this will be an activity that we can do over and over. 

Today we read Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. After enjoying the story we did a little number practice. I printed an activity from Living Life Intentionally . They have some great theme units over there and I picked and chose a couple activities this month. You can find their Seuss Packs here . For Jacob, I traced over the numbers and used Touch Math dots to help with the number recognition. I discussed Touch Math on this post- click to read more .   I asked Jacob to count the dots then to put the same number of goldfish into the bowl. The activity only goes to 6 which is perfect for attention span and interest. Jake did this without difficulty and enjoyed the process. It is a fun way to practice number recognition a number sense. 

We have been working on counting for some time now and I have started introducing the numbers in addition to counting. I saw this on one of my blogs and knew it would be perfect! It fits in our theme and it is just basic enough for Jacob. 2 Teaching Mommies has this number book as a free printable! Check out 2 Teaching Mommies it is a great resource!! I printed and cut out the book. I told Jake that we were going to make our own book today. He loved that idea which excited me because I loved making books when I was young and knowing that he enjoys it as well opens up quite a few activities for us to do!  I had him count and color the snowflakes. I used my finger to trace the number and a say it. Then I had him try to trace it with the crayon. As you can see, he didn't do too great at first but by number 10 he did a perfect job!! Jake is doing a good job counting but I have to point or have him point at the items he is counting to get him to count corre...

I stumbled upon this free printable and thought I would incorporate it this month with our number practice. I decided to use the beans from our Sensory Box to count the shapes. The printable goes to nine but we only filled in the shapes to six. I try not to take it too far with Jake because he loses interest if I try to go too far above his level.  I had him put the beans in the shape for each number and count out loud while doing so. He really acts like he does not like to count out loud but I push him to do so! After he completes an activity that I have to push him into he seems please with himself. I try to make sure he is not getting overly frustrated and still feeling successful as he goes but I sternly push him to go on when he wants to stop.  I consider this activity a success although I had to push him. I will continue to have him do this activity daily. 

Today we spent some time working with numbers. Jake has never shown much of an interest in wanting to count with me. We have an i-pad with counting games and he will play that but never counts out-loud with the program. I knew I wanted to make counting fun to get him interested. I wanted to introduce the digits with the counting so that he could start to recognize numbers as well. I glued wooden painted flowers to Popsicle sticks and wrote numbers one through 3 as well as adding one, two and three dots. I used an egg carton to hold the sticks. (I was plaining on painting it but didn't get that far) After reading Kipper's book of Numbers by Mick Inkpen, I showed Jake the flowers. I let him pick them up and put them back. I then pointed out the numerals and dots on the flowers. We practiced counting the flowers and putting them in the correct location. I showed Jake that he should read the numerals in the middle of the flower and then look for the matching numeral on ...