Ladybug Math

My sweet girl loves counting so I thought I should whip up a new set of math manipulatives for her to play and learn with!

I made a set of ladybugs out of milk jug lids (see where I got inspired at the bottom of this post). On each ladybug I put dots for her to count. On the inside of the lid I wrote the numeral. Then I made a paper leaf for her to match the ladybugs to the correct numeral. She can look on the inside of the lid as a way to self check. I didn't laminate the leaf since this was an impromptu project.

I like the idea so much though that I am going to make up a couple of sets for my preschool class. I was think of making several different types of leaves and maybe a few different types of bugs. I'll post more when I finish them.

My daughter got the set of ladybugs below for her birthday last year. They come apart so she can match the three pieces of the same color, and then count the dots, and 'read' the numeral on the bugs head. She has played with these for over a year and loves them. This morning I thought I would ask her to put them in order starting with one. We haven't really worked on that skill but she put them in order 1, 2, 3, and then needed help deciding if 5 or 4 should come next. I love toys that are both fun and educational!

And here's just a random picture of my sweet girl and me. We were doing a scratch art project at Kids Fest in Burlington. I am excited for summer full of fun activities as a family!!!

Where I got the idea to transform milk jug lids into ladybugs - http://vandenbrandewendy.blogspot.com/2012/05/knutselen-lieveheersbeestje.html

Two Generations of Bean Counters!

Grandpa was so impressed with the counting skills we've been working on! These little trays from Family Dollar, a bag of black beans, and a photocopy of a hundreds chart have gotten a LOT of use this summer!

Counting Games - Chutes & Ladders

Our board games are getting a lot more action these days! And I am able to work in a lot of math practice without my 5 year old noticing!

Chutes & Ladders ~ This is a great game for learning numbers to 100.  To get some addition and subtraction practice we used a homemade spinner that had four sections labeled: one more, one less, two more, two less. Each player would roll the dice and then use the spinner. I modeled for my son how to say an addition or subtraction sentence, "Four and one more is five. I'll move 5 spaces." (One obstacle that came up was when he rolled a one and then the spinner said two less. I showed him that he would need to move back a space but my explanation of negative numbers sounded more like I was cheating to his ears. So we decided that not moving anywhere and losing a turn would be a better solution!)
Other ways to play Chutes & Ladders:

• use two dice and add the numbers together
• use homemade dice so you can move using bigger numbers. I took a wooden cube and wrote 10, 20, 30. I am going to keep a hundreds chart nearby to reference and talk about number patterns.
• use addition or subtraction flash cards instead of dice - whatever the answer is to the flash card is the number of spaces you move
• play normally with one dice but find each number on a hundreds chart or number line as you play
• each time we move to a new space, use bean sticks to represent the number. So far my son loves this type of place value work!
• play normally but keep an abacus next to the board, move the beads after each turn and talk about what number you are each on

With all these ideas we will be able to play the same game all summer long but work on different math skills!

Bean Sticks!

A bean stick is simply a popsicle stick with 10 beans glued to it! Easy right? I love frugal teaching tools!

I decided to use tongue depressors with lima beans that I had spray painted green. To attach the beans I used white Elmer's glue. Hot glue would likely make a stronger hold but I wanted to do this project WITH my son, not FOR him. So I opted for the white glue so he could make these independently.

We will be using the bean sticks for counting, place value, adding & subtracting. I will post activities as we do them!

Extra beans that are spray painted on just one side will also be used as counters. We've been using these this past year to play a fun game called "bean toss addition". I will try to track down the link from Heidi Songs that has printables to go with the game!

One great resource to go with your bean sticks is the "Count Your Beans" mat that Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons has posted. (In the last week I have spent countless hours reading her blog. I even had dreams one night I was in her classroom!)

http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com/search?q=bean&submit=search

This other blog post by Fran explains how to use the mat: http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com/2011/05/count-your-beans.html