MathStart Books: Fun with Sorting

We had some fun today with blocks and exploring sorting things by various attributes. 

Get Ready:

You will need some things from around the house that can be easily sorted by various attributes.  (Color, Size, Shape, etc.)  Some ideas would be socks, buttons, books, or shoes.  For this activity we used mini unit blocks similar to these. 

Activity 1:  One of these Things Doesn't Belong Here
We reviewed the concepts of "alike" and "different" by playing the game, "One of these things doesn't belong here."  I would line up four objects.  Three of these objects would be alike in some way.  One of the objects would be different in some way.   All of the objects would have something in common.   I had the kids pick out the different object.  I even sang the old sesame street song to the kids because I couldn't resist.

 Acitvity 2:  Guess the rule
The next game we played was called "Guess The Rule".  I would start sorting the objects and the kids would try to guess what attribute I was sorting them by.  We did some talking by asking questions like:
1)  How are all of the objects alike?  (In our case Sophie said that they were all made of wood.)
2)  How are the items in the two groups different?
 
Activity 3:  Sorting objects on your own
I then had the kids try to think of as many ways as possible of sorting our blocks.  Firs they sorted by color.

Then they sorted by shape. 

Activity 4:  MathStart Book
I love MathStart books by Stuart J. Murphy.  They are really a fantastic way to teach young children math.  Especially if your kids like to be read to.  I read the kids the book 3 Little Firefighters. 

In the book the three firefighters need to get dressed for the parade, and they need to look their best.   However they are missing their buttons and their belly buttons are showing.  (This always makes the kids giggle.) So they search the house high and low until they find an assortment of various buttons.  

The firefighters each need four buttons on their jacket otherwise they won't stay shut.  Also, since they need to look their best, the buttons need to match in some way.  So the firefighters have to sort their buttons in various ways until they find a combination that works. 

After we read the book, I printed out some copies of the firefighters from the books.  I then gave the kids a puzzle to work out that involved sorting their own "buttons".  (Except we pretended the blocks were buttons because I was too lazy to run upstairs and face by messy button box.)

The kids needed to find a combination that gave:
-Each Firefighter four buttons, and
-The buttons needed to match in some way on each jacket.

First the kids tried sorting the "buttons" by color.  That didn't work because we didn't have four green buttons.

Next the kids sorted the "buttons" by shape.  This worked! 

Well, thanks for reading everyone!!

Links to Become Attached To:
Stuart J. Murphy's Main Site (He is the author of the MathStart series and his website has a ton of great ideas for using his books.)
Math Monday Blog Hop (tons of great math ideas)
Tot School (See how others are learning with their tots!)
Preschool Corner (See how others are learning with their preschoolers!)

Learning and Playing: Our week in review

Here are just a few highlights from Marcus and Sophia's week playing and learning....


Learning Trays:
I had the following learning activities on the learning shelves* for the kids--

1)  Animal Domino Set
Aren't these things cute?  I just love this toy.  These are made by Plan Toys and like most Plan Toys they are extremely durable and well made.   I love these dominoes particularly because they are extra large.  So even very little hands can be successful at stacking them and manipulating them.  Marcus and Sophia don't yet understand the rules of the classic dominos.  However, we played some matching and grouping games with these.   The kids also had fun setting up long domino chains and "huffing and puffing" them down like the big bad wolf.  The other activity that they came up with was using the dominos to build a train across the floor.   All in all this was a very popular tray that promoted basic math skills (matching and sorting); language skills (talking about the animals); fine motor skills (setting up domino chains); and creative skills (pretending to be the big bad wolf and building a train).  Not bad for a simple toy! 

2)  Nuts and Bolts Matching
I found these at a Once Upon a Child store near my house.  (That is where I buy most of our toys.)  These are old school Melissa and Doug Nuts and Bolts.  I can't find these on amazon anymore to link them up for you, so they must be pretty old.  The came in a wooden base that you can actually screw the nuts into, but that proved too difficult for Marcus and Sophia.  So, I took them out and put them on a tray instead so they could twist the bolts with their hand.  I like this particular nuts and bolts set because it emphasises both colors and shapes.  Each nut and bolt is a different color and shape.  The st is also self correcting.  (Only the yellow nut will match the yellow bolt.)

3)  Magnetic Dress Up Doll
Sophia really enjoys this toy.  It helps build vocabulary by teaching her to describe the dolls clothes.  It is also a good toy to practice dexterity as she has to manipulate the tiny little pieces to dress her doll.

4)  Star Counting Game
This was a practice in counting and math. Basically each laminated card had a picture of a spaceship a moon, and some stars.  At the bottom of the cards were three numbers.  (Different numbers were on different cards and they were not in any particular order.)  The child had to count the stars and then put the clothespin on the correct number.  I downloaded these cards for free from some site, but I now completely forget where I got them from. (I hate that!)   If anyone recognizes them, please leave a comment so I can give credit. 

5)  Lacing Cards
The kids see me sewing all of the time, so they were excited when I told them that they could sew with these cards.  However, they quickly lost interest in the lacing.  Instead they mostly pretended to eat the foam food.  :) 

6)  Fruits and Vegetables Cutting Set
You will have to forgive this picture.  As I type this, most of the fruits and vegetables are spread across the living room floor.  Very few got put back on the shelf like they are suppose to.  So I used the stock photo from amazon so you could see the toy we have. This is an ingenious idea for a toy.  The wooden fruit "components" are held together with strong velcro.  The child then uses a wooden knife to "cut" the toys apart.  Marcus and Sophia love pretending to cut the food and serve it to me.  This is an excellent fine motor activity.

  

(Photo courtesy of Amazon.com) 

*To see more information on how we use our learning shelves, please visit this tot school post here. 

Other fun learning and playing:

We had a light alien unit theme going recently.  Marcus was interested in checking out some books about aliens so we just kind of went from there.  (Hence the space ship math activity above.  I made that to tie in with our theme.) 

We made Letter A's in the shape of aliens...

....And we made Alien Masks.

We also played with Moon Sand.  (Speaking of moon sand, I also found a recipe for making homemade moon sand.  I can share that if anyone is interested.  The commercial moon sand is so expensive, so I was glad to finally find a decent homemade version.) 

Marcus and Sophia also experimented with their hanging monkey toy.  They learned a lot about weights and balancing a scale with this. 

The kids also brought out their beginner pattern blocks.  They each choose which pictures they wanted to build with the shapes.  They were very proud of their creations so they each wanted me to take their picture why they laid by their work.  :)

 And we also made a Batman Letter B to add to our alphabet books. 

Sophia also hung out in our listening center while she read her nursery rhyme book while following along to the CD.  She just loved doing this!  This is a great activity for building print awareness.

..And as you know, we love books at our house!  These are the books that Marcus and Sophia chose to read this week.

Tot School: Week 4

(Sophia is 16 months and Marcus is 32 months)

What is Tot School? Well...don't let the name fool you. Tot School isn't school at all! It is just a fun time spent playing and learning with my two tots.

Here is a recap on what we did this past week.



Sorting By Shape:
Marcus likes to ask me if he can play a " new game". So I am often time racking my brain trying to think of a new game he can play. Here is a game I put together for him where he could work on sorting by shape.

I laid out three 1/2" beads in three different shapes into a divided wooden container.

Then I gave him a bowl full of beads (in various colors) and had him sort by shape. Marcus did this without any problems or hesitation. (Even though he has only sorted by color before.) Also, while he did this, he pretended that the beads were bouncing out of the bowl into their "houses".




Animal Classification Game:
Most of our learning and play is completely spontaneous. I hardly ever plan things for us to learn or do. However, any play we do seems to bring about all sorts of learning. It is so neat to see.

For example, this week we went to visit our Nana. (Nana is my mama.) Nana's house has a gazebo down by a lake that has all sorts of fun animal toys for the kids to play with. The kids naturally took the animals and began to pretend with them. We learned so much from this simple play time. Sophia beefed up her language and communication skills while she practiced learning and saying the names of the different animals. She also practiced making their sounds. She would also tell me that the Elephant is "BIG" and stretch her arms up to the sky. Also through this dramatic play, Marcus learned where different animals live and what they eat. Marcus also practiced sorting and classifying different animals while we played "zoo". For example, one time we sorted the animals by type. (All of the zebras go in this "cage". All of the lions go here. etc. etc.) The next time we sorted the animals by where they live. (All of the birds go here. All of the ocean animals go here. etc. etc.)




Dress Up:
Sophia is also very into dressing up right now. Marcus never did this at her age. Whenever she finds a necklace for example, she will always want to put it on.

She also tried on Mama's shoes:

We also dressed up and played pirates at Nana's house.

Nana's house also has a pirate fort down by the lake for the kids to play in. It is a swing set/fort completely decorated in a pirate theme. It is also full of various pirate accessories like hats, swords, hooks, and eye patches for the kids to dress up in. AND...the pirate fort has a treasure chest full of plastic necklaces for Sophia to try on. It is a pirate lovers dream. The kids had fun playing pirates, singing pirate songs. Then, we worked on some gross motor skills by having fun running up and down the hill at Nana's house.



Playing with Blocks:
We had our giant cardboard blocks out this week. They are a great open-ended toy and the kids did so many things with them.

On one day I taught Marcus how to build a simple bridge with the blocks.

He had fun walking his dinosaurs through the bridge.

Another time he lined his blocks up in a row creating a wall of a building.

Next, after he built his "wall", he pretended that he was spiderman walking up the building. (The blue blocks were evidently his "web hands".)



After a while he got out his walking dinosaur and pretended that it was a dragon coming to knock down his building. Uh-Oh! Here comes the dragon!

But don't worry! Spiderman saved everyone and knocked over the scary dragon with his "web hands".




Playing Flubber and Dough: Stretching, Rolling, Pinching, and Bouncing:
Flubber-
At a local science museum we played with a really neat substance called flubber. (Recipe to come soon! Keep checking back!)

Flubber is a very strange substance that can be bounced, stretched, and molded. Here Marcus presses the flubber into a sail boat mold.

Here Sophia experiments using a cookie cutter on flubber.

We also learned not to put flubber into your hair! Marcus did this, and Sophia copied him immediately.



On another day Marcus asked to get the play-doh out.

Here Sophia puts the dough into a builder-bob mold.

Marcus practiced cutting the play-doh with scissors. (He still uses two hands to cut. I don't try to correct him though because that just seems to make him want to stop trying.)

We learned colors by talking about the dough. We said things like, "Hand me that blue play-doh please." or "Hey, lets put all of the red play-doh in this can."

Marcus pretended to make me play-doh spaghetti. He served it up to me on a play-doh can lid for a plate. Ah! A favorite meal for preschoolers to serve for generations.

Sophia practiced pinching and pulling the dough. All great for her fine motor development.



Craft Day:
On another day we went to a craft time at Sprout Soup. The craft was to make some very cute little puppets out of Popsicle sticks. Neither kid was very interested in actually doing the craft...BUT, we had lots of fun playing with our friends. Oh well! Maybe next time!



Fun at COSI:
As I mentioned before, we went to a local science museum for kids called COSI. COSI was recently voted the number 1 science center for kids in the US...AND...the number 1 indoor playspace for kids in the US. It really is a great place to bring little tots too. We always have so much fun and learn so much.

Sophia learned about big and small as she experimented dropping various sized balls down this funnel.

We climbed all over their HUGE facility. Here is Sophia going down a slide.

"Peak-a-Boo Mommy! I see you!"

Sophia was amazed when she was able to float a ball over a stream of air coming out of the floor.

Marcus pretended to be a builder working with tools in a little play house they have set up there.

Sophia cooked for mommy in the play kitchen.

More cooking. This was great because it really helped increase her vocabulary as we talked about what tools she needed to cook with.

Marcus found two eagle puppets over in the puppet area and brought them over to the kitchen area. He pretended to be a daddy eagle making eggs for his baby eagle. (OH...how ironic! Bird eating eggs!) Here is the daddy eagle cooking the eggs:

And here is the baby eagle waiting for his breakfast.

Later Marcus walked throughout the entire area looking for these giant oval balls. He said they were his eggs.

He put them in this large nest and brought out a bunch of other birds to live there with him.

Then he found some baby bird nests that he loved. He carried those around for a good part of the day. Here he is building a bed for the baby birds using large foam blocks.

Next he drove the baby birds around in the ambulance.






Favorites of the Week:

Fun with Glasses-
I caught Marcus trying on my glasses. (Note to self: Marcus can now reach things off of the middle of counter. Nothing is safe!)

On another day Sophia and I had on our giant sunglasses together.


Sophia cracks herself up!
Sophia thought she was very funny holding the fork in her mouth like this! She was just laughing and laughing at herself. (Which of course made us laugh!)