Preschool Math

Math worksheets are not appropriate for preschoolers.  Kids in the age range of 3-5 are just learning to recognize that 1 finger means one item, and 2 means two.  There is a clear difference between children counting in order quickly vs. actually knowing what the number means and counting that many items.  Preschoolers can do math, but it should be through play, sorting manipulatives and visualizing objects.  They are just now learning that if they are holding two items, they can touch each item and give the item a number, and that is what the numbers one and two actually mean.  Who knew preschool could be so involved?

We used pom poms, clothes pins and cups for this activity.  One small cup, one medium, one large.   They were given some instructions after they had been allowed some free time working out how to use the clothes pin and mixing the colors up.

"Please find all of the BLACK pompoms and place them into the LARGE cup."  This activity is so simple, but it still requires thought and control on their part.  They were very successful.

This is a great fine motor skills builder!  They collected several different colors and placed them into the correct cup.  It didn't feel like work to them- they were having fun!  Keep in mind that this lasted 15 minutes. 

 A change of manipulatives can be good at the half way point.   We moved on to the foam squares.  The idea was to place the squares onto the squares that were drawn on the paper.  So easy- but effective!  

After a little bit of time, I prompted them to try to create a tower.  They did that for a while.   Another way to incorporate math into the routine is to work on some patterning.  "Here I have one red block and two blue blocks, another red one and two more blue in a line.  What color comes next?" 

 For any of you who are interested in learning more about how to incorporate math in a fun way- check out Penn State On Demand Learning.  To keep my job, I am required to take a minimum of 10 hours of approved trainings every year.  Ten hours is not very much, but it can be really hard when I have to actually go somewhere and sacrifice family time and money.  This website offers so many great classes, ON LINE praise God, and right now several of them are FREE.  I love what I do and I want to be effective.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥