October 2015
Building Excitement and Success for Young Children
Glenmar Elementary School
Delores Tedeschi, Principal
TOOLS &
T ID B ITS
Eat your shapes
Put a little geometry
into snack time. Offer
foods resembling different 3-D shapes,
and ask your youngster to identify
them. For example, try spheres
(cherry tomatoes), cylinders (marshmallows), cones (ice cream cones),
or cubes (cheese cubes). What other
foods can he think of for those shapes?
Recycle and reuse
Together, think about ways to reduce
your family’s impact on the environment. Have your child make signs
saying “Landfill” for your trash cans
and “Recycle”
for your recycling bins to
remind everyone where the
items will wind
up. Then, brainstorm ideas for reusing objects rather
than throwing them away. For fun
examples, read Joseph Had a Little
Overcoat (Simms Taback) to her.
Web picks
Jetski Addition, Rhino Rink, and
Wheely are just a few of the fun games
at mathplayground.com. Sorted by topic.
From folklore about rainsticks to
facts about fossil fuels, climatekids
.nasa.gov covers everything climateand earth-related.
Just for fun
Q: What always
smells but has
no odor?
A: A nose!
© 2015 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated
Learning with pumpkins
Q: It’s round, it’s orange, and
you can use it to explore math and
science. What is it?
A: A pumpkin!
Here are activities to enjoy with
your child this pumpkin season.
● Estimate and count. Ask her to
estimate the number of pumpkins
in one section of a pumpkin display. Then, she can count them.
How close did she come?
● Compare size. Have your
youngster line up five pumpkins
from smallest to biggest. Or help her
use yarn to measure the circumference
(distance around) her wrist, her ankle,
her waist — and a pumpkin. For each
one, wrap the yarn once and cut to fit.
She could lay the yarn pieces side by
side in order.
● Weigh it. Your child can stand on a
bathroom scale while holding a pumpkin, then record the weight. Next, weigh
her without the pumpkin. Help her subtract the difference — that’s how much
her pumpkin weighs.
● See
what’s inside. Let her draw a picture of a pumpkin and another one of
what she thinks it looks like inside.
Now, cut off the top so she can peer in.
How is it the same as or different from
her picture?
● Compare traits. Help your youngster
draw two overlapping circles labeled
“pumpkin” and “apple.” She could write
shared traits (round, seeds inside) in the
overlapping part and individual traits
(orange and bumpy, red and smooth)
in the separate parts.
Who’s been in my backyard?
No matter where you live, critters also live in
your neighborhood. Encourage your little scientist to be on their trail with these steps.
Predict
Ask what animals and insects he thinks live
nearby. Help him list the names in a small notebook.
Look for clues
Go outside together, and take along a magnifying glass, colored pencils, and
his notebook. Have your child examine plants, trees, and the ground. He might
find clues like chewed leaves, small holes in the ground, or an ant hill.
Record
Suggest that your youngster sketch pictures of his findings and label them. Let him
check back regularly to look for changes. He may even catch the animals and insects
in action!
October 2015 • Page 2
Add it all together
2 + 5 = 7. Challenge him
to use different names
to make as many math
facts as possible.
The more your youngster uses addition,
the better he’ll get at it. Suggest these two
clever ideas.
Vowels + consonants
On a sheet of paper, have your child write
several first names (his own, yours, his best friend’s)
and circle the vowels. Let him count the vowels and consonants in each name and make an addition sentence telling the total number of letters. Example: Brandon would be
SC IE NC E
LA B
Floating along—or not
Sinking a toy boat is almost as much
fun as floating it. Let your child explore
sink-and-float concepts with this
experiment.
You’ll need: toy boat, bathtub or sink,
water, small objects of various weights
(buttons, bouncy balls, coins, metal toy
cars, marbles, pebbles, rocks)
Here’s how: Have your youngster put
a toy boat in a bathtub or sink filled with
water and observe how it floats. Next,
she’ll try to sink it. Have her weigh the
boat down with the various objects, each
time predicting if the item or items will
make the boat sink.
What happens? When the load gets
too heavy, the boat will sink.
Why? If the weight of an object in
water is less than the weight of the water
displaced, the object floats —this is
called buoyancy. If not, it sinks.
O U R
P U R P O S E
To provide busy parents with practical ways to
promote their children’s math and science skills.
Resources for Educators,
a division of CCH Incorporated
128 N. Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 22630
540-636-4280 • [email protected]
www.rfeonline.com
ISSN 1942-910X
© 2015 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated
1+1+1
With this activity,
your youngster will
practice adding three
numbers together. Ask
him to draw 3 boxes.
Next, have him roll a die
3 times and fill in each
box with a number rolled
(2, 6, 4). He can add any 2 numbers and write that equation
(6 + 4 = 10). Then, he should add the total to the third number (10 + 2) and write the sum (12). Idea: For more of a challenge, roll 2 dice each time.
M AT H
Skip, skip, skip (count) to 100
COR NE R
Play this fun skip-counting game
at a birthday party, a family gathering, or just with
family and friends.
1. Start by having everyone stand in a circle. The
idea is to move around the circle, counting by
10s. Let the youngest player (or the birthday
girl) go first. She says “10,” the next person says,
“20,” and so on around and around the circle. The
person who has to say 100 sits down.
counting
2. The next person in the circle starts counting over again at 10, and
continues with all the remaining players.
.
3. Keep playing until only one person is left standing—she’s the winner
Variations: Start at a different number, such as 30, and count by 10s to 100.
by
Count by 5s (start at 5 and continue to 100). Skip count backward. Or count
100s, and sit down if you’re the one to say 1,000.
PA RTOE NT Measure while we cook
I was telling my sister about this, and
My son Ryan loves
PA R E NT
to cook and bake with
me. I realized this was a good opportunity for him to practice measuring, so I
named him “Chief Measurer.”
As Chief Measurer, Ryan is in
charge of reading the measurements in recipes and getting out
the measuring cups
and spoons that he
needs. Then, he gets
to measure the ingredients and add them
to the dish.
since she’s a first-grade teacher, she had a
few good suggestions. She said I should
ask Ryan to compare amounts in recipes,
1
such as whether –
4 cup is more or less
1
than –2 cup. She also said he could
explore the number of cups in a
pint or pints in a quart.
Ryan is proud to have
his own job in the kitchen.
And it’s not only helping
him with math—I’m
also getting help
at dinnertime!
November 2015
Building Excitement and Success for Young Children
Glenmar Elementary School
Delores Tedeschi, Principal
TOOLS &
T ID B ITS
Number search
Here’s a colorful way to
practice number recognition. Help your youngster draw 5
rows of 5 circles. Then, randomly
write a number, 0–9, in each circle.
Let her assign a color to each number
and make a key (red = 0, blue = 1,
and so on). Now she can use crayons
to color in the circles according to
her key.
Living or not?
How can your child tell if something
is living or not living? Together,
brainstorm questions to ask himself. Examples:
“Does it eat?” “Does it grow?” “Does
it breathe?” Take a walk, and have him
answer the questions to decide “living”
or “not living” for things he sees (ball,
car, snail, tree, cupcake, moss).
Book picks
In Monster Musical Chairs (Stuart
J. Murphy), your youngster can practice subtraction while the monsters
play a game.
Little geologists will love looking
at pictures of rocks and reading about
the minerals that make them in A
Rock Is Lively (Dianna Hutts Aston).
Just for fun
Q: What has eight
wheels but carries
only one
passenger?
A: A pair
of roller
skates.
© 2015 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated
What’s in a number?
Understanding that numbers can be
broken apart or put together to make
other numbers is an important concept
in early math. Help your child learn
to break apart (decompose)
and put together (compose)
numbers with these fun
activities.
Hide the bears
Show your child 5 “bears”
(dry beans or macaroni),
and tell him to close his
eyes while you hide a few
in the “cave” (an upside-down mug).
Now he has to figure out how many
bears are in the cave!
Hint: He should count the bears outside the cave (say, 3) to figure out how
many more would add up to 5 (2). To
check his math, lift the mug so he can
count the bears in the cave. Now, it’s his
turn to hide bears for you. Idea: Play
with other numbers of bears, such as 7,
13, or 18.
Fill the bus
Suggest that your youngster seat “passengers” on a double-decker bus to make
numbers up to 10. Have him draw a bus
with 5 seats on top and 5 seats on bottom. Then, he can number slips of paper
1–9 and mix them up in a bag.
Let him pick a slip and put that number of toy people on the bus (pick a 4, and
seat 4 people). Ask, “How many seats are
left?” He should fill the remaining seats
(6) and then write the number sentence
he made (4 + 6 = 10). Empty the bus so
he can play again. Idea: To practice facts
to 20, he could draw two double-decker
buses and number slips 1–19.
The weather outside
What’s the weather been like lately? Let your youngster
observe the weather conditions with these ideas.
Keep a journal. In a notebook, help your child list as
many different kinds of weather as she can. Examples:
sunny, cloudy, foggy, windy, rainy, snowy. Then, go
outside each day, and have her describe the weather.
In her journal, she could draw a picture and write a
few words or sentences about it.
Make a graph. Help her make a bar graph of the week’s weather. She should write
weather words across the bottom and the numbers 0–7 evenly up the left side.
Using her journal, she can draw a matching symbol (a sun for sunny, a snowflake
for snow) for each day’s weather. Let her use her graph to report her findings:
“There were 3 sunny days, 1 snowy day, and 3 rainy days this week.”
November 2015 • Page 2
Fractions of shapes
Fourths and thirds. To make a rectan-
gle, let her trace around a shoe box or a
magazine. Ask her to divide it into four
equal parts and color them different
colors. Can she make up a silly story
using the words fourths, quarters, fourth
of, and quarter of? (“A quarter of my
box wanted to go to the movies, but the
other three quarters didn’t want to!”)
Now have her make another rectangle,
divide it into three equal shares, and tell
you a story about the thirds.
A simple square and rectangle will
help your child begin to learn about
fractions. Here’s how.
Halves. Have your youngster trace
around a square object (game
board, notepad) to make a square.
What happens if she draws a line
down the center? (She’ll have 2
equal parts.) Next, she could color
each half a different color. Encourage her to
tell you about her square using words like halves and half of.
She might say, “My square has two halves” or “Half of my
square is purple, and half of my square is green.”
M AT H Matched set
Play this game to
COR NE R
see who can match
the most numerals, words, dots, and
pictures—as your youngster sees all
the different ways to express a number.
1. Pick a set of numbers, such as 1–10 or
11–20.
2. For each number, use
four index cards: Write a
numeral (3) on one card,
the number word (three)
on a second, the matching
number of dots (…) on a
third, and a matching picture
(3 footballs) on the fourth.
Idea: How many different ways can she divide a square or rectangle into halves, thirds, and quarters? Let her draw more shapes
and experiment!
SC IE NC E Build an arch
Arch bridges — or bridges with
LA B
arches underneath the road — are
some of the strongest bridges around. Let your little
engineer discover why with this experiment.
You’ll need: poster board, scissors, 2 soup or
vegetable cans (same size), pennies
Here’s how: Help your youngster place the cans
6ʺ apart. Have him lay a strip of poster board across the top of the cans to make a
beam (flat) bridge. To test its strength, he could add pennies, one at a time, counting
how many the bridge held before it collapsed. Next, let him make an arch bridge by
curving a poster board strip into an arch between the two cans and placing another
poster board strip across the top. Now he can repeat the test.
What happens? The arch bridge will hold more pennies before collapsing.
Why? In an arch bridge, the weight is carried outward along the curve and transferred to the supports (the abutments) at each end. In a beam bridge, the weight
pushes straight down.
Q Show me the money!
&
I’m trying to teach my daughter daughter drop each coin into the proper
A Q:which
coin is which. Can you rec- tube, matching it to the coin on the front.
3. Shuffle the cards, and spread them
facedown. The first player turns over
two cards. If the cards belong to a set, he
keeps them and turns over two more. If
not, he returns them, and it’s the next
person’s turn.
ommend an activity to try at home?
4. Continue playing until all cards have
A: Most children find it fun to sort loose
been matched. Score 1 point for a
matched pair and 5 points for a complete set of 4. High score wins.
O U R
P U R P O S E
To provide busy parents with practical ways to
promote their children’s math and science skills.
Resources for Educators,
a division of CCH Incorporated
128 N. Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 22630
540-636-4280 • [email protected]
www.rfeonline.com
ISSN 1942-910X
© 2015 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated
change. Why not let her make a sorting
tray? She could line up empty toilet
paper rolls on a tray, tape a different coin
to each one, and use a marker
to write its value (penny = 1
cent, nickel = 5 cents, dime
= 10 cents, and quarter =
25 cents).
Then, gather some
coins from around
the house. Let your
Once they’re sorted, help her count the
coins in each pile and say the total (“We
have 17 cents in pennies”). Suggest that
she count the nickels by 5s (“5 cents, 10
cents, 15 cents”) and the dimes by 10s
(“10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents”). For the
quarters, she could put them in
piles of 4 and count the dollars,
since 4 quarters = 1 dollar (1
dollar, 2 dollars, 3 dollars).
Try this a few more times,
and soon she’ll get the hang
of which coin is which.