Roll, Count, Color to 100

We've been enjoying the Cool Math Series which has been going on this month. Earlier this month we shared 4 ways to Explore Symmetry at Home. Today we're sharing a new, homemade math game: Roll, Count, Color to 100.

For a while now, Big Brother has been interested in counting to 100, and he can pretty much do it as long as the gets a little help with the "tens." I wanted him to get a sense of what the tens actually meant, so I put together this math game. 

New Year's Eve Countdown Bracelets

We wrapped up our Christmas fun this weekend and started looking forward to the next big event: New Year's Eve. We'll most likely be home that evening but we're still looking forward to the fun of the night. As we look forward we're putting together a few new ideas to add to the festivities of the evening.

New Year's Eve Countdown Bracelets

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Last year we started the new tradition of New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family. We're hoping to continue that tradition this year. But we did start thinking this week about how we can prepare a little more for the coming night. Big Brother has been really engaged with the ideas of numbers and counting sequences lately so we put together these Countdown Bracelets. 

Christmas Tree Numbers (for the Light Table)

There's something about these dark days of December that instantly make us want to get out our light table to play. With the coming of Christmas we decided to do some holiday themed light table play and incorporated Christmas trees.

We've done some alphabet play with the light table before with our light table letter match activity, so it was fun to try a number activity. Lately Big Brother has been really interested in numbers, reading them everywhere we go and trying to count to 100. The "teen" numbers still trip him up just a little when he's reading and saying them, although he's usually pretty comfortable by the time he gets to the twenties. I decided to make this activity be focused on the numbers 1 through 20. 

Buttons Come and Buttons Go (A Pete the Cat Game)

We were excited when we discovered that this month's Virtual Book Club for Kids author was Eric Litwin as it meant focusing on his Pete the Cat books. We discovered Pete the Cat a few years ago and love Litwin's easygoing, rhythmic style. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post for links to a few of our favorites.) The boys love his stories and I love the messages they convey about not sweating the small stuff.

Buttons Come and Buttons Go Math Game

For this month's activity we decided to focus on the book Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons. Not only does it convey a great message about not getting upset over the loss of some buttons and finding positives in the outcome, it also builds early math skills right into the storyline. We extended the book into our "Buttons Come and Buttons Go" math game.

Gourd Bowling

I love the sight of miniature gourds as they begin to pile up at our local farm stands and always want to buy oodles of them. This year I finally broke down and bought a bunch so we have plenty for creating fun projects with. With Big Brother's inspiration we've already created some gourd pirates, but we also wanted to do something a little more active with our gourds. This led us to create Gourd Bowling. 

Dot Sticker Coordinates (with free printable)

Big Brother has been interested in board games for quite a while, and it's been really fun to explore different games with him. Lately he's wanted to try playing the game Battleship, but we're still finding it hard to modify that game for him to really be able to play. (It's really meant for older children.)

In the meantime, I created this Dot Sticker game which helps practice reading and using coordinates so he can work towards playing the game and also practice this math and science skill.

Pirates' Gold Number Play

We've been exploring Pirate Week here at our house. We all love pirates; in fact I realized I've never shared this picture from this past Halloween of our whole family in their pirate wear. So when Big Brother asked for a "Pirate Week" I couldn't resist.

Beyond reading some pirate books, wearing our pirate costumes, and talking like a pirate this week I wanted to create some fun learning and crafting opportunities around pirates. I've been thinking for a while about how to turn Big Brother's love of pirates into a math activity. Using some rocks, gold spray paint, and number fun here are two different activities we came up with. 

Pirates' Gold Number Play

Sum, Say, & Spray Math Game

Living in a rural area means we have limited access to pavement for sidewalk chalk play. So, as I've mentioned before on our facebook page when we know rainy weather is coming we use our deck. The other day we combined chalk play with some fun mathematical learning.

Our materials for the game included chalk, two dice, and a spray bottle. Big Brother loves when we find ways to use the spray bottle, so this game was right up his alley. We used our deck, but this game could also be played on the sidewalk, a basketball court, or a paved driveway. 

Pirate's Chest Light Table Game

Ever since Halloween we've loved pirates and pirate play. Beyond dress up, we also have a new pirate ship with wooden pirate dolls and several pirate coloring books. So why not extend our pirate play to the light table?

This recent rainy weather has been perfect for some more light table play as the afternoons have been pretty gray.

Roll A Snowman Collage

In the fall we had a lot of fun creating and playing with our Build A Monster Game. Reading the book All You Need for a Snowman inspired us to create a snowman version.

I decided unlike our monster game to make it an art project. As we rolled the dice we collected different pieces for a snowman. At the end of the game we glued our snowman together as a collage.

Build A Monster Game

I had a busy work week with parent-teacher conferences and report cards, which meant a quiet blog week. On weeks like this we tend to focus on creating what little routine we can stick to and recreating favorite activities.

With the long week over today we played a new activity which I've been looking forward to trying out. Before Halloween I was inspired by an activity I saw over at Playdough to Plato called Roll A Skeleton. Around the same time Big Brother and I had grabbed some fun craft foam and colorful google eyes at JoAnn's on sale. I decided to make up our own roll and build game.

Building Math Skills with Beading

The other day I was looking for something quiet for Big Brother and I to do while Little Brother took his nap. I realized we hadn't done any beading in a while. As soon as I knew Big Brother was too old to put small things into his mouth I introduced him to using beads.

We use classic "pony" beads. Originally we started with stringing them onto pipe cleaners, as they were easier for little hands to start with but these days we use a thin, satin ribbon. We tie one bead to an end to be a stopper as he beads. When he finishes we knot the other end through the bead.

I've liked keeping beads on hand as it promotes developing fine motor skills, including the small muscles in a child's hand which we use everyday for a multitude of things: writing, buttoning, zipping, playing, etc. It also promotes hand-eye coordination, helping our brain to get our eyes and hands to work together.

But as we were creating our necklace this day it struck me how much more we were doing; this simple quick project was full of early math skills. All of the skills mentioned below are important in developing early mathematical understanding which will lead to stronger reasoning, logical thinking, and complex problem solving skills.

Counting Carton

We've been a little mellow here this week as Big Brother has been under the weather. The week has consisted of watching some favorite Netflix shows, reading lots of picture books, doing puzzles, and playing with busy boxes and other quiet toys. Sometimes my biggest struggle when Big Brother is sick is keeping him mellow as he starts to feel better, he often wants to get up and run around before he's ready.

The other day I knew I would need something new, and calm, to keep him entertained. He's been really interested in counting and numbers lately so I decided to create a counting activity. I used an old egg carton, some small red stickers, card stock, and dried beans to create a "counting carton."