My Body Machine Math Project

Math Activity

Using paint and a piece of paper paint the bottom of your child’s feet (one foot at a time) and have them stand on the piece of paper to leave their footprint. Have them number their toes so that they can see how many toes are on each foot. You can do hands too and number the fingers.

A nice substitute is to get their feet wet outside and have them leave foot prints on the sidewalk. They can still count toes without the mess!

Ants on a Log

Arts and Crafts Activity - Ants on a Log

Have a piece of paper with a line 4inches long on it. Help each child cut a piece of celery to match the line. Give them 1tbls of peanut butter to put inside the celery stick. Let them each have a pile of raisins to be snacking on and tell them to count out 6 and save them to be their ants. Have them put the raisins on top of the peanut butter.

Insect Scavenger Hunt

Get the kids really excited by talking about the “hunt” and what they will find.
Write on a piece of paper the types of insects you will be looking for.
Example – spiders, crickets, ants, beetles, bees, butterflies, roach, worm, moth, fly (anything you can think of that you’ll really find when going outside.)
You will have the best luck in the early evening around dusk. When you find an insect, have the child checkmark it off your list and count how many of that insect you have found and write the number down. Have fun and be creative – perhaps use a magnifying glass and a flashlight.

Fish Beanbags

I made these out of felt. I had ten in all - two of each color for the base. So, two reds... each with a different accent color. Then, I had five of them swimming one direction as a "school" and the other five (one of each color) facing the other direction. These can be used for SO many things.

I taught a week of preschool about fish and the ocean. During circle time, I would toss a fish to a child that had something to say. We talked about schools of fish, and how we are like a school of fish and always stay with our group (good before a field trip). We talked about the different colors. For example, which one is red and orange? Which one is green and red? Before I made them, I planned out how the colors would work so there were no two fish with the same two colors.
We got partners and tossed the fish back and forth, getting further apart as we went. Sometimes I think gross motor skills are overlooked.
We used these with almost every fish song we sang that day:

1. One little, two little, three little fishies, four little, five little, six little fishies, seven little, eight little, nine little fishies, ten little fishies in the sea.

2. One, two, three, four, five... Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Then I let him go again.
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
This little finger, on the right.

3. Five little fishies swimmin' in the sea,
Splishin' and a splashin'...happy as can be,
Along comes mister shark, quiet as can be (whisper)
And SNAPPED (loudly) that______ (color)fish right out of the sea!

Math Activities involving bugs

· Take a walk a look for bugs. Count them as you go

· Find a picture of a bug and count the legs. Explain to your child that not all bugs have the same amount of legs (ex. Centipeds, spiders…)

· Look at different bugs and compare the shapes and sizes

· Butterfly Match -Create several diferent colored butterflies. Cut them in half and then have your children match the butterfly halves.

Get a box of "Bug Bites" (Keebler) and make patterns out of the bugs. Start with a 2 bug pattern and then when they get the hang of that, do a 3 bug pattern.

Sort the "Bug Bites" bugs and count them. Graph or chart them if you like.

Divide a piece a piece of paper into 9 squares and randomly # them. Have your child put that many "Bug Bites" in that square. You could obviously use goldfish crackers or other snacks if you like. You could also get bug stickers and have your child put that # bug stickers on that square.

Get bug stickers and put one on and index card. Two on another and so forth until #20. Then, depending on age/ability, have your child put them in order. You could write the # on the front or back depending on what you want your child to focus on. I like to put it on the back and have my child focus on counting the bugs and not just # recognition.

Play the Cootie Game

Shapes are Everywhere

Look through magazines and cut out objects of different shapes. A table, a clock, a stop sign, etc. Then show them to the children and have them tell you the shape it is. Have a posterboard or large piece of butcher paper and make rows for each shape. Sort/chart them. Put all of the circles into a row, the squares, etc. Then you could count how many each row has and write the number at the bottom. This helps them to work on their shapes, charting, counting, and number recognition. Let the children play with the shapes and chart during free play. You could also leave out magazines and scissors and let them find their own shapes and cut them out.

Look around the room and point out shapes that are in the room. Hold up a picture of a square and ask a child what shape it is. Have that child look around the room for something that is that shape. Do this with all of the shapes. Be creative. Tiles, lights, pictures on the wall, patterns on clothing, anything counts.