Valentine Math Activity

Conversation Heart Counting: Play a counting and sorting game with conversation heart candies. Try sequencing by making patterns of colors.

On a large piece of poster board, draw five large hearts. In each heart write a number one through five. Each child gets a turn tossing a beanbag to hit the highest number. Or can use more beanbags and the child has to add his score. This also works great in the summer with sidewalk chalk on the driveway.

Math -
Apple Counting Book

Need: paper, crayons or markers, apple stickers, stapler

Directions: Draw a basic tree shape & make 11 copies per book. Depending on the ages & skills of the children, you may color the trees or have them color them. The book cover will be a colored tree and the words "My Apple Counting Book". Page one will have a tree and the words "One apple in my apple tree." Have the children place one apple sticker in their apple trees. Page two will have a tree and the words "Two apples in my apple tree." Have the children place two apple stickers in their apple trees, and so on. 3 year olds usually lose interest after 5 pages, so either make the counting book stop at 5, or break the activity in to two parts and work on 6 - 10 another time. Staple at the left edge. OR draw a tree together and help your child write 1 A’ on the tree and then 2 A’s and then 3 A’s and so on…

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!

Clown face

Math:
Make a clown face with shapes. These websites have the templates you can use. Just print, color, cut and glue.
http://www.first-school.ws/t/esclownc1.htm
http://www.first-school.ws/t/esclownc3.htm

Halloween math activity

Math Activity

Get candy corn, candy pumpkins, and another favorite Halloween treat. Sort them, count them and eat them! Yummy, yum, yum!

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.

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.

Math Activity

Take a walk and count how many different animals you can see (example: bunny, lizard, bird, cat, dog)

This could be a good activity to use during outside free-play time. It can help your children learn their numbers and how to count.