Math-Explorers: 2023

What Math equipment you will need to follow my lessons

I maybe should have done this post a first but better late than never :)

When I teach my kiddos Math there are a certain few resources I use all the time. If you are following my lessons that it would make sense for to make sure you have the same things.

1. Dry Erase board (sometimes I call it white board in the plans) and pens

This is invaluable. Most children love writing on these which gives them a fun, novelty value to up the excitement for Math classes. They also give the children a very easy way to start again and wipe off what may not have worked. A lot of kiddos like this reassurance. Nothing is permanent, at which point they are more able to give something a go.

2. Dice

Each of my kids has a set of five 1-6 dice and a set of what we call the fancy dice that includes 1-10, 1-20 etc. Dice are a fun way of generating numbers for practice equations. They also add an element of fun to the math.

3. Place value set

This is a really good visual for helping kiddos to understand how our base 10 system works. if we start to use them now it just helps to build understanding.

4. Counting blocks of some kind

blocks that link together are awesome for this but anything that you have a lot of that can be used for sorting and counting.

5. Tape Measure

Kiddos love to measure things so to have their own little tape measure to use is so much fun. Again it is something we can enjoy using during these early years with no pressure. You can walk around with your kiddos measuring things and just helping them to read the large number on the tape.

6. Money

A set of money is always useful. Exposure to the different coins and notes starts to get the kiddos used to the different values and then we can play shops.

7. Ball

I tend to play a lot of counting games and ball always make them more fun. Plus the kiddos can gain some ball skills too.

8. Counting Caterpillar (Melissa and Doug)

I love this caterpillar for Math - we can do so many number explorations with it.

https://www.melissaanddoug.com/products/counting-caterpillar-classic-toy9. Games

Games

My previous post went into detail about some of the games we have and use. I would definitely recommend getting a few to play. I would definitely recommend Math for Love Tiny Polka.

https://www.amazon.com/Math-Love-Tiny-Polka-Dot/dp/B01N1UUHP4

Week 1: Session 3 - Counting Fun

Learning Objective: To practice counting in single digit numbers and matching the abstract of numbers to objects.

My final activity for the week is a fun counting one. We have so much fun doing this!

I will find my self somewhere to sit where I can spread objects out to count them and then I ask my daughter to go and find me 'one thing' and bring it back to me. She then heads off and brings me one thing back.

Me: Ooo what did you bring me?

K: Rainbow, my stuffy.

Me: Great! How many did you bring me?

K: 1.

Me: 1 Rainbow - horaay!

Next I ask her to go and find me 2 of something. Off she goes again and brings back 2 of something.

Me: What did you find this time?

K: barbie's

Me: Shall we count them? Together?

Both of us: 1, 2.

Then we move onto 3 items and then 4 and so on...........

This game can obviously go on for a long time but I tend to stop it sooner rather than later while she is still having fun. Then we might come back to it later in the day or the next day. We can start again at the beginning or we might start where we left off or I ask her where she would like us to start.

Something to note: You may want to tidy up as you go. I normally ask her to put the previous numbers stuff away as she goes to find the next one, other wise you very quickly gain a pile.

Alternatively if you are near a table you could lay the items out in lines to show the increase in numbers.

Week 1: Session 2 - Game Time

Learning Objective: To set your child up to enjoy Math through games

I try and play at least one Math game a week with my daughter. It makes Math feel fun but there is so much learning to be had from playing games. When it's a Math 'Lesson' I try and use a Math specific game but in all honesty if she's not feeling it any game will do as there is normally some Math involved.

Math learning happens very naturally with games but in our role as Parent / Teacher we can also enhance this learning:

rolling the dice and counting the numbers on the dice with them.
Dealing out game pieces, ask your small person to help you count out what needs to go where.
Counting counters along the game board, I sometimes ask my daughter to move my piece for me too and we count them together (young learners can find it hard to put numbers to concrete things, so counting numbers and moving a counter to a new space for each number is great practice for them.)

Here is a list of some of our favourite games for Math Learning time.

Tiny Polka Dot

This game is awesome - it has multiple games to play with the cards in the pack, ranging from very basic number recognition to operations with numbers

Dominoes

One of my favourite games to play. You can have so much fun with this beyond just the basic game. counting, ordering, patterns......

Rubiks Race

This has given our family many hours of fun. We don't always play it as a race. Sometime we just create a pattern and copy or we 'order' the pieces and discuss why that order.....

Orchard Toys Games

We have so many of these games and every single one of them has been fun and educational. I love their math ones and so do my kiddos. These can be found on Amazon

Learning Resources Games

Again, you can't go wrong with these games. Fun and educational.

Just good old white board, pen and dice

So much fun with these three things and so many 'games' can be played. I sometimes let me daughter make the games up which is always interesting and then she plays one of mine (I will do a whole session on whiteboard games sometime soon)

Week 1: Session 1 - Let's take a Math Walk

This week is all about exploring the pure pleasure in Math and having fun with your child.

Learning Objective: To set your child up to enjoy Math

Lesson 1:

Math Walk - essentially you are going to go for a walk with your child and see how much Math you can find along the way. This doesn't need to be a particularly long walk, we tend to walk around the garden. Or we have a short loop we can do from our house that can be good too. Basically as you go for a walk use what you see as discussion points around maths. For example, you might see some flowers. You could ask your child to count them. You could look at several plants and add up how many flowers there are in total. Pushing it further you could find two different types of flower and work out which type has more flowers. It doesn't just have to be number work. You could spot shapes; what shape is the patio / decking? Can you see any symmetry there? Once you have spotted something to talk about ask questions, discuss and do something fun with it (take a photograph of your child imitating a shape at a shape, or holding up the same number of fingers as flowers, skip round the perimeter of a shape etc.

Please be careful this doesn't become a walk with lots of questions. Make it a walk with lots of conversation, discussion, questions and games. Also make sure you give your child chance to spot things / discover things without you always starting the discussion with something . I love children's minds, they are so free and open and they may surprise you and come up with some amazing facts, information or just stuff! You could try taking it in turns to ask questions and talk about what you see. This will definitely keep it a little more fun for both of you.

With beginner learners you are looking for things they will recognize, counting, shapes and maybe some simple sums / equations. Your discussion will be quite repetitive but should be good fun. Throw in some difficult concepts too if you think they will cope and extend that learning. I've also added in some fun bits to break what could seem like an endless stream of maths.

Below I have listed some questions and ideas of things that you might like to look at. Obviously everyone's garden is different and therefore questions will be different but hopefully I have given you enough ideas of how to do it that you can adapt them to your own gardens / walks.

Trees: How many trees can you see? Can you run and touch 3 trees? Pull down a branch (if you can) and look at the leaves; what shapes are they? Do they have and points? How many? Are the leaves tickly? Can you find any loose leaves or branches to test out how tickly they are?

Planters / Plant pots: Look at any plant pots, what shapes are they? How many are there? Can they be rearranged to make a shape /a line / a funny pattern? What plants are in them? What shapes? How many? Compare - which planter is the biggest / smallest?

Flowers: Can you see any flowers? What colours are they? What shapes? How many petals do they have? Are they symmetrical? (A young learner may not understand this word but will understand 'the same on each side') Try putting the flowers against your hand / chin, do they change the colour of your skin?

Steps into your house: How many steps are there into the house? What shapes are they? We have 3 steps out the back and four round the front, how many in total? Jump up and down them and count as you go. Maybe talk about double: 2 jumps down and then 2 jumps up.

Driveway: How many giant steps does it take to walk around the driveway? How many jumps? Do both and compare, which took more, less?

My daughter striding around the drive

Sticks: There are always sticks or leaves lying around. Gather a pile and make a visual sum. Lie three next to each other and then 2 next to each other a little way apart from the first pile. Count the two piles separately, put them together and then count again to see how many you have altogether. This could be extended to subtraction: have a pile of 5 sticks, together take 2 away and count how many are left.

Visual representation: Can you find anything that represents a number or sum in maths? For example are there 3 sticks just lying around? Then you've found 3.

Siblings

For those of you with older siblings that want to join in, here are some ideas to make it relevant for them.

5, 6 and 7 year olds

This is going to be very similar to Pre-school. Children this age are really gaining confidence with numbers. Playing with numbers whilst outside will help to build their confidence and ability. We are looking at counting, basic number manipulations, introducing the idea of counting in 2's or 3's if you're at the top end of this level and maybe a little bit of sharing. Lots of shape work and maybe a little data collection is also worth doing with these ones.

Trees: How many trees can you see? Can you run and touch 5 trees? Are all the trees the same type? How many of each type? Which one is the most common / least common? Which is the tallest / shortest tree? Which tree looks like it has the most leaves? Pull down a branch (if you can) and look at the leaves; what shapes are they? Do they have and points? How many? Are the leaves tickly? Can you find any loose leaves or branches to test out how tickly they are?

Flowers: Can you see any flowers? What colours are they? What shapes? How many petals do they have? Are they symmetrical? (Your child may not understand this word but will understand 'the same on each side') How many flowers in total in the garden / a section of the garden? Which type of flower is the most common? Are the flowers bigger or smaller than your hand? Is there another body part they can be compared to? Try putting the flowers against your hand / chin, do they change the colour of your skin?

Driveway: How many giant steps does it take to walk around the driveway? How many jumps? Do both and compare, which took more, less?

Sticks: There are always sticks or leaves lying around. Gather a pile and make a visual sum. Lie 10 next to each other and then 2 next to each other a little way apart from the first pile. Count the two piles separately, put them together and then count again to see how many you have altogether. This could be extended to subtraction: have a pile of 15 sticks, together take 2 away and count how many are left. You could also do some counting in two's with sticks. Make lots of piles of two and count. If you're child is doing well with this push the language a little. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, how many lots of two did we just count?

Fences / Railings: Can you see any picket fences / railings? Look at how they are made? Are they made from posts? Which direction do the posts go in? Can you count 8 posts? How many posts can you count? Let's count some together? How tall is the fence? Stand child next to it - is it taller than you or shorter than you? How many hands tall is the fence? (use childs hands to measure the fence)

Houses / Buildings: Look at your house. What shapes can be seen on your house? Look at the windows? Is there a triangle up by the roof as it slopes down either side? How many windows are there? Can you see any interesting shapes? Is there any symmetry?

Visual representation: Can you find anything that represents a number or sum in maths? For example are there 3 sticks just lying around? Then you've found 3.

7, 8 and 9 year olds

Children this age are really starting to see numbers and develop the ability to play with them and find maths interesting and fun, if it is made interesting and fun for them. We are really playing with numbers outside with these children and taking their knowledge of shape and measure and putting it into context to consolidate that knowledge. Your child may not be able to take the concept of cm / m or Inches / feet out into the real world without a tape measure but they should be able to understand the concept of measure so can measure things in hands, bodies, arms etc. and should be able to compare and estimate heights, widths etc.

Trees: Are all the trees the same type? How many of each type? Which one is the most common / least common? Which is the tallest / shortest tree? Which tree looks like it has the most leaves? Pull down a branch (if you can) and look at the leaves; what shapes are they? Do they have and points? How many? Are the leaves tickly? Can you find any loose leaves or branches to test out how tickly they are? How tall do you think the tree is? Taller than one person? 2 people?

Flowers: Can you see any flowers? What colours are they? What shapes? How many petals do they have? Are they symmetrical? How many flowers in total in the garden / a section of the garden? Which type of flower is the most common? Are the flowers bigger or smaller than your hand? Is there another body part they can be compared to? How tall do you think the stems on the flowers are? Are they taller than your forearm? Whole arm? Try putting the flowers against your hand / chin, do they change the colour of your skin?

Driveway: How many giant steps / pidgeon steps does it take to walk around the driveway? Can your child make an estimate first? Do both and compare, which took more, less? How long do you think the driveway is? What shapes is the driveway made out of?

Sticks: There are always sticks or leaves lying around. Gather a pile and make a visual sum. Lie 16 next to each other and then 12 next to each other a little way apart from the first pile. Count the two piles separately, put them together and then count again to see how many you have altogether. This could be extended to subtraction: have a pile of 21 sticks, together take 14 away and count how many are left. If you wanted to talk multiplication you could lay out an 'array' This is basically a square / rectangle made of sticks with rows and columns. For example lay out a row of 5 sticks, then add another row directly underneath and another and another. This should look like a 5 x 4 rectangle. Once you have done this talk about it with your child, how may rows? How many columns? How many sticks in total? They may even be able to understand that this shows the multiplication sum 4 x 5 = 20.

A array representing 3x3

Fences / Railings: Can you see any picket fences / railings? Look at how they are made? Are they made from posts? Which direction do the posts go in? How many posts can you count? Let's count some together? How tall is the fence? Stand child next to it - is it taller than you or shorter than you? How many hands tall is the fence? (use childs hands to measure the fence)

Visual representation: Can you find anything that represents a number or sum in maths? For example are there 3 sticks just lying around? Then you've found 3. Maybe you can see three planters next to one bucket; you've found the sum 3+1. What else can you find?

9, 10 and 11 year olds

These children are pretty good an number manipulation, shape, measure within the classroom but the key skill for them with this walk is to bring their classroom knowledge outside and see if they can still do all these things out of context. If they can't let's encourage them to do it using a fun maths walk.

Planters / Plant pots / Flower beds: Look at any plant pots, what shapes are they? How many are there? Can they be rearranged to make a shape /a line / a funny pattern? What plants are in them? What shapes? How many? Compare - which planter is the biggest / smallest? How many plants / flowers are in them in total? How high are the planters (in units)? If we stacked them all on top of each other how tall do you think our tower would be? Is there an empty one? How many buckets of water do you think would fill it? Try it and see if you were right?

Flowers: Can you see any flowers? What colours are they? What shapes? How many petals do they have? Are they symmetrical? How many flowers in total in the garden / a section of the garden? Which type of flower is the most common? Are the flowers bigger or smaller than your hand? Is there another body part they can be compared to? How tall do you think the stems on the flowers are? Try putting the flowers against your hand / chin, do they change the colour of your skin?

Driveway: How many giant steps / pidgeon steps does it take to walk around the driveway? Do both and compare, which took more, less? How long do you think the driveway is? What shapes is the driveway made out of?

Sticks: There are always sticks or leaves lying around. Gather a pile and make a visual sum. Lie 16 next to each other and then 12 next to each other a little way apart from the first pile. Count the two piles separately, put them together and then count again to see how many you have altogether. This could be extended to subtraction: have a pile of 21 sticks, together take 14 away and count how many are left. It would be fun to lay out an 'array' This is basically a square / rectangle made of sticks with rows and columns. For example lay out a row of 5 sticks, then add another row directly underneath and another and another. This should look like a 5 x 4 rectangle. Once you have done this talk about it with your child, how may rows? How many columns? How many sticks in total? Mention that this is a pictorial way of showing the multiplication sum 4 x 5 = 20.

Fences / Railings: Can you see any picket fences / railings? Look at how they are made? Are they made from posts? Which direction do the posts go in? How many posts can you count? Let's count some together? How tall do you think the fence is? Stand child next to it - is it taller than you or shorter than you? You stand next to the fence and ask child to stand 10 meters (or another amount in a different unit) further down the fence. Can they estimate that far?

Houses / Buildings: Look at your house. What numbers can you read on the houses? Can you add two or three house numbers together? What shapes can be seen on your house? Look at the windows? Is there a triangle up by the roof as it slopes down either side? How many windows are there? Can you see any interesting shapes? Is there any symmetry? How many different shapes can you see in the house? Can you see any 3D shapes or just 2D?

We found lots of shapes within our climbing frame

Visual representation: Can you find anything that represents a number or sum in maths? For example are there 3 sticks just lying around? Then you've found 3. You might notice that a patio is a square made up of square slabs that show the array 9x9 and therefore a multiplication. What else can you find?

Enjoy your walk