Monday Math- 2 Counting Games

I discovered a wonderful site this week http://www.makinglearningfun.com/. It has tons of great printable activities for young children! I was amazed by the amount of high quality educational activities for Valentines Day. Ryan's new favorite game is Counting Conversation Hearts. I printed the cards on card stock from the website and put them in a box with clothespins and clear marking chips. Ryan counts how many hearts are on the card and places a clothespin on the correct number. The clear marking chips were an extra tool for him to use on the more crowded cards to make sure that he counted each heart a single time. This game is great counting practice, practice with identifying numbers 10-20, reinforces one-to-one correspondence (by using the transparent marking chips), and fine motor skill practice because of the clothespins! Not to mention- it's tons of fun! If you're child does well with self correcting activities, it's easy to put a mark on the back where the clothespin should be. Since Ryan isn't there yet I put tallies on the back as an answer key.

At Ryan's preschool conference last week, his teacher mentioned that he needs some reinforcement with concepts of print (start at the top left corner, left to right, return sweep). I've seen Open Grid Games many times on Teach Mama's awesome blog; but we had never gotten around to playing them. Ryan loved his introduction to stamping and grid games! We started with a 12 sided die, but played the second game with a regular 6 sided die so that it wouldn't go so quickly. Teach Mama does a great job of explaining all of their benefits (including basic game skills, counting, and print concepts.) We took turns rolling the die and putting the appropriate number of stamps on the board. When the board was full we counted to see who had the most stamps. Teach Mama has several variations of grid games to keep it fresh, and even different size boards for different aged kids- give one a try!

Our MathStart Books arrived today!! Stay tuned for upcoming reviews...