Activities! Carrots, Vacations, Dinosaurs and Miss Cathy at Ready, Set, Pre-K!

Aug 31, 2023

Every other Wednesday, we post selections from our vast and wonderful archive of Early Math & Early Childhood Ed activities.

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Hello!

Miss Cathy, who teaches at Ready, Set, Pre-K in See-and-Learn City (download the map here!) is a good friend of mine. She is a wonderful teacher and she loves to garden. Today, she is helping Camille, Freda and Ajay decide what vegetables to plant. I will be joining them when it’s time to harvest. Yum! Salad!

This week our three MathStart books are:

Just Enough Carrots (comparing amounts)
The Best Vacation Ever (collecting data)
Dinosaur Deals (equivalent values)

And our featured I See I Learn book is:

Great Choice, Camille! (making decisions)

And bonus! My white paper on using visual learning strategies to model positive behaviors for young children.

Now, let’s get to all those activities!

—Stuart

Mathstart is a series of 63 storybooks organized into three levels for Pre-K through Grade 4. Each story teaches a different mathematical skill.

Here is list of where to buy MathStart books!

• Level 1, Pre-K/ Kindergarten

Just Enough Carrots (comparing amounts)

Young rabbit can't understand why Mom is buying so many bags of peanuts and cans of worms at the grocery store when everybody knows carrots are a whole lot tastier. Horse, he notices, has more carrots in his cart, while Elephant has fewer, though Bird has the same amount. H'mmmm… Could Mom be planning a party?

To formulate addition and subtraction equations involves being able to identify "more," "fewer" and "the same."

Activity PDF

• Level 2, Kindergarten / Grade 1:

The Best Vacation Ever (collecting data)

The family needs a break. Everybody's always so busy. But where should they go? A very smart and practical little girl asks some key questions and charts the answers. Mom wants to go some place quiet and cool. Grandma and brother Charlie are looking for fun. And everybody but Dad wants Fluffer the cat to come along. Is there any place that'll make everyone happy?

Learning to organize and interpret data develops the ability for critical thought.

Activity PDF

• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:

Dinosaur Deals (equivalent values)

For dino-lovers Mike and his little brother Andy, there's nothing as exciting as the Dinosaur Card Trading Fair. Andy's in heaven on his 7th birthday when Mom lets Mike take him for the very first time. Mike really wants a T. Rex card, but to get it, he's going to have to trade. He needs three Allosaurus cards to get a T. Rex, but has only one. This is going take some wheeling and dealing.

Helping children to comprehend the concept of equivalent values is key to their understanding of equations.

Activity PDF

I See I Learn is a series of 16 stories that follow the adventures of the children in Miss Cathy’s class at Ready, Set Pre-K in See-and-Learn City. Each story focuses on a different social, emotional, health & safety and cognitive skill important for success in school and in life. For Pre-K / Kindergarten.

Here is list of where to buy I See I Learn books!

20% Discount for Sets of 16 books at the I See I Learn Store!

Great Choice, Camille! (making decisions)

Camille is excited to start a special project at school. Will she build a kite, or plant a vegetable? See how Camille learns to dig in and make good choices!

Managing anxiety about decision-making, understanding one’s choices, and being able to make decisions are all part of interacting successfully with others. It’s also important for children to be willing to make changes if their first choices aren’t available.

Confident decisions make for good choices!