Activities! Odd AND Even Numbers! Numbers 1 - 100! Metrics! And...Building Confidence!
The Stuart J. Murphy Activities Newsletter comes out every other Wednesday, filled with selections from a vast and wonderful archive of Early Math & Early Childhood Ed activities.
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Hello, Everybody!
Do you recognize that fine gentleman standing next to me wearing the plaid coat, red hat, green ear muffs, sensible scarf, but only one mitten??? That’s right! He’s the farmer from Missing Mittens, this week’s featured Level 1 MathStart book about odd and even numbers. Do you think the goat standing next to the book cover has anything to do with the missing mitten?
This week’s other featured MathStart books are:
100 Days of Cool (numbers 1 to 100) *Listen to the toe-tapper song from The Main Street Kids’ Club!
Polly’s Pen Pal (metrics)
This week’s featured I See I Learn story, Good Job, Ajay! | ¡Bien hecho, Ajay!, is about building confidence | como ganar confianza en ti mismo. With the school year starting soon, this is really good skill to work on. And as you’ll see, it takes work, but Ajay has a lot of fun in the process. (And wow is he a good pitcher!)
your friend, checking his closet for mittens and thinking about baseball,
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.
You can buy individual books, sets by level, or a complete library. Here is list of where to find MathStart books!
• Level 1, Pre-K/ Kindergarten:
Missing Mittens (odd & even numbers)
B'rrrr. It's a cold snowy day and Farmer Bill is missing one of his mittens. The cow, three chickens and two horses are in the same pickle. Instead of having an even 2, 4, 6 or 8 mittens for their hands, hooves and feet, they've got 1, 3, 5 and 7. How odd! Can you guess who the barnyard mitten thief is?
Identifying the difference between odd and even numbers is essential to understanding our number system.
• Level 2, Kindergarten / Grade 1:
100 Days of Cool (numbers 1- 100)
When Mrs. Lopez tells her class that they're going to celebrate "100 Days of School," Maggie hears "100 of Days of Cool" instead. Mrs. Lopez thinks that's a great idea, too. So for the next 100 days, Maggie, along with her buddies Nathan, Yoshi, and Scott, come up with 100 different ways to be cool. They wear funny glasses, fancy socks, decorate their bikes, even dress up in cloths from the wacky 1970s.
A number line is used to keep track of their progress.
100 Days of Cool, the toe-tapping song from The Main Street Kids’ Club!
• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:
Polly’s Pen Pal (metrics)
Polly's new pen-pal, Ally, lives in Montreal, Canada, where they use the metric system. Polly and Ally have lots in common: They both have cats, like the color purple, and are just about the same size and weight. But when Ally writes that she is 125 centimeters tall, Polly needs to ask her Dad for help to figure out how tall that really is. Dad uses a baseball bat about 1 meter—100 centimeters—long as a reference, and shows Polly that one centimeter is about the width of his little finger. Dad helps Polly figure out grams and kilograms, and meters and kilometers, also by using every day references she can relate to.
The use of rough equivalents in terms of familiar objects and distances helps kids become familiar and comfortable with the metric system.
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 (see map).
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.
20% off on book sets on the I See I Learn store!
Good Job, Ajay! (building confidence)
Ajay wants to throw a ball straight and far. He tries, but he just can't do it. Then his friends remind Ajay how he learned to do other things. See what happens when they cheer him on.
Having confidence is critical as young children try new things, face new challenges, and attempt to reach higher goals.
Help your child take on something new!
FREE PDF POSTER
¡Bien hecho, Ajay! (como ganar confianza en ti mismo)
Ajay quiere lanzar la pelota en línea recta y lejos. Él trata, pero no lo logra. Entonces sus amigos le recuerdan cómo aprendió a hacer otras cosas. Ve lo que pasa cuando sus amigos lo apoyan.
Tener confianza es importante para los niños mientras tratan de hacer cosas nuevas, encuentran desafíos nuevos, y tratan de lograr metas difíciles.
¡Ayude a su hijo/a a tratar de hacer algo nuevo!
FREE PDF POSTER
Do you have a story or a question? Please send me an email!