Activities: Patterns! Regrouping! Solving for Unknowns! And (Yay) Making New Friends!
Every other Wednesday, we post selections from our vast and wonderful archive of Early Math & Early Childhood Ed activities.
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Hello!
Friends are the best. This week’s featured I See I Learn book is about to make new friends. The story— available en español, Emma Hacer Amigos (hacer amigos), and English, Emma’s Friendwich (making friends), is about the day Emma met Freda and Percy. Emma had just moved with See-and-Learn City with her fabulous green bulldog, Pickle. She loved her new room, her new house and her neighborhood, but she really wanted to some new friends, too. (To see where everybody lives, download the map!)
Our three featured MathStart stories are:
Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom! (pattern recognition)
A Fair Bear Share (regrouping)
Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop (classifying)
And, since it’s so cold outside this week, we’ve got a bonus book! Missing Mittens (odd and even numbers.) I sure hope your mittens aren’t missing!
Your friend,
Stuart
* Last weekend I was at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe in Boston (my hometown) for two presentations on my latest book, Show and Tell! Great Graphs and Smart Charts. It was so much fun. Thank you, Beacon Hill Books! You are great friends!
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
Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom! (pattern recognition)
When little Molly plays with her big brother's red, yellow and blue toy cars, you know there is bound to be trouble...unless, of course, she can put them back in just the right order before he returns!
Recognizing and being able to extend patterns leads to the development of logical thinkin
BONUS BOOK!
Missing Mittens (odd and 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:
A Fair Bear Share (regrouping)
Mama Bear wants to make her special Blue Ribbon Blueberry Pie, but it's up to her four cubs to gather enough nuts, berries and seeds. Three of the cubs go at it with gusto, adding up their treasures by arranging them in groups of tens and ones. But they don't have enough! Will their little sister—the one who spent the afternoon skipping, running and turning cartwheels—come through and save the day?
Learning how to regroup numbers is essential for solving more advanced addition problem
• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:
Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop (classifying)
Budding geologists Josh and Amy are crazy about collecting rocks. And with the help of local expert Dave, they learn how to sort rocks by different attributes: size, color, hardness and type. "We're kind of like rock detectives," says Amy. The story is filled with lots of rock facts.
Classifying objects according to attributes is a skill used throughout mathematics and science.
*Dave's shop is a real place, located in Evanston, Illinois, around the block from where Stuart used to live.
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.
Emma Hacer Amigos (hacer amigos)
Emma acaba de mudarse a un nuevo vecindario. Y lo que más desea es hacer amigos. Ve lo que sucede cuando ella sonríe, pide que la dejen jugar, y se ofrece a ayudar y a compartir sus juguetes. ¡Hacer amigos es divertido!
La habilidad de hacer amigos nuevos es importante mientras los niños se conocen y trabajan y juegan juntos.
¡Anime a su hijo/a a hacer un amigo nuevo!
Emma’s Friendwich (making friends)
Emma is new in town. More than anything, she wants to make new friends. See what happens when she smiles, asks to play, offers to help, and shares her toys. Making friends is fun!
The ability to make new friends is important as young children meet one another and work and play together.
Encourage your child to make a new friend!
Do you have a story or a question? Please send me an email!