Activities! Percy Plays It Safe! (or does he?) plus Counting On, Addition Strategies & Solving for Unknowns!
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!
Don’t you just love to go the playground? It’s the best, right? But it’s not fun when there’s a monster on the slide. See that picture of Percy? He was at his monster worst! Freda, Ajay and Camille weren’t at all pleased. Will Percy ever learn to be a “Safe Monster”? I sure hope so!
This week’s I See I Learn story, Percy Plays It Safe (playground safety), is also available in Spanish: Percy juega con cuidado (securidad en los parques de recreo).
Be sure to scroll down of the video of me reading the story! Also FREE posters!
This week’s featured MathStart books are:
Jack the Builder (counting on)
Mall Mania (addition strategies)
Safari Park (solving for unknowns)
your friend, who spends a lot of time at the playground,
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:
Jack the Builder (counting on)
Jack has the best blocks ever. They come in all shapes (square, rectangle, cylinders, cones) and colors. In Jack’s imagination, an arrangement of just two blocks is a robot. Add one more block and presto! It’s a hot dog stand at the circus. Add two more blocks for a total of five for a ferry boat. And so it goes, counting on more and more blocks, all the way to the super-duper, ready-for-lift-off rocket ship. Blast off! All the blocks fall down and it’s time for Jack to start over again.
Counting on is a strategy to help young children understand how to solve addition problems.
• Level 2, Kindergarten / Grade 1:
Mall Mania (addition strategies)
It's "Mall Mania" Day at the Parkside Mall. To celebrate, the 100th shopper to enter the mall will win all kinds of cool gifts. Jonathon, Nicole, Gabby and Steven—members of the Wilson Elementary chess club—are adding up the number of shoppers to come through each of the mall's four doors, sharing the data via walkie-talkie. Club captain Heather and advisor Mr. Grant are coordinating efforts. "How many shoppers so far?" asks Heather. Nicole counts 7, Gabby 4, Steve 3, and Jonathon 2: That's 7 + 4 + 3 + 2. Nicole adds the numbers one by one: first, 7 + 4 = 11; next, 11 + 3 = 14; and then, 14 + 2 = 16. Who ends up the lucky 100th shopper? Let's just say it's someone who never expected to be counted at all!
Addition strategies are important skills for adding more than two numbers.
• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:
Safari Park (solving for unknowns)
Katie and Cameron are all excited to help their uncle, Cactus Joe, with chores at the rodeo. Their first chore is watering the horses before the Bareback Bronc Riding event. "It starts at 3:00, so be there at 2:00 sharp," Joe tells them. "You'll need an hour to get the job done." Katie makes a schedule. The next day, the rodeo starts with a Parade and Grand Entry at 10:00 a.m., followed by lunch at noon, and then it's time to water the horses at 2:00 p.m. By lunchtime, Katie and Cameron are running late. Will the kids make it?
Reading a schedule involves time-telling skills, developing a sense of elapsed time, and an ability to anticipate and plan.
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.
Percy Plays It Safe (playground safety)
Percy loves to go to the playground. He plays on the swings, the slide, and the monkey bars—and in the big sandbox. But what happens when Percy doesn’t play it safe?
Knowing how to follow playground rules, use common sense, and respect others are important skills to keep children from hurting themselves or others.
Safe play is fun play!
FREE PDF POSTER
Percy juega con cuidado (securidad en los parques de recreo)
A Percy le encanta ir al parque. Juega en los columpios, en el tobogán, y en las barras -- y en el arenero. Pero, ¿qué sucede cuando Percy no juega con cuidado?
Saber como seguir las reglas del parque de recreo, usar sentido común, y respetar a los demás son destrezas importantes para asegurar que los niños no se lastimen a si mismos o a los demás.
FREE PDF POSTER
Do you have a story or a question? Please send me an email!