Activities! Seaweed Soup (Yum!) Horses that Make Predictions (Wow!) An Amusement Park (Fun!) And a Parade (Yay!)
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!
Seaweed Soup (matching sets) is one of this week’s three featured MathStart books. It is also one of my all time favorite stories. Not only does it teach an important early math skill, but Seaweed Soup is also a story about friendship, generosity and being brave enough to try something new.
Turtle makes the best, though very very smelly, seaweed soup. When his friends Crab, Sandpiper, Seagull and Clam stop by his stretch of the beach around lunchtime, he wants to serve them some soup he just made. But seaweed soup soooo smelly! Finally, while Turtle is off finding yet another place setting for another friends (this is book about sets, after all), Clam shuts her eyes and tried a little spoonful.
Deeeeelicious!
It turns out, Turtle’s friends love seaweed soup so much, Turtle has to go back and cook up another pot!
I often say that Math Skills are Life Skills. And it’s true. But there are also important life skills that aren’t math skills in my stories, too. “You can never make too much seaweed soup!,” says Turtle. And you can never have too many friends. *Scroll down for the video of me reading the story!
This week’s other featured MathStart books (which I also like a lot) are:
Same Old Horse (making predictions)
Divide and Ride (dividing)
Left, Right, Emma! (knowing left and right), is our featured I See I Learn book. It is also a story about friends and trying something new. Emma loves marching around the house with Pickle, her famous green bulldog. Woof! But she has to practice and practice and learn left and right if she’s going to lead the parade for Grandparents’ Day at Ready, Set, Pre-K!
Guess what? I know where you can make new friends and learn something, too: The fabulous online Early Math Symposium is coming up on October 29. I will be presenting again with my good friend, the brilliant educator Jonathan Dueck.
Your friend, who loves to try new things and is so grateful to have friends like you,
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:
Seaweed Soup (matching sets)
Turtle is such a generous and good friend that none of his buddies can say no when he invites them to lunch for a bowl of that "thick and green, gooey and slimy" delicacy, seaweed soup. Will he have enough matching place settings for everybody? Not to worry. This is one resourceful turtle!
Understanding sets is an important step in counting, as well as in learning about patterns.
• Level 2, Kindergarten / Grade 1:
Same Old Horse (making predictions)
Poor Hankie the horse is allergic to hay! And every 20 minutes he sneezes. But that’s only the beginning of his boring predictability, of which pasture-mates Jazz and Majesty waste no time making fun. “Just watch,” says Jazz to Majesty.” Hankie will come out of the barn at exactly ten o’clock.” They know that Hankie’s owner Susan takes him out about an hour after she arrives at the barn, and she arrived at nine o’clock. They also know which week Hankie will wear a blue saddle pad, and when he likes to roll in the grass and take a long cool drink. Hankie’s buddy Spark Plug assures him that predictability isn’t always such a bad thing. Still, Hankie may have a surprise in store for everyone.
Making predictions based on the observation of patterns is an important part of logical thinking.
• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:
Divide & Ride (dividing)
In order to ride the Dare-Devil roller coaster at the Carnival, there must be two kids in each seat. But what if you're part of a group of 11 best friends? Ten kids will fit in five seats, but what do you do about the one who's "left over"? Meanwhile, chairs on the Satellite Wheel seat three, which means two best friends will be left over. Every ride presents a problem. Can the kids figure out how to fill all the seats so that everybody gets to ride?
Understanding the meaning of remainders in simple division problems is a precursor to solving more difficult division problems.
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!
Left, Right, Emma! (knowing left and right)
Emma loves to march around her house. She is excited to lead a march at school. But how will Emma know when to turn left and when to turn right?
Understanding basic directions allows young children to follow instructions, give others directions, and develop strong spatial sense.
Let’s go! Left! Right!
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Do you have a story or a question? Please send me an email!
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