Activities! Weights! Symmetry! Lemonade! A Math Musical! & Healthy Habits!
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!
It is lemonade season, again. Finally! I love lemonade so much, I wrote a MathStart story about it: Lemonade for Sale (bar graphs). Then something AMAZING happened. Did you know there is a musical based on six MathStart stories? It’s called The Main Street Kids’ Club and a lemonade stand is critical to the plot!
Have you ever sold lemonade at a lemonade stand? It’s a lot of work, but on a hot day nothing beats lemonade!
Our other featured MathStart stories this week are:
Mighty Maddie (comparing weights) How you ever tried sorting your toys by weight? Maddie is soooo good at it! (also, named after one of my granddaughters)
Let’s Fly a Kite (symmetry). It’s kite-flying season again, too!
This week’s featured I See I Learn story is Happy, Healthy, Ajay! Choosing healthy, delicious foods and engaging in active play help children develop healthy habits that will serve them well throughout their lives. Staying fit and eating nourishing foods have benefits in the classroom, too. When children are healthy, they can better focus on learning.
Scroll down for the video and link to a free poster!
Your friend, putting his toys away (sorted by weight) and grabbing an apple to munch on his way to the beach, where he’ll fly a kite, then afterwards stop by a lemonade stand for a tall glass of the most refreshing drink ever!
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:
Mighty Maddie (comparing weights)
Maddie's birthday party and the house is a mess! Toys are everywhere, even in the bathroom. Dad helps carry heavy things up to her room, while Maddie gathers the rest. But it's up to Maddie to put everything away. As Jumbo the cat and Teenie the dog watch, she turns into "Mighty Maddie," a caped super-hero able to sort toys in a flash by how much they weigh. The fire truck is heavy, but the ballerina tutu is light, and the feather tiara is even lighter. Sometimes things that are big, such as pillows, are lighter than things that are small, such as books. Will Maddie manage to get everything stashed away neatly in time for the party?
Understanding that the weight of an object is not always dependent on size—mass—is an important measurement.
• Level 2, Kindergarten / Grade 1:
Let’s Fly a Kite (symmetry)
It's a good thing that Hannah and Bob have such a nice, smart babysitter. When Laura suggests that they make a kite to fly at the beach, the kids immediately start arguing over whether it should be decorated with a lightning bolt or a whale. Laura draws a line down the length of the kite, so they each have exactly the same size and shape to draw on. Later, the children divide the back seat of the car, the beach blanket, and even their sandwiches into two equal parts.
Symmetry is a geometric property that helps children classify shapes.
• Level 3, Grades 2 - 4:
Lemonade for Sale (bar graphs)
When members of the Elm Street Kids' Club decide to sell lemonade to raise money to fix up their clubhouse, they do it in style.
Dressed in special “lemon hats,” with Petey the Parrot, the club mascot squawking, “Lemonade for Sale!,” business booms at first. Sheri keeps track on a bar graph, plotting the number of cups sold against the days of the week. But sales drop quickly when Jed the Juggler comes to town.
What will the Elm Street kids do?
Gathering, charting and comparing data is an important skill for assessing progress and making predictions.
ATTENTION TEACHERS! 20% off on book sets on the I See I Learn store!
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.
Happy, Healthy, Ajay! (healthy habits)
Ajay wants to be strong, so he can run fast with his friends. See how eating healthy foods and getting lots of exercise helps Ajay feel great—and run fast!
Learning how to eat good foods and engaging in active play help children to develop healthy habits that will serve them well throughout their lives. Staying fit and eating nourishing foods have benefits in the classroom, too. When children are healthy, they can better focus on learning.
Be healthy! It's a smart thing to do.
FREE PDF POSTER
Do you have a story or a question? Please send me an email!