Homeschooling and lifelong education . . . one day at a time
If there is one story that my kids love to return to over and over again it is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I added these favorite Goldilocks characters to our recent kindergarten math activities, making hands-on learning fun and connecting our math lessons in with our story reading activities.
Today, “A is for Alligator” as we used tweezers and tongs to “eat” treats. Tongs are the perfect alligator-shaped mouth, and using them helps strengthen hand muscles for fine motor skills development. Alligator fine motor skills play was “school in disguise.”Continue Reading
There are so many STEM learning opportunities at my public library. Obviously, every area has it’s own budget. In areas like mine where we pay a lot of property taxes, our library has a lot of amazing resources beyond books. At your own local library, ask your librarians what they might offer. Check your public library for help getting started with STEM. The many opportunities for STEM learning at the library may surprise you!
Continue Reading
My preschool struggles with counting to 10. Those upper numbers just cannot seem to go in order! She also does not yet recognize the numerals, and cannot quite comprehend 1-to-1 correspondence. But, she loves hands-on fun, so I decided to make her activity mats for counting with gold coins to practice number concepts.
In our activity mats, the gold coins are in a pot at the end of the rainbow. Two little leprechaun friends are on the other side of the rainbow. My daughter loves rainbows, and she loves the shiny coins we found!
We practiced taking a number card (I made them from 1 to 10) and putting that number of coins in the pot of gold.
My daughter found this quite difficult with the higher numbers, but she can easily do it for the lower ones! I also made mat with the coins already in the pot and the numbers already printed in the square. This will help Strawberry with one-on-one correspondence.
I also made ten frames. Some of them have just 1, 2, 3, etc. squares with coins. Other have all ten frames filled with a coin and the numeral written on top of it. With those, Strawberry lined the coins up on the frame and counted up to 10 as she did so.
We even tried a simple dice game together, where we roll a number and add that number of coins to the ten frame. When she got to 10, she won. This is basic addition practice as well, although for her it was just a gold coin game!
After I took these pictures, I laminated the blank mat. Now I’m going to put real money on the pot and have my older count it up and write the numbers with dry erase markers! This makes it a nice little addition to his math practice as well.
We had fun with these activities. What would you do with a pot of gold like this? I have a feeling Strawberry may be putting the gold coins in to her purse for a shopping game next!
Get your copy of the ten frame and rainbow template from my shop for no charge! You can also get additional pages for a small fee. Click the images below to find out more.
Coin Counting Game from Still Playing School
Coin Preschool Letter Worksheets from Learning 2 Walk
Counting with Gold Coins from Line Upon Line Learning
Money Grid Game from School Time Snippets
Simple Coin Sorting Activity for Kids from Something 2 Offer
Gold in the Rainbow Discovery Bin from Play & Learn Everyday
Fill the Piggy Bank – A Money Game for Kids from The Kindergarten Connection
Teaching Kids How to Count Change with Money from Sugar Aunts
Design a Coin from Schooling a Monkey
Coin Flip Ten Frame Activity from Lalymom
Coin Matching Spin Cover Game from Life Over C’s
About Rebecca Reid
Privacy and Disclosure Policy
Book Review Policy (at Rebecca Reads)
Contact Rebecca Reid
