Geometric Shapes Boat

Between gorgeous weather and a new baby, crafting has been a bit slow around here lately. I did put together this new geometric shapes template for Emma to use with her felt shapes on her travel felt board this weekend. Go here for other geometric shapes templates, and here to learn how to make a simple travel felt board. I also posted instructions on how to make a large felt/flannel board in two parts, here and here.

Free play with pattern blocks

I have blogged about my children’s enjoyment of pattern block templates before, but they get at least as much enjoyment out of pattern block free play. I love the thicker wooden pattern blocks for this activity since they allow for the building of towers and other 3D structures.

Pattern block templates are fun to do and allow children to learn about things like one-to-one correspondence and shape recognition, but there are at least as many lessons to be learned (and as much fun to be had) through free play. Free play provides excellent opportunities for learning about fractions (Emma has figured out that three blue diamonds equal one yellow hexagon), pattern exploration, shape recognition, textures, colors, and how different pieces fit together. Building towers (as Johnny is doing in this picture with the square pieces) teaches about balance and builds coordination.

If you are looking for more pattern block templates, there are some cute ones here in addition to those referenced in my previous pattern block post – thank you again Sandra for the link to this site!

Free Chocolate and M&M Graphing

Mars is offering coupons for free chocolate every Friday this summer. We used ours to buy some M&Ms, which we then used to make M&M graphs. I simply divided a paper into six sections and had Emma create a graph of M&Ms in the various colors. We talked about which colors we had the most and fewest M&Ms in, and counted the M&Ms in each column. Emma loved this activity (especially the part at the end where she got to eat some M&Ms), and is asking to do it again as  I type.

Johnny looks so innocently attentive in the top photo that I had to add this second picture, which is a much more accurate representation of his involvement in this activity. I was amazed that Emma had the self-control to not eat any M&Ms until the end, especially when her brother was gobbling them up as quickly as possible.

Pattern blocks and laminating by hand

After months of looking for pattern block picture cards, I downloaded set 1 off of Kelly’s Kindergarten (found via this blog post – thank you, Sandra!)

We happen to have both the plastic and the wooden pattern blocks courtesy of my math manipulatives loving mother. I first got out the wooden set, thinking that – since they are a bit thicker – Emma would have an easier time with them. She got very frustrated at the blocks not lining up perfectly, and so I gave up thinking we’d try again in a few weeks. The next day, though, she went to the closet, pulled out the plastic ones and the pattern sheets, and made this perfect dinosaur:

I don’t know if the thin plastic ones were actually easier for her to use than the wooden ones, or if she was just in a better mood the second day – but she continues to prefer the plastic ones over the wooden ones for this particular activity. If you don’t have pattern blocks or want to make a travel set, Sandra’s post links to printable pattern blocks that you can make out of cardstock.

I laminated all of the pattern sheets by hand using a roll of laminating paper, and if you look at the train compared to the dinosaur, I got MUCH better at it as I went along. Turns out the main trick is to expose no more than one inch of laminate at a time – may seem obvious to some of you, but it wasn’t to me. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to own a nifty laminating machine that’s even better!

Emma’s first math worksheet

I made this worksheet up for Emma to work on Saturday afternoon while I mopped the floor. Emma aced the letters of the alphabet long before her second birthday, but she only recently became interested in numbers. We had a sheet of small animal stickers, so I chose a few of the animals from the sheet, wrote a number, drew the animal (pardon my poor artistry), and then drew little boxes to put the stickers in. She loved this activity, and was able to complete it with no trouble. I think next time I may leave the boxes off and see how she does.