Hands on Kindergarten Math ideas needed

[Julie Kirkwood]

I was planning to not buy a formal kindy math program for my daughter. She is having lots of fun counting to 100. I'd like to plan some more things for her to do this fall. We will probably start adding with manipulatives, making monthly calendars and do more number writing practice next. What other concepts would you teach, the more hands-on, the better?

 

Thanks in advance

[Aurelia]

Right Start A was much loved here. If that's out of the question financially, I recommend geoboards and tangrams for geometry and shapes, a judy clock for time telling (K is usually just to the hour), skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, cuisinaire rods are good, a base-10 set (cubes, 10-sticks and hundred flats), and the math balance from Right Start is excellent for addition and subtraction. We don't use RS anymore, but Ariel still uses the abacus. Possibly the best math manipulative ever.

[kristinannie]

I know you don't want to buy a formal program, but McRuffy Color Math K is very fun. You use manipulatives daily and occaisionally play games. Miquon is also a great way to introduce math concepts in K!

 

My favorite math manipulatives for K are the 100's board, geoboards, C-rods (with Miquon), interlocking cubes and tangrams. The kids love playing with these. My son really has picked up a lot of math concepts from just building with C-rods. It is amazing to me!

[FairProspects]

We are loving the Marilyn Burns Books:

 

Math and Literature, Grades K-1

Math and Nonfiction, Grades K-2

Lessons for Algebraic Thinking, Grades K-2

 

Typically the lessons have you read a picture book about a topic, Inch by Inch about an inchworm for example for the concept of measuring, and then you do a project with 1 inch tiles measuring and recording/drawing items in the room.

 

Today we worked from the Algebraic Thinking book on caterpillars and T-charts predicting the number of circles and how they increase with age. The problem the kids had to solve was that if a caterpillar at age 1 has 3 circles and at age 2 has 4 circles, how many circles does that caterpillar have at age 10? We then used T-charts to find the pattern, and drew the caterpillars (the 4 year old colored caterpillars and only did the pattern to age 5).

 

I love that the lessons are such that I can incorporate both kids at their ability level, and they encourage my older one to apply all the concepts he has learned to solve a problem in a non-traditional way which helps me to determine what concepts he knows & can actually use in context versus what we need to cover or review.

[Susie in MS]

If you are still doing FIAR you may enjoy the math problems at HSS. I used those to give me ideas that matched up with the stories. I let my dd use buttons, an abacus, duckies, or what ever---the Madeline cutouts, etc to do the word problems.

 

i bought a play clock at Walmart school section and taught her the hour and half hour.

 

skip counting with a little squirt frog on a homemade number line.

 

roll two dice and add them

 

same thing with cards. We played math war

http://letsplaymath.net/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/

 

Let her measure to the nearest inch with a ruler.

 

domino math i printed up and laminated so we could reuse

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/dominoes-math.htm

 

printed up a number line that showed counting by 10s easily

[Ellie]

You might find this article interesting.

 

Also, check out the Wonder Number Game.

[peacefully]

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[Guest]

I second the recommendation of Marilyn Burns math books.

 

Also great fun, simple to implement, all hands-on, yet working on typical skills, is Peggy Kaye's Games For Math book.

 

As your dd is having fun with numbers to 100: have you read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten with her? The illustrations (it's a picture book) shows lots of activities centering on the number 100 that my dd and I did over and over.

[Food4Thought]

Right Start A was much loved here. If that's out of the question financially, I recommend geoboards and tangrams for geometry and shapes, a judy clock for time telling (K is usually just to the hour), skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, cuisinaire rods are good, a base-10 set (cubes, 10-sticks and hundred flats), and the math balance from Right Start is excellent for addition and subtraction. We don't use RS anymore, but Ariel still uses the abacus. Possibly the best math manipulative ever.

 

:iagree: Everything she said. I got a Math Balance from Rainbow Resource, and it made things click for my right-brained DD. DS takes his abacus everywhere. Cuisinaire rods, tangrams, geoboards with lots of different rubber bands... yeah. All of those things. Don't forget dice and dominoes too.

 

Also, foam number sets. If you've got a hands-on kid but you still want to make equations, find some foam numbers with addition/subtraction symbols. I picked up two sets when they showed up at Staples for $1, and my DD (with no prior interest in math) still "plays" equations with me almost daily.

[KristenR]

Miquon!!! I am so glad I picked up Cuisenaire Rods early. I let my girls just play with them for awhile and now as we start the actual Miquon workbooks my girls things are really rolling.

[Mallory]

I explained my early math program here-

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289314

[kathkath]

find an old math their way teacher's manual on amazon. It is a goldmine and you only need to use things you have around the house.

[BetterthanIdeserve]

One of our favorite kindy math activities was to play with large foam dice. We'd each roll and then she'd tell me who rolled more/less. Then I'd have her add the two together. After awhile, we'd each roll two and add our own, and eventually she'd add the sum of her two with the sum of mine. We also did subtraction that way. It never felt like work to my daughter.