I put together this sort and count activity with some Christmas erasers. On the large tray I have a sorting tray, a basket of number cards, tongs, and a bowl of erasers. To do this work the child uses the tongs (strawberry huller) to sort the objects into the compartments. Once they are sorted the child counts them and places the appropriate number card next to the set. Then they have a teacher check their work before putting it away.
This is what it looks like when finished.
This week I added an extension activity for the leaf number sequencing work. Our school district has recently acquired a digital die-cut machine and I had them cut out a bunch of little fall leaves in various colors. I was originally thinking of using the leaves for fall necklace work, then I thought up this activity which has been a real hit with the children.
Into a basket I placed a glue stick, small gluing mat, basket with a pencil, container of bags of numbered leaves, and 3 inch strips of 12X18 blue construction paper.
To do this work, then child lays out the leaves in numerical order on the blue strip. After having their work checked by a teacher they glue each leaf into position as shown below.
Let me begin by saying that Hobby Lobby stays in business because of people like me who can't leave without finding something to adapt for an activity in my preschool classroom. I recently picked up some clear colored pumpkins when the fall items were 50% off. I have put out similar activities during the past school year but this is the first Sort and Count activity out on the shelf this year.
I had a fun little basket with an attached lid to put the pumpkins in and the dollar store divided lunch tray was perfect for sorting the pumpkins by color. I added a small tray with magnet numbers and a spoon for transferring the pumpkins.
Here's a close-up of the pumpkins inside the little basket.
This photo shows the activity as it would look when completed. To do this activity the child first uses the spoon to scoop the pumpkins into the three sections of the tray, sorting them by color. Next they count how many of each color and place the corresponding numeral next to the group as shown. The final step is to have a teacher check their work before they put it away. I like the Sort and Count activities because they combine several skills into one work: transferring with a spoon, sorting by color, counting and matching numerals to sets.
Since I like to have seasonal variations of traditional Montessori activities out on my shelves I decided to create something new for fall. This is a variation of the Montessori Cards and Counters work. My inspiration for creating this activity was some foam leaf stickers I picked up several weeks ago at Hobby Lobby. I also purchased some little clothespins and some fall ribbon (it was 50% off, not $4.99 in case you're wondering!). I knew I wanted to do something with varying lengths of ribbon and clothespins to clip on the ribbons. I had considered using a wooden dowel or stick and attaching lengths of ribbon to it. Then I decided I wanted the numerals to be loose along with the quantities (like Cards and Counters) instead of having the numerals fixed on a dowel, which would have been more like the Spindle Box.
Here are the supplies I used for this project. In addition I used some brown cardstock, a tag punch, and some gold number stickers.
I punched out 9 brown tags from the cardstock and stapled lengths of the fall ribbon to the back of each as shown.
Then I used one of the large leaf stickers to cover the staple and added a numeral sticker to each tag.
I attached a small leaf sticker to each of 45 wooden clothespins. To do this work the child first places the ribboned tags in numerical order on a rug in a vertical row as shown below. Then they clip the corresponding number of clothespins to the ribbon.
Here you can see a close-up of the clothespins on the ribbons.
Below you can see how I've put this together on the shelf. I placed all the clothespins in a small metal tub and the tags into a basket.
As I've said several times on this blog, I like to have some seasonal games on my shelves that can be played by more than one child. Many times young children want to do something with a friend and many of the traditional Montessori materials are geared for independent work for only one child at a time. I do feel it's very important for each child to have a balance of individual and "friend" activities during their work period. On my math shelf this week is a new game that can easily be played by just one child or by two children.
I found and printed this Roll A Fall Tree game from Play2LearnPrintables. I laminated the dice directions card. I used their tree to make a template that I traced onto brown craft foam and that's how I constructed the tree. I already had a bunch of small colored fall leaves that were laminated, so I used those instead of the ones available for download. Small craft foam leaves would also work great. Below you can see how I set the activity up on the shelf........just a tray with the dice direction card, foam tree, dish of leaves and dish with a die.
To play the child must roll a "6" to get the tree. Then they add colored leaves as directed by future rolls of the die. In my little yellow dish I only put 2 of each color of leaf. As you can see below I rolled a "1" which allowed me to add 2 green leaves to the tree.
Here is what the tree would look like when full of leaves. As I said above, a child could very well do this work alone. However, if they choose to, they could take turns rolling the die with a friend and adding the colors of leaves to their tree.
Here is a little number activity I quickly put together to add to my math shelf for fall. I just used some silk fall leaves that I think I found at the Dollar Spot in Target. I used a black Sharpie marker to add numbers to them and placed them in a wooden bowl on the shelf.
To do this activity the child simply places the leaves in numerical counting order. When placed correctly the leaves form a pattern by type of leaf (i.e. oak, maple, oak, maple, etc.).
Here is a close-up of the leaves. This activity could be adapted to include more numbers, skip counting, or even alphabetical order. In addition to being set up as an independent individual activity, the leaves could be passed out (one per child) during group time and the children could line up in numerical order according to the numeral on their leaf.
For the month of September I've had an apple grid activity out on my math shelf. When I put this out I was not sure whether or not it would be too difficult for my age group........3 to 5 year olds. I've only introduced it to a few of my students and while they do seem to grasp the idea of using coordinates to color grid spaces so far none of them have had the stamina to complete the entire activity. This is not to say that they are not trying; it just takes quite a while to complete. So I'm thinking this activity would be best used with young elementary aged students. I decided to go ahead and post it because I know that many of you readers around the globe are either working with older children in classrooms or in your own homes. Hopefully you will find it a useful idea for those older children.
I found and printed the activity from one of my favorite websites for finding seasonal work, Making Learning Fun. I printed a copy of the coordinates page and laminated it. I also completed a grid myself and laminated it. Then I placed blank copies of the coordinate page on a tray with the finished one underneath and the laminated coordinates page on top. On top of all that I placed a basket with a red, brown, and green washable marker, a black dry erase marker, some tissues, and a pencil. The photo below shows how this work is set up on the shelf.
To do this work the child takes the tray to a table and removes one blank coordinate page and the laminated coordinate directions. They use the pencil to write their name on the paper. Using the coordinate directions, they find the first square to color by using their fingers to go across the letter row and up the numbered column until their fingers meet. They then color that square with the washable marker. Then they use the dry erase marker to cross off the coordinate they colored. For example, they find square B3, color it, and cross off B3 on the laminated card. One thing I've done to help them keep track of which square they should color is to give them a colored disc to place on the square to mark it while they get their marker ready to color.
When they are finished coloring all the square of one color, they move onto the next color and use the coordinate guide to color the squares as described above until their picture is finished. As I mentioned above, no one has yet finished their picture in my class. However, my laminated and colored control copy is on the bottom of the tray for them to use to "check" their work when finished.
These apple counting booklets are another seasonal math work that I've added to my math shelf this week. I made the booklets using a master worksheet that I printed from Kidssoup (a membership only website........well worth the subscription fee of less than $25 per year). The worksheet had numbered apple pages from 1-8. I copied them and cut them apart to assemble into little booklets. I placed the booklets in a little box and placed that in a basket with a pencil, black marker, and a red, brown, and green crayon.
The child uses the pencil to write their name on the booklet.
Then the black marker is used to draw the corresponding number of seeds on each apple.
And finally, the child can color the pages of their booklets once their pages have been checked for accuracy.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I like to find seasonal variations of activities to put out throughout the year. When browsing the Making Learning Fun website, I found this apple math activity that I adapted for our classroom.
To prepare this activity I printed the apple cards on cardstock and laminated them and made several copies of the apple tree page. I set it up on a thrifted red gingham tray as shown below. I like to include all the needed materials for an activity right on the tray if possible.
Here is what this looks like set up on a table. The larger clear box holds a pencil and red marker and the smaller box holds the apple counting cards. The child uses the pencil to write their name on their paper.
Then they choose an apple card from the box. For demonstration purposes I chose the "3" card.
Then they color the corresponding number of apples on their tree with the red marker as shown here.
The child continues choosing cards and coloring that many apples until their apple tree is full. I only copied one set of number cards so my students have been replacing and reusing the number cards once they have done them all. This work was out on the shelf for the first time today. Several children were interested in it and were able to stick with it until completion. They enjoyed a sense of accomplishment, realizing they had colored 100 apples. I like this activity because it helps children work on several different skills. In addition to reinforcing number recognition, one-to-one correspondence and basic number concepts (there is even a "zero" apples card), this work helps children refine their fine motor skills and increases their concentration. Even some of my students who typically avoid fine motor activities that require them to use a writing utensil have found success with this work.
Tonight my two boys and I zipped up to my classroom to pick up something I had forgotten and to take the photos for this post. I was planning to be in the classroom for no more than 10 minutes. However, my boys immediately found work on the shelves that they wanted to do and we were there for nearly an hour. My youngest son (who is in my class) wanted to finish my 100 apples paper. I snapped a photo of him working on it which is shown below. I was pleased that he stuck with it until all the apples had been filled in.
