Preschoolers can learn math concepts naturally; however, as an educator, you can fuel your that students desire for knowledge and intentionally encourage creative explorations that will help your children building everyday math skills in the different environments they are exposed too.
In the book, Creative Investigations in Early Math, by Angela Eckhoff, PhD contains loads of activities that will support a cooperative classrooms and math lessons, contributing to their math and inquiry-based learning.
Building On
Topic:
- Gain experience recognizing numerals and number words, and count a number of items to add on.
Objectives:
- Children will recognize both the numeral and corresponding number word from one to ten.
- Children will be able to count out a specified number of blocks to add to a structure.
Materials:
- Small or large building blocks
- Number cards with numerals and number words for one to ten
Overview:
- This game will require small groups of children to work together to build a collaborative block structure.
Activity Steps:
- Create groups of two to three children.
- Explain that the objective of this game is to see how large of a structure they can build together.
- Ask children to take turns drawing a card from the deck and then adding the number of blocks specified on the card to the group’s structure.
- Encourage group members to count together as one member adds blocks at each turn.
- If the structure falls or collapses, the group can begin again.
