Drop and Count - Math Game

Last week we played ‘Drop and Count.’  Play this game at home with your child or play with your students in your kindergarten classroom.  The game works on one-to-one correspondence and number sense.  The variations of the game work on addition and subtraction concepts.  See pictures of the children below!

Materials: 

• Hard small items (pennies, beans, legos)
• A tray (baking sheet, cooking pan)
• Two people

Directions: One person closes their eyes and they must count the items being dropped.  The other person drops the items one at a time.  Once all the items are dropped, ask “How many?”  The partner with their eyes closed now knows they can open their eyes and give the answer.

Variations:  Integrate addition and subtraction problems to challenge your child.  After the items are dropped and counted the partner who dropped the items can ask addition/subtraction problems.  “How many pennies would be left if I took away one?”  or “How many legos would there be all together if I add two?”

Teaching Vocabulary

When teaching vocabulary consider...

• Repeated encounters
• Rich oral language experiences
• Incorporating movement or acting vocabulary out
• Pre-teaching
• Explicit Instruction
• Root analysis
• Word Maps - synonyms and antonyms
• Associating pictures/videos to words
• Word selections
• Comprehension

 

Talk! Talk! Talk!

The more talkative you are with your child, the more language he or she will be exposed to.  The average four year old has heard 30 million words addressed to them.  The average four year old from talkative parents has heard 48 million words! Talk! Talk! Talk!Ask your child questions that get them thinking and avoid yes and no questions.  Ask them, "Why do you think that?" or "How do you think that will happen?" Talk! Talk! Talk!

Letter Sound Identification

Hi all,
I hope the first few weeks of kindergarten are going well!  We (teachers and students) are working through the transition of a new school year.  As you begin your phonological and phonemic awareness instruction think about fluency. 

Letter Sound Recognition and Identification is a product on TPT.  The children can practice identifying letters and their corresponding sounds.  There are 19 pages included!

The product has helped my students increase their letter-sound identification fluency.  I hope it helps your students!