Planning math activities doesn’t sound very exciting to me so I love that Mother Goose Time includes Math Story Cards and counting set for us to use each month. To go along with the Rainforest Adventure theme, our counting set were monkeys, like from the Barrel of Monkeys game.
The first card says “3 monkeys were in a tree”. The children can count out three monkeys. There are enough monkeys for each child do to it at once.
The 2nd card says we need three more monkeys so they count out three more. I showed the girls that we now have groups of monkeys.
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Let’s see how many monkeys are in our groups. How many do we need to make 4 in each group? Now how many are there all together?
There are 6 monkeys in a tree. Count out six monkeys. Uh oh…a parrot flew away and 4 monkeys chased it…how many monkeys are left in the tree?
Through these hands on number concepts for preschoolers we can assess if the child added and removed objects from the group along with the story. I can consider what other types of materials I could add to our play space that encourages everyday math skills.
Parrots Fly Away
This simple number concept and logic activity requires just blocks. As you can see, it’s quick and easy to set up an activity in the teaching guide. It’s well laid out so you can quickly read it and use the information.
With these blocks, we talked about with group had less or more. There are many more ideas presented in the book to expand on the rainforest theme and problem-solving.
Well now, that was fun! I even enjoyed it!