Rote Counting

Rote counting is learned largely through repetition and drill-type practice. So the key to this is keeping kids interested! Frankly, this type of practice is boring for all of us. Have empathy for your child and you’ll greatly improve your success.

First, make sure you’re practicing in short sessions. I rarely set aside a block of time to work on counting. Instead, I find little pieces of time throughout the day and suggest we practice counting while we’re waiting for something else. It’s a form of distraction, and it usually has a fairly clear endpoint. Short, frequent, and consistent practice is the best way. A few happy practice times throughout the day is better than one longer miserable practice session. So do it while you’re waiting for things: the toast to pop up, the dentist to be ready for you, your friend to come over, the crosswalk signal to change, etc.

Second, break up the task into parts. Start with solidifying numbers 1-10. Then work on numbers 1-20. The teen numbers are tricky. Most preschoolers and some kindergartners are still getting a handle on them and often skip one or more or say them out of order. Some children always skip a particular number. One way to address this is to slow way down as you approach the number that your child skips and emphasize it. If your child isn’t predictable in this way, simply count slowly until she starts to build speed and confidence in the sequence. When your child skips a number, do encourage them to try again and slow down. Incorrect practice is not useful.

Next, demonstrate and practice numbers up to 39. This usually goes faster than learning the teens. At this point your child will probably start to recognize the pattern of counting and be able to figure out how to count the 40’s and 50’s etc. The task at that point is to learn the names of the groups of ten. Be generous with providing the next number after 39, 49, 59, etc. You don’t want them thinking thirty-ten and thirty-eleven are numbers. It’s best not to practice mistakes!

Finally, look for ways to add in sensory elements to improve memory. Number songs or rhymes can help young children learn numbers 1-10. Rhymes like “One, two, buckle my shoe” can be helpful. But, even chanting rhythmically will help. If your child is willing to sit down for a more formal activity, pointing to the numbers on a number chart will add in the visual sense and help them with number recognition. Any kind of dancing, marching, or jumping adds a kinesthetic element which will help your child focus and remember better too.

Tags: drill, early elementary, math, preschool

Teaching Sorting

Slimy Sorting
This is an easy sensory activity that incorporates sorting. The materials were all available at my local Wal-Mart or dollar store.

First, get several kitchen sponges and cut them into 1 or 2 inch squares. The shape is less important that the general size. Don’t be a perfectionist over this. Your child might be able to help you with this using safety scissors. This will obviously depend on her abilities with scissors and how easily the sponge can be cut. Put all the sponge pieces in a large kitchen bowl and fill the bowl with water enough so the sponges are just floating.

Next, I added to the bowl three packages of the stretchy bugs. I got three packages at Wal-Mart in the dollar toys section. There were worms, spiders and bugs all in various colors when I got them. I think I paid 88 cents a package.

Now, set the bowl in front of your child in a place you don’t mind getting wet. If it’s warm enough going outside is a great idea. The kitchen table also works well. Then, let your child practice sorting out the bugs by type or color or whatever else.

Clean-up is simply a matter of dumping out all the water. It’s easy to use a colander to get rid of the water and save everything else. Spread all the sponges and bugs on a large cookie sheet and let it all dry out. You can save the dry pieces in a large Ziploc bag to play with another day.

This might be too messy of an activity for some children. If this is a problem, you can leave out the water or only make the sponges damp. Some kids don’t like the “slimy” feeling of the stretchy bugs so you can use something made of hard plastic or metal. Something such as beads or coins or some small hard plastic bugs would work. I would just browse the dollar store or toy section of Wal-Mart for ideas.

Around the House Sorting

• Sort clean silverware into the drawer
• Sort out piles of bowls, cups, and plates, etc. when putting away clean dishes
• Sort laundry by color or fabric
• Sort clean laundry by who it belongs to
• Sort toys during clean up
• While cleaning up a room, sort out stuff that goes in the kitchen, stuff that goes in the garbage, stuff that goes in the laundry, etc.
• Sort out markers, pencils and crayons during art time
• After a nature walk, sort out the leaves or rocks collected into groupings determined by your child

Tags: math, preschool, sensory activities

Beads and Patterns

Elementary age children still like to use beads. I have used stringing beads with my older children as a way to teach counting to 100 as well as skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

I have found that when they are learning to count to 100, it does help to separate the beads into groups of 10 to help children not loose their place. This also helps, because (invariably) they do loose their place, and it’s easier for you to figure out where they are when the beads are in sets of 10. It’s easiest if the groups are sorted by color. Have the children count as they string the beads or have them count how many are on afterward.

Sometimes it’s just fun to string on as many of a variety of beads as fit and then count up how many are on the string or the pipe cleaner. This can also be an estimation activity. Kids can guess how many beads are on their string and then count to find out.

When using beads to teach skip counting, first start with counting by 10’s. There’s only 10 numbers to 100 to memorize in this sequence so it’s easiest. First sort the beads by color into 10 groups of 10. Use little Dixie cups to hold the groups. Then have your child start stringing on the beads. Each time 10 more beads are added on, you can count by 1’s and then by 10’s to reinforce the concept. Memorizing 10, 20, 30, etc. is called rote counting. This is a first step in learning skip counting, but the beads make the idea concrete and help the child understand the meaning of counting by 10’s to 100. Once counting by 10’s is getting fairly well mastered, introduce counting by 5’s in the same way, but start by only counting up to 20 or 30 while the concept is developing.

Go slow and make sure that your child is engaged in the activity. If it’s too complicated or overwhelming for your child, you will quickly realize it when their attention wanders to other things. If this happens it’s ok to stop and just have fun and try again another time.

Younger children can also practice counting the beads that they string. One-to-one correspondence in counting develops through the preschool years. Initially, children are able to count about as many objects as they are old. Around 4-5 years old this starts expanding and children can count larger groups of objects. As this is developing you’ll notice your child skip numbers, double count objects, or easily loose their place. This is normal and resolves as children continue practicing and their brains continue developing. At some point in the late preschool or kindergarten years, kids will have an “ah-hah moment” when they realize that counting is a pattern. They realize that after 20 will come 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and often will think that twenty-ten is next followed by twenty-eleven. You will supply the word thirty to them and then they’ll count 31, 32, 33, etc. Giving kids all sorts of opportunities to count develops and solidifies both rote counting and one-to-one correspondence counting. So when playing with beads or Fruit Loops or Cheerios always have kids count the number they have.

Tags: early elementary, fine motor skills, math, preschool

Playing With Shaving Cream

More Ideas for Using Shaving Cream
Mix shaving cream with washable paints or washable finger paints and let children play with it in the bathtub. This is particularly helpful for children who may have trouble with feeling messy or difficulty tolerating textures. Children should always be monitored in the bathtub to prevent accidents.
If you have a plastic children’s picnic table, you can easily spray shaving cream directly on that surface and let kids play outside in the shade. Clean up is simple with a garden hose.
Allowing children to simply draw and experiment with designs and patterns will develop fine motor skills and coordination.

Early elementary age children can use shaving cream to practice:

• Spelling words
• Handwriting
• Math facts
• Sight words
• Word families (-ock words, -ate words, etc.)

Preschool children can work on skills such as:

• Drawing shapes
• Learning letter names and sounds
• Recognizing numbers
• Counting
• Name writing

Tags: early elementary, fine motor skills, math, preschool, spelling, writing