Preschool Play with Math and Language

  Living Math is a great introduction to the world of math and mathematical concepts. I find the younger years so easy to incorporate those skills, but we’re doing great using Living Math for my older son as well.-Ideas and books are listed under the Living Math tab.

In the preschool years most of the math is actually done through play.  Counting, stacking, sorting, and balancing, patterns and matching are all fun activities that develop mathematical reasoning.  Several times over the last couple of days, my two year old has been busy with math and language skills! I have math mats that I have printed out with various “counters.”  He loves the glass mancala beads and matches up the number dots with his counters. I count aloud as he places down each bead, and more times than not, he will repeat.

After he had filled all the cards, he dumped out the entire jar, filled with beads and buttons, etc.! But, it gave me the next math idea…. I spy game! I took out a big piece of contact paper and poured them all on top (just to keep them still) and then said “I spy three green buttons, can you find them?” We counted them out together. And so on… pointing out colors, shapes and sizes.

I spy one large white button with a hole in the middle!

This morning I pulled out a file folder game made with number cards from the dollar store. Easy math match game! Contact numbers 1 to 10, and let him match the numbers! Again, I say the numbers out loud for repetition!

Early Language and Literacy games:

Well, even though the previous were math games, literacy is involved through speech and general conversation! However, with a bit more structure and focus on pre-literacy- I am continuing to introduce letters to him each week. The letter A is still fun for him and empowering him at the moment, since he can now recognize and say A is for Apple with a proud look.  Today I printed out cards Aa and we played hide and seek with the letter Aa. I hid them all around the living room and he was thrilled to go looking for them. I repeatedly (on purpose) yelled A! Where are you?

A great site for early language is Starfall– fun, interactive and focuses on phonics.

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