Popsicle Stick ABCS

🌟Popsicle Stick ABCS 🌟⠀

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My kids really like activities where they have to search for things. It’s an automatic way to get them to LOVE an activity😉.⠀

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This popsicle stick ABC hunt is really simple and a fun way to practice matching lowercase to uppercase letters. ⠀

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You need 27 popsicle sticks and a sharpie. ⠀

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🌟The set up🌟⠀

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▪️Lay a popsicle stick horizontally flat on a surface. On the left side write “start” and on the right side write a capital A. ⠀

▪️On the second popsicle stick write a lowercase a on the left, and a capital B on the right. ⠀

▪️On the third one write a lowercase b on the left, and a capital C on the right. ⠀

▪️Continue until you get to lowercase z and write “finish” on that stick. ⠀

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🌟To Play🌟⠀

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Leave out the first popsicle stick and hide the rest around the room. Give your child the first one (the one that says “start” and has a capital A) and tell them they have to go find the stick with the lowercase a. When they find it, they can line it up like the picture above so the capital and lowercase A’s are touching right next to each other. On that stick will be a capital B, and then they will need to find the one with the lowercase b, line it up, etc. until they get to the lowercase z! ⠀

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💜If your child doesn’t enjoy the running and searching as much as mine do 🤣, a simpler way to play this is to just hand all the sticks to your child and let them sort through them while sitting down and lining them up the same way. ⠀

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🖤This activity helps children with uppercase and lowercase letter recognition, while also getting them moving and playing a “game” while doing so. It’s super simple and effective, and can be stored afterwards for another time! 

Magnet Math

➕Magnet Math➕⠀

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I set this activity up for Austin and he did it while I made breakfast the other day. He was entertained and engaged and said he loved the activity (he does say that a lot though 😉). ⠀

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I got the idea to use painter’s tape for matching activities by @teachtalkinspire! ⠀

💜On the tape I wrote simple math addition problems. I brought out my dollar store baking sheets and put the tape on the sheet leaving space for the answer. I gave Austin (5) number magnets and bear counters (which he decided he didn’t need to use). He solved the addition problems and searched for the correct number magnet to answer. So simple and he thought it was so fun! ⠀

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🖤Although Austin felt he didn’t need them, math manipulatives (the bear counters in this activity) help make abstract ideas more concrete and help make math more fun and hands-on. This activity is also an easy way to make solving and learning addition more enjoyable. Hands-on learning has so many benefits and can lead to a deeper understanding of the content!⠀

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💜This activity has so many variations for playing! Here are a few ideas:⠀

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▪️addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problems can be done ⠀

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▪️draw dots, tally marks, objects on the tape and match the number magnets ⠀

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▪️fill in the missing number (ex: 1, 2, __, 4, 5) ⠀

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I can’t wait to see you all try it!

Spaghetti STEM

🍝Spaghetti STEM🍝⠀

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I’m definitely on a STEM activity kick right now and my kids are not mad about it🤣 ⠀

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Kids love STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities because while they are playing they get to explore, make discoveries, and try and test out new things. They are naturally curious about the world (how many “why?” questions do YOU get in a day?🤪) and STEM activities and challenges are a great way for them to start answering some of their “why” questions. ⠀

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🐻The Activity🐻⠀

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▪️Set out some uncooked pasta (I did spaghetti and some odd looking lasagna noodles), animal figures, and playdough⠀

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▪️Challenge your child to make a home for the animals. I didn’t give any other directions besides that. ⠀

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▪️Watch your child create, test out and try different things, and see what they come up with! ⠀

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🐻I really like easy STEM activities and challenges because they are a perfect activity to do with both my kids (2.5 and 5) and they usually both equally love them! ⠀

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While you might think your toddler is too young for some of these STEM challenges, you would be surprised! Brooklyn was fully engaged with this hands-on challenge and while her “houses” were obviously not as intricate as Austin’s, she was learning, playing and discovering just as much as Austin was! They loved breaking the pasta pieces into different sizes and using the playdough as “glue” for their houses!⠀

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🐻I also love STEM challenges because they give your child so many opportunities to fail and try again (which is a good thing). When Austin had a house collapse multiple times, he immediately turned to me and asked, “Why does it keep falling down?” Instead of answering him, I put the question back on him. “Why do you think it’s falling down?” This really got him thinking and eventually he figured out what was wrong (the lengths of the spaghetti pieces for the house frame were nowhere near the same length). ⠀

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I would love to see your children’s creations if they try this! 

Name Cut

✂️name cut✂️⠀

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When I thought of this idea it made me really sad that I seriously couldn’t find one magazine in our house 😢. I kind of miss the days of reading an actual magazine instead of everything online. Does anyone else agree? ⠀

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So I called up my mom (thanks mom😘) in San Diego and asked her to mail me some magazines 🙈. Hopefully your search for a magazine is quicker than mine or you just decide to use newspaper or things that come in the mail! ⠀

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💜 Write your child’s name on the top of white paper. Hand your child a magazine, scissors and a glue stick and have them search in the magazine for letters in their name, cut them out, and glue them underneath the matching written letter on the paper. ⠀

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🖤This simple activity gives your child so many opportunities to get familiar with the letters and the order of letters in their name. It also is great fine motor practice cutting✂️ a variety of different sized letters! Most importantly, it’s fun and personal! Austin wanted to “keep it on the wall forever”, which ended up being about a week🤣.⠀

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Shape Hunt

🔺Shape Hunt🔺⠀

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Brooklyn’s working on learning basic shapes, so I set up this simple shape scavenger hunt on the floor right next to the playroom. ⠀

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🖤 On a big piece of paper I made 4 sections and drew the shapes and wrote the names of circle, square, triangle and rectangle. I asked Brooklyn (2.5) to search around the playroom for things of each shape and place it in that section. And for a mom hack that I totally added into the activity...I also told her if she picked up something that wasn’t one of those shapes, she had to put it back in the playroom in its right place🙌🏻 and she did without any complaints! 🥳🤣⠀

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❤️This simple activity had Brooklyn moving around, working on her classifying, sorting and matching (such important early math skills), and shape recognition. While she played and we talked, I casually mentioned and would point out how many lines, sides and/or corners the shapes had. The former elementary school teacher in me couldn’t help but sprinkle a little content specific academic language used when learning about shapes in early elementary.😉 While I don’t expect her to understand those concepts yet, I feel like there’s no harm in exposing her to it in a very non-threatening way😊 She even asked to help me count the lines on one of the shapes and did it correctly!⠀

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If your child is still in the beginning stages of identifying shapes, you might want to first do this activity by putting out items of the different shapes for your child to sort instead of a hunt. 

Dot to Dot Paint

🎨dot to dot paint🎨⠀

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This was such an easy setup and such a fun and effective way for Austin (5) to practice number recognition to 20. He did this activity this morning while Brooklyn sorted some new unicorn counters I got recently (which are adorable and I’ll write about them soon!) ⠀

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💜On a big piece of paper I drew dots with the numbers 1-20 in random places on the paper. I’m not creative enough to make it into an actual picture 😝⠀

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Austin did the dot to dot activity by painting from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. until he got to 20. He had so much fun! See my Instagram story highlights under math to see a video!⠀

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Now we are off to go on a long family walk and get some stuff done around the house. What’s everyone else doing today?⠀

Dot the Numbers

🟣dot the numbers 🟣⠀

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Adding a hands-on experience and giving your child “something to do” with a number can be so beneficial, especially to those visual and tactile learners. ⠀

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This multi-sensory activity is so easy to set up and there’s so many ways to adapt it based on what supplies you have at home! ⠀ ⠀

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Set Up: ⠀

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🟡 On a piece of paper, write a number three times (we focused on numbers 3-5). Make sure the numbers are a decent size. I had 3 different numbers 3 times each on an 8.5x11 paper and the size was perfect. ⠀

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🟡Lay out @doadotart markers, q-tips, paint, glue and pom poms. ⠀

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🟡On the first number, have your child dot with the dot markers the same number of times as the number itself anywhere on the number (3 dots on the number 3, 4 dots on 4, etc.)⠀

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🟡On the second one of the same number, have your child dot with q-tips. ⠀

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🟡On the third one of that number, dot by gluing that number of pom poms on it. ⠀

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🟡 Continue dotting the three different ways for each number! ⠀

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🟡If you don’t have all these supplies, here’s other ways to dot the numbers: ⠀

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*pom pom dots (pick up a pom pom with a clothespin and dip it in paint to dot) ⠀

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*coloring dots with a marker ⠀

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*dot stickers ⠀

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Extension Ideas⠀

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🟣 Have your child say each number while touching each dot on that number. This is the “something to do” portion that I talked about that is so beneficial for learners. This simple touching and counting can really help deepen the understanding of the number. ⠀

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🟣 If your child is ready to begin addition, use these numbers and try it! It’s a great way to give a built in manipulative right on the paper! Ex: If you ask them what 3+4 is, they can count the three dots on the 3 and the 4 dots on the 4 to help them get to the sum of 7! ⠀

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🟣 These can also help with subtraction! ⠀

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If you like hands-on math you should definitely try this one out at home! I would love to see it when you do😊