Amy.

Thanks,

Amy.

“Mathematical activities for parents and their children 2- to 5-year-old children”

Activities for Your Day:

Getting up in the Morning

Jordan was getting dressed slowly so mum decided to try something new. “Jordan,” she said, “if you can get ready and be in the kitchen in 15 minutes, you can pick out whatever cereal you like.” Jordan was ready in 10 minutes.

S=simple                             M=moderate                       C=challenging

S. When you get your children up in the morning, ask them to stretch up as high as they can. Then let them hop or crawl across the room. Even sleepyheads can have fun using their muscles, and these movments help them understand themselves in space.

M. Morning is a good time for children to learn that some things take longer then others. Use a timer or hourglass that is set to a given number of minutes and see if your children can get dressed in that amount of time. They can try to do other activities in that same amount of time.

C. If you don’t have a timer of some kind, count out evenly…”1 second, 2 seconds…” as children get dressed to see how many seconds it takes them to get dressed. Children will hear the numbers, which will help them learn to count, and they will begin to develop a sense of duration.

S. When your children get dressed, ask them to match the colours of their clothes. “Let’s wear Yellow today. Can you find your t-shirt with the yellow duck?” As they get older, ask them to look for patterns in their clothing. There can be patterns with alternating colours, stripes or plaids, squares or circles, or pictures like big flowers followed by little flowers. Ask children to find and describe patterns, “My shirt has a pattern. It is Red, Blue, Red, Blue.” patterns are tools that we use to solve problems because they help us predict what comes next.

S. Discuss the events of the day with your children: first we eat breakfast, then you go to child care or school, then we will go to the park. With your older child, say when events will happen in the morning, afternoon, evening, or night. “In the morning we get up. In the evening we go to bed.” This will help your children understand the sequence of events in another pattern. Knowing what comes next helps us find structure in our world and helps children feel secure and confident.

M. Ask your children to estimate how many spoon fulls it will take to finish their cereal. Count each spoon full as they eat. This playful way of eating breakfast can be fun for toddlers to practice counting! If you repeat this activity over time, older children will get practice in predicting.

M. In the morning, read a thermometer or listen to the radio to hear the weather forecast. Then, ask your children what clothes they should wear that day. This will give meaning to the temperatures you just read or heard. You might even compare the temperature inside to the temperature outside.

How do you integrate maths in your daily activities?

Article By Carol Sue Framboluti and Natalie Rinck. Edited by Diane Magarity, U.S Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education.

The children are well and truly ready for their second week of Montessori. We have been emphasising the basics like walking inside and saving running for outside, speaking with our inside voices and sitting down when we eat.

If families could continue this at home it would be helpful to the children to have the consistency re-inforced. It is great to see our older students already taking a leading role in their classroom.

We have seen lots of helpful children including new children in with their play.  The practical life activities are currently being re-visited by all and until we are all settled back in we expect this to continue.

We’ve been learning  a movement game/song, ‘Bugs and Beetles’ and re-introducing ‘Cha Cha Cha Cha’ -a favourite during our group times this week. It’s also lovely to see the children remembering our goodbye name song, Kokoleako!

We’ll keep you up to date with new happenings and experiences.

Red Group :

Monday: 8:45 – 11:30
Tuesday: 12:30 – 3:13 (11:30-12:30 Ball Skills for 4-5 year-olds)
Wednesday: 8:45 – 11:30(8:45-2:30 for 4-5 year-olds)
Thursday: 8:45 – 11:30

Blue Group:

Monday: 12:30 – 3:15
Tuesday: 8:45 – 11:30 (11:30-12:30 Ball Skills for 4-5 year -olds)
Thursday: 12:30 – 3:15
Friday: 8:45 – 11:30  (8:45-2:30 for 4-5 year-olds)

Early Learners: Monday through Thursday 9:00 – 11:30

Torquay Montessori Centre – Torquay

Blue Group:

Monday 8:45-11:45, Wednesday and Friday 9:00 – 3:00

Red Group:

Monday 12:15 -3:15, Tuesday and Thursday: 9:00 – 3:00

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Thanks!

Amy & the Montessori Team