Numbers & Counting Fun

This week I did fun and engaging storybooks that help children develop important math skills like adding, substracting, counting and problem solving. The important stuff you will definitely use for the rest of your life. Most of the books teach children math fundamentals and the values of problem solving, sharing nad building friendships. This is what I picked out to read and to take home. As a fun activity, we did the M & M Counting activity which is an idea I got from the Family Literacy Projects on a Budget workshop I had attended last year. Since most of the kids were small, I did not have them record their numbers on the plate to make a pie chart. Instead the each counted and told me how many colors of candy and ate them. The toddlers ate them before we could help them count their candy.

M&M Counting
Materials: snack size bags of M&Ms, paper plates, plastic sandwich bags
Step 1. Pour a bag of M&Ms onto a paper plate.
Step 2. Sort candies by color.
Step 3. Count the number of each color of candy and eat it (or write the number on the plate and record the totals in a pie chart)

Books

1. Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell
2. The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
3. 12 ways to Get to 11 by Eve Merriam
4. The Icky Bug Counting Book by Jerry Pallotta
5. Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
6. Actual Size by Steve Jenkis
7. I'm Dirty by Kate and Mike McMullen
8. Doggies by Sandra Boyton
9. Doggone Dogs by Karen Beaumont
10. Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
11. Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera

I didn't read all of them but I left them up to the children to pick out the ones they wanted to take home. I'm going to try doing more activities with the kids to change things up and hopefully I can remember to get everyone to wear name tags. I can't remember everyone's name. I can barely remember my own.