Once Upon a Blog....: 1 + 1 = 5?

Today was our first Math Explorers for Wee Read and we were all about patterns, addition and other fun ways to promote math and literacy! The group was introduced to patterns, addition, measuring and counting through a variety of activities.

Stations were created for

Patterns

For patterns we used What's the Big Idea's? Pattern an d Relationship Everywhere kit.

Children could create a variety of patterns using the shapes. Patterns could be dictated by the shape, color, size or whatever the children wanted!

There was also examples of patterns with missing pieces that children could guess as well as a sound pattern chart in which children had to create a pattern using a sound.

The book included in this kit is Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris

Addition

For addition we used a two books which encourage readers to think outside of the box to solve addition problems. We used What the Big Idea's Number Patterns kit which includes the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre and a book sent for review by Sterling Publisher, David Larochelle's 1 + 1 = 5.

At this station children and their parents could use the plastic animals to create their own addition problems or make 'traditional' math questions. We also provided dice to make an addition game. Working with a partner, children will roll the dice and count the total. The first one to get to 2o (twenty) wins!

Counting

Donald Crews Ten Black Dots Special Reads Kit.

We are lucky that our county office offers kits on a variety of subjects that can be checked out for up to ten days. The Ten Black Dots kit comes with a copy of the book, a bag of 'dots' (black pom poms) numbers and 10 number boards. Copies of the lady bug from the activity guide were provided for children to color and count their own dots.

Measuring

There is also a Special Reads Kit for Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch. At this station children and their parents could measure stuffed characters from the story using the interlocking blocks. There were some other measurements noted: how tall children were, how long their arms were and how closely they could stand next to each other.

Foreign Language

We are privileged to have a wealth of resources right here at the library! Staff and one parent counted to ten in German, French, Polish, Italian and Sinhalese. We also learned to count using sign language.

The book used for this station was Can You Count Ten Toes by Lezlie Evans

Vocabulary Power

Using a resource from David LaRochelle we created and drew monsters with a number prefix. The monsters ranged from rainbow septa stripes to pentaeyed monster.

Other resources:

As mentioned earlier, David LaRochelle's wonderful activity guide provided a wealth of handouts and activities. The foreign language and word power were directly from his sight.

Following are pictures from our storytime.