Mango Tree Math for Preschoolers

Living in a tropical climate is filled with many blessings. One of the biggest blessings is in the form of the GIANT mango tree in our own backyard! We are just now ending the 2nd harvest of our mangoes that have grown all summer, and are already counting down the days until next year when we can pluck some more! 

In honor of our beloved tree, I thought of this fun way to practice math and counting with my little ones. 

Supplies Needed:

• Construction Paper: tan, brown, green (I was still all out of green paper, so I used green scrapbook paper.)
• Craft Foam: yellow, purple (or any other colors)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Black Permanent Marker

Prep Work:

1. Cut out a tree trunk from the brown paper, and a big cloud shape from the green paper. Glue these onto the tan paper and you've got your tree!

2. Cut 6 circles out of the yellow craft foam. HINT: An easy way to do so is to imprint the bottom of a glue stick into the foam, then just cut them out!

3. Cut out 6 squares from the yellow craft foam as well. Write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on them two times so you have two of each number.

4. Cut out 5 square from the purple foam and write the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 on them.

5. Draw 3 squares under the tree, two on the left and one on the right that match the size of the number squares. Then put in a + and an = sign so you can create math problems.

How to Play!

• Sit down with your child and go through a problem together, putting down 2 yellow squares, putting those numbers of mangoes on the tree, then counting them all up to get the answer! 
• Then you put the yellow numbers down, one at a time, and have your child put those mangoes on the tree and find the answer themselves.
• You can also switch and have your child put down the yellow numbers and you do the math.

LL(3 years old) had a lot of fun doing this. I helped her a lot, but she eventually got the hang of it, and loved this fun way of counting.

When LB(Kindergarten) got home from school, he wanted to try it too. It was perfect for his level, and great practice for him. 

Because math is fun, but mango math ROCKS!

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Ten Apples Up On Top Craft (Dr. Seuss Book & Craft)

LB(4) and LL(2) had a lot of fun when we read this cute Dr. Seuss book for the first time.

It did take a while to get through the book since LB wanted to count the apples on every. single. page. :) 

But hey. Good counting practice built right into a great book. Nicely done Dr. Seuss!

After we read we made a simple little craft to go along with the book. Check it out!

Supplies:

• "Ten Apples Up on Top" by Dr. Seuss (check your local library!)
• 2 pieces of white cardstock
• Craft foam in orange and black
• Red construction paper
• 2 googly eyes
• Scissors
• Glue
• Marker

Prep Work:

1. Using the craft foam, cut out the pieces to the tiger face:
• 1 big orange cirlce (face)
• 2 small half circles (ears)
• 4 small triangles (stripes)
• 1 small circle (nose)

2.  Using the red construction paper, cut out 10 apple shapes:

• I folded the paper into 4ths and traced 3 apples shapes on top. Then I cut them out that way. :)

All done. Time for the fun!

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Book & Craft!

1. Sit down with your child and read the Dr. Seuss book, "Ten Apples Up on Top."

2. After you read, give your child the tiger pieces you cut out and have them put together the tiger face:

• Glue the orange circle at the bottom of a piece of cardstock.
• Then glue the ears on, the stripes on the side of the face, the eyes and nose on.
• Draw a smile on with a marker

3. Glue the other piece of cardstock to the top of this one.
4. Then give your child the apples and have them glue them on as they count them up to 10.

All done!

LB & LL had fun working together to make this craft. They took turns putting the apples on  and were so proud to see their creation when finished!

Have Fun!

Do you like this idea? Pin it & save it for later!

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Polar Bear Race Game

Our final Polar Bear activity was this simple game.

LB(4) and LL(2) loved this so much. We played it over and over!

Supplies:

• 2 pieces of construction paper
• 1 piece of white cardstock
• Markers
• Tape
• Dice

Prep Work:

• Tape the pieces of construction paper together the long way.
• Find a small cup or medium sized lid. Something round you can trace to make circles on the paper.
• Trace circles in 2, 3, or 4 rows (depending on how many people you want to play at once). It doesn't really matter how many circles you get on each row, as long as each row is equal. :)

• Draw small circles on the cardstock with even smaller circles for the ears. Cut them out and draw smiles on them. These are your Polar Bears!

• At the end of the construction paper, glue on a piece of white paper with the word FINISH. 

Time to Play!!

• It's a race to see which Polar Bear can swim through the blue "water" to get to the snow first! Roll the dice and each person takes turns moving their polar bear down the circles and to the "snow" finish line! 

So easy, and so fun for the little ones!

Have Fun!!

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Polar Bear Paw Counting

We're getting back into the swing of things with our Polar Bear themed-week!

Our first activity is this simple counting game using paw prints.

Enjoy!

Supplies:

• 1 piece of colored paper
• 1-2 pieces of white cardstock
• Markers

Prep Work:

• First, find something round the size you want your paw prints to be, like a cup or lid. Trace it 5 times onto your colored paper spaced apart like paw prints.
• Second, find something round that is smaller and trace 3 circles above each bigger circle.

• Then draw over the circles with a black marker.

• Next using the same circle you traced for the paw, trace 20 circles onto white cardstock. 

• Cut out the circles and write the numbers 1-20 on them. You're ready to go!

Time to Play!

• Sit with your child and lay down a number in the first paw on the bottom of the paper. Then have them count up, finding the right numbers to place in the paws above it:

• You can start with any number and help them learn and practice number order. :)

• For extra credit, you can even start at the top and have them count backwards!

LB(4) had a lot of fun with this one. He's good counting straight from 1-20, but this definitely got him thinking a bit more about number order. :)

HAVE FUN!

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Counting Turkey Feathers

It's Turkey season!

So I created this simple Turkey File-Folder game for LB(4) to practice counting to 20.

He LOVED it. And there are multiple ways you could use this too!

Winner, winner turkey dinner! :)

Prep Work:

• If you want this as a file-folder game, get out a file folder. OR you can just do the same thing on a piece of paper. (I like the file-folder because when it's open it's bigger than any pieces of paper I have. Gives more space for the turkey!)
• So, cut a circle out of a piece of scrap paper. Place it in the middle/bottom of the opened file-folder. (This will be where the turkey body goes)
• Use this scrap circle piece to measure about where the feathers will go. (Just so you have enough room for all 20!)
• I divided the circle into thirds, like a pie. The top 2 will be where the feathers go, 10 on each side.
• Then, I divided each third in half. Finally, in each half I marked so there where five segments each. I hope this makes sense. It's just an easy way to make sure you have space for 20 feathers. :)
• Then with another piece of scrap paper, cut out a feather shape that fits in those segments. It can be skinny on the bottom and more full as it goes up to the tip. (But you don't want it too fat, or it will be hard to fit them all on. The brown one pictured below ended up being too fat. Skinny feathers are good for this game!)

• Next, get out 4 sheets of craft foam in the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green.
• Trace your feather onto each craft foam sheet. 5 feathers for each color.
• Cut out all the feathers. (Again, mine ended up being too fat. I trimmed them all up a bit.)

• Cut out a brown circle out of construction paper and glue it into the file folder.
• Trace an extra feather with a black marker onto the file folder. Start at the top and go down each side.

• Cut out eyes, beak, legs, etc. out of construction paper and glue them onto your turkey.
• In each of the feather shapes on the file folder, write the numbers 1-20.

• On each of the feathers write the numbers 1-20. (If you want to follow a pattern with the colors, just make sure you do so as you are writing the numbers) 

Finally done! Time to play!!

How to Play:

• Lay out all the feathers and prompt your child to find the number 1 feather and place it on the turkey. On and on until all the feathers are on! Then count all the feathers on the turkey (good counting practice).

• Another way to play is to turn all the feathers face down. Take turns choosing a feather and placing it on the correct spot on the turkey.

• I was asked to teach singing time to the primary children at church last Sunday. Since we were singing a song about being thankful, I thought I would use this fun turkey to help me teach the song!
• On the back of each feather I put a sticky note with a different way to sing. Here are the variations: 
• loud, soft, boys only, girls only, big smile, hand on head, repeat after me, clapping, marching, staccato, crescendo, decrescendo, fast, slow, on tiptoes, close eyes, sway, wearing red only, wearing blue only.
• I taped the feathers on the file folder and had the children pick a number. Whatever the feather said on the back was how we sang the song that time. We did it over and over. It was a lot of fun. :)

• You could also hide the feathers and have your child hunt for them around the house!

It did take some work to make this, but there are just so many fun ways to play!

LB(4) has played it several times, and we'll probably pull it out each year!

Gobble gobble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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