World's Math Day

Today is World's Math Day and we did a lot of Math activities.

We did many activities and I am going to show two of them, writing numbers and shapes.

In preparation for writing numbers on a paper we did counting, rote counting and singing. The students traced numbers on the seed tray, traced them also on the sand number card and finally they wrote the numbers using the colors of the rainbow. They have also done numbers with play dough, counters, dot-to-dot and many other ways but not today.

I made a worksheet for the students to trace the numbers . Repetition is key but it needs to be fun. Out of everything I tried the rainbow number worksheets is what the students liked the most and it is only one sheet of paper that you can use many times. You can ask the child to use one color per day but if the child is motivated you can let the child trace the numbers with as many colors as the child wants in one go. I made two templates. One with numbers from 1 to 5 and another that goes up to 10.

Click on the picture below to download the template 1-5 from MediaFire.

If you want to use the back of the page you can have the students trace dotted numbers.

Click on the picture to download the template from MediaFire.

Here is one example of the student work from the template 1 to 5.

I made a sand number card by gluing sand on the numbers on a colored cardboard. It works well. You can also cut the numbers on sandpaper.

Click on the image below to download the template 1 - 10 from MediaFire.

On the back of this paper you can have the children trace and copy numbers 1-10.

Click on the image below to download the template from MediaFire.

And one more sample of student work.

We also reviewed SHAPES!

And we recorded the shapes we know. This assessment is going to be placed in the students' portfolios.
I had the shapes pre cut and the students could choose which color they wanted and how they would place the shapes on the page.
Click on the image below to download the template from MediaFire.

If the child did know know all the shapes of their learning goal, we place the shape(s) the child did not know along with the sheet in a plastic pocket. In a month or two we can check again and if the child can name a shape then it can be pasted on the sheet.

I would also like to share an assessment that I did on counting and rote counting as this is one of the skills we usually work with preschoolers. This type of assessment allows you, the child and parents to see the child's progress in rote counting and counting objects from the beginning until the end of the school year. It is an idea for a portfolio entry.

I made this template if you are going to use dots. My students used the dot-to-dot markers for this assessment.

 I also made this template to be used with anything the child wants to count like fingerprints, cut shapes, seeds, etc.

Amelia Mello, M.Ed.

SEED TRAY: an option for SAND TRAY

Seed trays work as well as sand or salt trays. The smaller the seeds the better. Actually salt trays do not work in humid climates like in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Believe me I've tried that.

 

The red tiny seeds I used for my Seed Tray are called “ulezi” in Kiswahili. I have no idea what they are in English, neither in Brazilian Portuguese. Ulezi is sold in bulk in the local market. You buy the seeds, grind them and use the flour to make porridge, or to mix usually with maze porridge, as a local told me.

 As with sand or salt we have to test the amount of seeds we put in the tray so you can see the bottom of the tray as you trace something. If the seeds and the tray have contrasting colors it’s even better. I chose a green tray, which gives a nice contrast with the color of the seeds.

The students are having fun with the new seed tray and it gives them a totally different texture than sand. It has been working great for tracing letters and numbers.

After you trace something, give it a little shake and the seeds cover the tray again.