Preschoolers Learn Numbers Through Rhymes & Activities

Teach your preschooler numbers through RHYMES and hands-on ACTIVITIES.  At the See Hear Do Company we use the Number Neighborhood Activity Book and Flip Chart to teach children numbers and number values.  Preschoolers enjoy exploring numbers with a variety of manipulatives.  Take the number SEVEN for example.  In the STORY found in the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart number seven is learned through rhyme; 

"7 Lives In Heaven"

The clever character 7, his life in heaven, and the rhyme bring to life number seven.  The activity of counting cotton balls or marshmallows makes learning the value of seven more concrete.  Today we had fun with our head in the CLOUDS!

Placing the corresponding number of cotton balls or marshmallows in the cloud makes adding EASY & FUN!

We practiced identifying numbers in a similar way. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!

Today I used a hands on activity here.  We love our "Cloud Sensory Bin."  Thank you For the Love of Learning, great idea!

{photo credit here}

Hope you are having success in teaching your preschoolers.  Don't forget to connect with me for my latest ideas and teaching tips...

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Measuring With Snap Cubes

Sorting, counting, measuring and stacking! You name it Snap Cubes are my Go-To for Preschool Measuring and Building.

Today we are building things and talking about the Number 4.  We read the clever story about 4 in the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart, and practiced counting and measuring.  

4 builds a door 4 4 4 !

Number 4 is a builder at heart.  He likes to hammer 4 corners of the door, and he likes to count the 4 sides of the door, 1,2,3,4!  Today we used Snap Cubes (also known as Unifix Cubes) to measure things we found around the house.

How long are the scissors?  How long is your shoe?  Here is a list of other things you might want to measure.

spoon                   pillow                     book                    favorite toy            mug           
doorknob              cup                        computer             remote control        family photo
lamp                    phone                     pencil                  hand                     penny

Building things takes some thinking, planning and measuring!  We started measuring all the doors found in the Number Neighborhood Activity Book (also sold as an eBook).

We kept busy all morning building and measuring!

I found some other fantastic ideas over at The Measured Mom!  Go check her out!

Roll a dice to build a tower.  An easy way to practice recognizing numbers and adding them to a cube tower.

{thanks Measured Mom}

Continue the pattern.   Measured Mom found some great free pattern cards for you at Heidi's Songs.  

{thanks Measured Mom}

So many ways to use Snap Cubes as a teaching tool!  What are some ways you have incorporated them into learning?

Leprechaun Craft & Fourteen Wears All Green!

The anticipation is in the air!  My kids always ask...So what is next?!  I love that we have something fun to look forward to.  Here comes St Patty's Day!  

We do fun things around here at preschool.  We set up traps to catch Mr. Leprechaun.  We watch mysterious things turn green.  We talk about lucky things.  What do you do to have fun on St. Patricks Day?

Today my easy peasy mac and cheesy leprechaun craft is ready to show you his favorite number...Number 14!  (It's weird I know, he packs this book around everywhere)

In the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart ,the basis of my number teaching tools, Number 14 gets SO excited for St. Patrick's Day.  In Number 14's story Number 4 (remember him?--- 4 builds a door) meets up with his friend, a Teen.  Teen needed help building a Leprechaun trap, and 4 jumped at the chance to help.  Together, wearing GREEN, they become number 14!  

This story gets the kids excited about 14, wearing green, and leprechauns!

Don't forget there is another super GREEN activity found in the Number Neighborhood Activity book that is now available as an eBook HERE.

We decided to build a leprechaun trap of our own.  Legend says that this mischievous little guy spends his days making shoes and storing away all his coins in a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  If ever captured by a human, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant 3 wishes in exchange for their release.  

We all think that 3 wishes sound fantastic!  So we gathered together and created a plan to capture this little guy.  Complete with a trail of sugar to our trap..this may be the year of our success!

 Ohhh Mr. Leprechaun!  Come out and play with us!  

While we waited for our Leprechaun to be trapped, (because we had made a fool proof trap for sure) we went inside and got busy crafting.  

11 steps to Leprechaun Craft

1st I needed my simple supplies.  Green paper, white pre-traced head and hands, glue and crayons.  

2nd I had the children fold the paper into 4 equal parts.  With paper horizontal, (hamburger way: short and fat.   NOT hotdog way: tall and skinny) First fold in half, then half again.  

3rd, Open the paper up and fold in half, from the bottom to the top.  Now you have 8 rectangles.  

4th I have the child cut bottom left rectangle and bottom right rectangle out.

5th Fold right side into center and left side into center to create a jacket.  Fold the corners down making a lapel.  

6th, Glue the cut out rectangles to the back side of the jacket to create arms.

7th, Fold up the bottom to make a little cuff.  Tiny little leprechaun cuff!

8th, Cut out the white circle and ovals for head and hands.

9th, have the child color a face on the leprechaun.  

10th, Glue head and hands onto the little man. i.e. Mr. Jade Gold-Digger.

11th, Have the child cut a simple hat from green paper .  

Easy huh?  My kids play with him for days!

It's especially fun to ask the child what their wish would be once they caught the leprechaun.  You can either be their scribe, have them write on their own, or, like I did, a combo of both!

I think 1,000,000 in coins would be great too!  Could I make that silver dollars?!

Happy teaching everyone!  

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Comparing My Alphabet Book to My Number Book...Help Me Understand.

Recently I had a great question from one of you...

          "I absolutely love the Amazing Action Alphabet Flip Chart!  Help me 

understand how it compares to the Number Neighborhood Flip chart.

                                                   Thanks ~Lisa"

This is a great question, and I think others might benefit from my explanation.

Lucy!  You've Got some 'Splaining to Do!"

First, let me explain these two books in a little more detail.

I wrote the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart in the same format as the Amazing Action Alphabet Flip Chart. The story is on the back, the action is written after the story, and they perform the action in the story. 

I want to show you some examples.  Today I am using number 6 and letter K.  You know my saying, 

Seeing + Hearing + Doing = Learning

Well, let's talk about just that.

SEEING:

The Amazing Action Alphabet Flip Chart has animals in shapes of letters.  Below, we have K the kangaroo.  The Number Neighborhood Flip Chart has people in the shapes of letters.  In our example we can see Six in the shape of number 6.

  

HEARING:

The Amazing Action Alphabet Flip Chart has a short story on the back.  AND,  the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart also has a story on the back.

In the Amazing Action Alphabet the letters are called by their ACTUAL NAME.  This letter name is connected to the action that the letter makes.  In our K example K the kangaroo kicks.

In the Number Neighborhood book, I have given a rhyme to help the child remember the name.  For example...Six rubs Sticks.

Pretty cool right?!

DOING:
The Amazing Action Alphabet Flip Chart gives an action the child preforms in the story. In our example you can see my nephew kicking like K the kangaroo.  In the Number Neighborhood book I also give an action for the child to do.  In our example I show number 6's action is like two sticks rubbing together...six rubs sticks!  

Additionally, the child is asked to count the number of objects the number represents.   For example on number 6, the child is asked to count  six sticks.  

This Number Neighborhood Flip Chart book is written to help the child remember the number's name and the value of the number by seeing it in the shape of a character, hearing a story and hearing the name of the number in rhyme, doing an action for the number and actually counting the value of the number. 

With ALL that said, click on the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart icon on my web store {HERE} and it will let you see some sample pages of each book.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I hope that this makes things a little easier for you to understand.  

 Till next time friends!

Activities for Number 3...All About Trees!

Three grows a tree...3, 3, 3!  In my Number Neighborhood Flip Chart number 3 knows how to grow beautiful trees.  There are 3 things to grow trees...soil, water, and sun.

{image found HERE}

Here is a variation for YOUNGER CHILDREN using number 3's activity found in the Number Neighborhood Activity Book. Instead of following the instructions and drawing each bird in the tree, try using play-doh.  Using red, yellow and blue for the birds in the tree will be a great tactile activity.

Encourage the child to place 3 red birds, 3 blue birds and 3 yellow birds in the tree.  Remember to touch and count teach bird.  

For OLDER CHILDREN, those having better use of their fine motor skills, have them use dot stickers and place 3 blue dots, 3 yellow dots and 3 red dots in the tree.  Then simply have the child add beaks, wings and feet to each bird.  Now practice counting each bird.

You can find these dot stickers in most stores that sell office supplies.  They are often called 'Color Coding Labels' I grabbed mine from HERE.

Three grows a tree...3, 3, 3!  The school year is officially started.  You're kids are going to learn so much about trees and growing things with number 3 this month.  Here are a couple of tree jokes to keep your kids thinking, and giggling!  

Q.  Do you know what a tree's lease favorite month is?  

A.  Sep-timber!

Q.  Why did the leaf go to the doctor?

A.  It was feeling green!

Q.  What kind of tree can fit into your hand?

A.  A palm tree!

{image via Examiner}

Pairs, Doubles, Twins...Talking About Number 2

Today we introduced Number 2 with the Number Neighborhood Flip Chart.  I began by reading Number 2's story.  Oh how she loves things that come in PAIRS!  Number 2 is a little western gal that can always be found wearing her shiny red cowboy boots. I love how she feeds her 2 horses, Salt and Pepper, and she plays with her 2 dogs, Cookies and Milk.    

When talking about Number 2 it is ideal to gather shoes and help the children to graph how many different kinds of shoes they have.  I talked about this in a prior post... {HERE}.

{image via Teach Preschool}

A variation of the Number 2 activity, found in the Number Neighborhood Activity Book, is to copy Number 2's activity page in four different colors.

Cut out each section of shoes and give the child an assortment of shoes to graph.

Have the child place the shoes on the graph.  Practice counting the different pairs of shoes.  Which kind of shoes have the MOST?  Which ones have the LEAST?  Any type of shoes EQUIL to another type?

The child can then color each pair of shoes they received.

Ta-Da!  The children are able to SORT, COUNT, and GRAPH with this fun activity!

Teaching Number 11 with Greater Than & Less Than

Getting closer!...

My Number Neighborhood Activity Book is hitting my STORE in September.  Keep watching for updates!

Today I wanted to give you a sample of NUMBER 11.

With this activity we talk about GREATER THAN & LESS THAN.  As always, I first review the story and introduce NUMBER 11 from my Number Neighborhood Flip Chart.  This story talks about NUMBER 1, and her perfectly made bun (see here debut HERE).  Number 1 gets together with her best friend, a TEEN, and together they train a pet dog named Kevin.

Preschoolers LOVE learning about pets!  With Number 11's activity we see that our pet Kevin likes to eat the BIGGER pile of bones.

First we get the activity ready...

                               

Then I put the bones into two different piles for my little one to count.

The child then decides which one is GREATER, and which one is LESS.  Kevin, our pet, always wants to eat the GREATER pile of bones.  So we position his mouth to eat that pile.

I created the dog to easily flip to whichever pile is correct!   I grabbed some Scooby-Doo graham cracker snacks and tried again and again...

We had a lot of fun counting and feeding 11's pet Kevin today!

You will love how easy this activity is, and the kids LOVE counting piles and piles of bones!