Happy Spring, families and early educators! Here is the Math Vitamin for the Week.
Children will connect numerals to quantity and engage in small number addition – (how many now?)
Families/Educators will guide children as they count and add small quantities and write down their stories
Places Scenes is a great activity for inviting children to integrate and apply their math knowledge. Start by providing children with: various “scenes,” character objects, and loose parts to manipulate, and a tool for identifying the numbers to use (a die, spinner, number cards, etc.).
How to play:
- Choose a scene.
- Roll a dice (dot or numeral) and add that number of loose parts or characters into your scene
- Begin to tell your story. “Once there were 2 cats…” (or can put all the materials out and tell story at the end)
- Roll again, read the numeral and add that number of loose parts or characters into your scene. “…and then 1 dog walked by…”
- Count up the total number of loose parts or characters in your scene. “I wonder how many pets all together?”
- Tell a story that speaks to the two sets and the whole group. (Teachers take dictation and scaffold as needed)
![front yard photo with people toy models and a dice](https://somervilleearlyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/vitamins-places-models-and-picture.jpg)
![picture of a field with turtle toys and counting beads](https://somervilleearlyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/vitamins-places-turtles-and-picture.jpg)
Places Scenes can be simplified by only rolling once or made more challenging by rolling more than twice. Places Scenes can also be integrated with our literacy work by:
- Taking pictures of the completed story, adding the words, and sharing it with the class or family members.
- Asking children to draw their scene and then taking dictation.
- Making a Places Scenes Class Book, where these stories live.
- Using the dictated stories at Story Telling Story Acting (STSA).
Spring Stories to Enjoy:
![illustration of two children playing in the dirt](https://somervilleearlyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/vitamins-places-busy-spring-book.jpg)
Busy Spring- Nature Wakes Up by Sean Taylor and Sean Morse
![Illustration of a girl in a blooming flower garden](https://somervilleearlyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/vitamins-places-flower-garden-book.jpg)
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting and Kathryn Hewitt