A quick 5-minute mini-lesson is all you need to start working on letter/sound relationships with your kiddos. I just printed off some pictures from Google (Nicky loves cats🐱!) and encouraged him to say the word SLOW-LY. By doing this, he can begin to listen to the individual sounds within words and connect the first sound he hears to letters in the alphabet. I set out our alphabet @steppingstonesshop to have him identify the letter and then I helped him write the letter under the picture.📋🖍
All you need are some glasses or jars, a spoon, water and some green food colouring to explore some simple sound science. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!
Calling all little bakers! This easy to set-up counting activity requires the following materials:
-cut-out numerals (1-10)
-baking tray and spatula
-chocolate chips
-a Sharpie
-paper cookies
👇
I printed off some plain cookies from Google images, cut them out, and used a Sharpie to draw on the chocolate chips. I made cookies with up to 10 chocolate chips so that we could start with counting to 5 and then move up to counting to 10. It’s important that the chips are scattered because it makes them harder to count. I then asked questions like, “May I please have a cookie with 3 chocolate chips?” As Nicky was looking for the cookie, I encouraged him to use real chocolate chips as counters to cover the drawn-on chips as he counted them (by the end we had a bit of a chocolatey mess 🤪). This strategy helps kids keep track when counting unordered collections. Once the correct cookie was found, we placed it on the numeral that represented the number of chocolate chips. I found this activity on Doug Clement’s Learning Trajectories website and only altered it slightly. It’s important to me that I’m intentionally choosing activities that are developmentally appropriate and research-based. This activity helps kids practise counting and develop one-to-one correspondence. If you would like to read more about the developmental stages of counting and consider where your child may be, I’ve included a free handout below. 😊
Developmental Levels for Counting
https://docs.google.com/document/d/123vfknI18AYvkcgVmnkIazJ2COCAQvT0-paoEwPpncA/edit?usp=sharing