First Day of Preschool - M is for Math

We had our first day of Preschool this week. 

Aubrey had been anticipating this day for a long time. With all of the fun things we do in the Fall, the thing she was looking forward to the most was Preschool! I'm so glad she loves to learn!

I'm so grateful for our little co-op preschool. (Obviously Aubrey is too!) My personal belief is that at this age, young children learn the most from their parents and spending time with them and their family. I want to have the majority of influence on my children both in education and spiritual matters in these formative years. However, I am grateful for our once a week preschool where other fantastic mother's can teach things that I may not have thought of on my own. And that Aubrey gets time learning in a social environment. I sure hope there will be some mom's interested in doing it next year with Brooke.

Here's our cute excited little crew on the first day of Preschool!

We had to take our traditional first day of school photo before the other kids arrived!

Since it was at our house Brooke got to participate too! I decided to just let her act as one of the preschoolers and see how she did. She did Fantastic during Preschool. There were a few things she couldn't quite do like the bigger kids, but she tried and stayed on task the whole time!

Here she is with her backpack!

 After we did our beginning stuff (ABC's, counting, days of the week, weather). I introduced our letter of the day - M. We practiced writing it in the air and then they practiced tracing it and drawing it on paper.

Then they took turns doing show and tell with their M objects.

I had also gathered several M objects and placed them in a bag. They took turns drawing an object out and we accentuated the M sound as we said the word together.

Then I read, "I am Good at Math" which explains what Math is.

I did a Math Magic trick for them.

Then we started into our Math portion of the lesson.

I had them each take a handful of blocks. They took turns counting how many blocks they had. Then I had them add their blocks to another child's pile of blocks.

I knew that the kids did not know how to write numbers, so I thought of a fun way to add without writing the numbers. I had three empty boxes on each row. The first two had a plus sign between them and a number below. The second and third had an equal sign between them and no number below it. I gave each child a copy of the worksheet and a sheet of stickers. They were to put the number of stickers in each box that corresponded with the number below it. Then they were to add the number of stickers in the two boxes and put the sum (using stickers) in the last box.

The older kids caught on right away, and the younger ones at least had fun putting stickers on their paper!

 Then we played Number Dash. I wrote the numbers 1 -10 six times, randomly on the garage floor. I put on some music and they danced around. When the music paused, I called out a number and they were to find that number on the ground and stand on it. They had a lot of fun with this game.

Standing on their numbers.

Playing the Number Dash.

Next we played a number match game.

I had taken craft sticks and had written a number from 1 - 10 on each of 10 sticks. Then I took 10 more sticks and drew shapes (each one with a different number of shapes from 1-10). I placed the numbered sticks in a bag and the shape sticks face up on the table. They took turns drawing a number stick from the bag and then matching it to the stick with the same number of shapes as the number they drew. (I made a set of sticks for each of them to take home and play with their families.)

 

Next it was time for sorting and patterns. I had dyed pasta in 6 different colors. (I thought my pasta looked really fun drying on the tray. So bright and colorful!)

 I cut each of them an egg crate with 6 holes and gave them a bag with a mixture of the different colored pasta. They then sorted their pasta by color into their egg crate.

 Then we talked about what a pattern is. I gave them all a piece of yarn to make a pattern necklace.

 

 For snack time I spread peanut butter onto crackers. I asked them what their favorite numbers were and then traced that number onto the cracker with a toothpick. They got the crackers and some raisins and were to use the raisins to make the number.

Here's Aubrey eating her snack and showing off her necklace.

Then it was play time.

I had made a few more math worksheets in case we had extra time. We didn't get to them, so I just sent them home with the kids. Aubrey begged me to do the worksheets during play time, but I wanted her to get some time to play with her friends. As soon as the last child left she insisted that I let her do the worksheets. She did all of hers, Brooke's and then I had to print several new ones for her to do. She sure does not have a problem with attention span!

I thought it was a successful first day of preschool. All of the kids stayed on task the whole time. Towards the end one of the boys said, "This is the best preschool ever." And then named off the fun things we did that day. That totally made my day!