Throughout the early years of life, children notice and explore mathematical dimensions of their world. They compare quantities, find patterns, navigate in space, and grapple with real problems such as balancing a tall block building or sharing toys fairly with a playmate.

Math­ematics helps children make sense of their world outside of school and helps them construct a solid foundation for success in school.

In our classroom, we use play and sensory experiences (in addition to more direct academic approaches) to relay these integral math concepts to your little ones.

This activity involved stacking egg carton turtles onto one another in this Yertle the Tertle activity. In the story, Yertle commands the turtles of Sala-ma-Sond to pile onto each other so that Yertle could grab the moon.

The very act of stacking presented a host of counting opportunities for our class, so we put our learning into action! Students were first directed to stack their turtles.

This was a bit tricky, as it required them to focus. Doing so enabled them to witness the magic of cause and effect. Once fully stacked, students were then urged to count their pile.

Following the mastery of this task, students broke their piles into smaller groups and counted them as well!

Our third week revolved around The Foot Book.

For this activity, we painted with our feet.

To add a science component, we mixed two different colors to create a new color!

Using red and blue paint, we made the color purple.

Your little ones squealed as they squished their feet through and walked around with the paint on their feet!

To help us hone our fine motor skills, we strung shoestrings through a turtle-themed lacing card.

Parents may think that activities like these have very little developmental significance, but the truth is just the opposite.

Activities like this are crucial because they allow a break in the sometimes monotonous tasks of tracing or even coloring, and provides a wide range of motion that young writers can use.

Lacing activities also enable young children to become aware of the roles of their dominant and non-dominant hands.

Stabilizing the cards while working the shoestring through the holes strengthens those little fingers and muscles.

In our classroom, we use a variety of ways to teach your little one about literacy.

Throughout each theme, we select a letter related to it, and integrate into our activities throughout the week.

For this activity, we used green play dough to make the letter T. Each student was given a play dough mat with the letter T and a picture of a turtle on it.

Everyone was then directed to pinch pieces of the dough off to place onto the map, which enabled them to practice their fine motor skills.

The story of Yertle the Turtle was a favorite of the children. Yertle is the king of the pond, but he wants more. He demands that other turtles stack themselves up so he can sit on top of them to survey the land.

Mack, the turtle at the bottom, is exhausted. He asks Yertle for a rest; Yertle ignores him and demands more turtles for a better view.

Eventually, Yertle notices the moon and is furious that anything dare be higher than himself, and is about ready to call for more turtles when Mack burps.

This sudden movement topples the whole stack, sends Yertle flying into the mud, and frees the rest of the turtles from their stacking duty. The students loved the story and requested that we read it over and over again. For this activity, we recreated Sal-ma-Sond, the pond in which Yertle lived. Using green water, plastic plants, and turtles we recreated the story with sensory materials!

Children love to discover the world with their senses; they love stories; they love to play!

Story trays use a preschooler’s natural enthusiasm for sensory play and stories by telling stories in the tray and inviting them to retell the story with creative materials.

It is an intermodal expressive arts tool that can be used to relay a variety of concepts to the young learner.

In our Cat and the Hat story trays, students are provided with an engaging way to present the story line of the book in a meaningful and personal way.

For this activity, we used a back drop of the two children in the story, combined with figurines of the Cat and Thing One and Thing Two, red boxes, red blocks, and our imaginations to retell the story!

Visual discrimination helps a child to see subtle differences between objects or pictures and to see if something matches up.

This visual perceptual skill can be described as “paying attention to detail”.

For this activity, students matched up pictures of the Cat and the Hat’s “hat” that had subtle differences.

Students were asked to find these differences and match each hat with it’s “twin.”

A storyboard a story telling device used to visually “sketch out” the actions of a story that are told in a visual medium like animation, pictures, or felt pieces.

In this activity, students participated in a discussion about the cat in the hat using a story board.

By using a story board, that students explore aspects of a story they may not have noticed while reading it, such as how it develops, what’s missing, the use of language, how words and pictures work together, and what the story means to them.

For this activity, we read the Cat and the Hat while constructing our very own!

After each page was read, a student would bring their “piece” of the story board up for everyone to see.

They would then place it onto a flannel board to relay their part!