Letters and Numbers For Toddlers and Pre-K

Here are some letter and number activities that we enjoyed this week.

MATH: COUNTING BEARS

Counting bears (purchased used on Amazon) are a great activity and can be used in many different ways.  When I first introduced them to B, I only put out a few bears and only two colors.  Now, at 2 1/2 years old, he gets all of them.  And, yes, they go all over the place.  I think he enjoys the sounds of them falling and the feel of them as he mixed them around.  At this age, he enjoys when I have the bear “talk” to him.  He smiles and helps the bears find their “home” in the right color cup.  We count and sort the bears.  I ask him to hand me a certain number of bears or we see how many can ride the train or fit in the airplane.  We do basic addition – one yellow bear + two blue bears = ?  Although I also give him plenty of time to do whatever he wants with the bears, we usually do these activities together.

LETTERS / PHONICS: NAME & BEGINNING LETTERS SOUNDS

B also enjoyed pouring the alphabet into an empty orange juice container and opening and closing the lid.  A BIG hit was spelling out his name was magnet or wooden pieces.  And he does very well with sounding out the beginning of words and matching the letters.  I hold two objects, such as animals, in my hand ask which starts with a certain letter.  You can do this anywhere – like playing eye spy.  It’s a great game for the car or, in our case recently, the subway.

Happy Labor Day!

 

Activities for Toddlers

Here are some activities on our Montessori-inspired shelf this week.  B (25 months) is working on mastering numbers 1-10 and new vocabulary words.  We are working on number values (not just memorizing the numbers).  Sorting and number graphs help explain numbers values.  Check out www.shelfwork.com for some great ideas and printouts.  We also have fun counting random things around the yard or house.  B is also working on mastering the alphabet phonetically.  The letter activity allows practice with letters out of order to assist with mastery.  We are consistently work on beginning sounds of words and then finding the corresponding letter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time to be in the garden!  We had fun planting flowers and herbs this week.  B has fun watching our strawberries turn from green to red.  He is learning to be gentle with flowers and general body control.  What is okay to pick and how do we care for plants (and animals)?  We talked about how the sun is hot and trees create cool shade.  We observed birds and had fun listening for them even when we couldn’t see them.  What do you talk about with your  toddler when you are outside or on a walk?

Montessori Toddler Activities

Here are some Montessori-inspired toddler activities that we are enjoying this week.  The activities including a focus on math, sorting (early math), art mixed with language, music, practical life and more specific language activities.  We are working on letter recognition and phonics.  And we are working on number recognition 1-5 and the basic concept of numbers.  Sometimes B (22 months) will seem to understand numbers and sometimes he won’t.  If he isn’t “into it” on any given day, I just move on.  B loves transportation and construction vehicles, so I integrated that into our art and language activities.

Here is a snapshot of our playroom and shelf this week.  Below are a few of the activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a number activity.  We enjoy placing the numbers 1-5 on our felt board and in the bathtub with foam numbers.  Here I chose to highlight the number “4”.  This tray has several different ways of showing the number “4”.  B loves the counting lizards from Melissa & Doug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a basic sorting activity.  I am always so pleased with myself when I find a new way to display a sorting activity.  I found this little art bucket in Target.  It’s light and easy for B to carry.  Here he will place the blue popsicle sticks on one side and the yellow sticks on the other.  He loves it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an art activity.  I added a small printout of transportation pictures.  I actually snagged this from Chik-fil-a!  It’s an eye-spy road game that came in his kids’ meal.  B enjoyed coloring the pictures as we talked about them and then we put down transportation stickers.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a language activity of sorts.  It’s more about vocabulary than learning to read.  They are sort of conversation starters and from there we talk about other things relating to the cow and butterfly, like where we saw a cow or butterfly and what they eat and the sounds they make.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last activity is simply a music basket.  I usually have a basket of musical instruments out for B to play with.  I rotate the instruments almost every week.  I swear I find my husband playing with them more than B, so I guess it’s for the whole family.  We go to a toddler music class once a week too, which is fun.  B is one of the first toddlers to jump up and put things away.  Otherwise, he’s shy and quiet (like mom).  The teacher noted the Montessori approach they use to set up and clean up!  She noted last week that the class had “normalized” meaning that they had mastered the concept of taking instruments out of the basket and returning them (without a fuss) at the end of a song.  Montessori is everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toddler Activities: Numbers, Vowels, Big and Small!

Here are some toddler activities we have on our Montessori shelf this week!  B is 21 months old and is working on numbers, vowels, and the concept of big verse small.  He does not seem to yet get the idea of counting but it’s a long-term process. I’ve seen that slow introduction of ideas works well for him.  It took several introductions of sorting before he started doing those activities on his own.  I use a very gentle, no-pressure approach.  (Otherwise, I get frustrated too!)

B loves the organization of a Montessori shelf.  He knows to get one thing out at a time.  It’s fun to see what activities he picks first when I put out new trays.  Here are two activities with numbers.  I found wooden pieces at the craft store and wrote numbers on them.  He plays with them or we count things (stickers, cars, etc) and put the number next to the items.  I also made some number cups.  B can sort and count the buttons inside each cup.  We do this together and he needs lots of help but it’s VERY fun.  He loves the feel and colors of the buttons.

   

B is learning his vowels.  He can make the vowels sounds.  He REALLY enjoyed putting the vowel wood chips on the mat.

Next is a practice life activity – folding napkins.

Next is an activity were we sort big and small animals!

And finally here is a video of the shelf work on YouTube!

ENJOY!  And please share your favorite activities!