Spring Into Math!

 

                                                               Spring Into Math!

Spring is a beautiful time of the year. With the sun shining, the birds chirping, and the flowers blooming, it is the perfect time to teach young children about the wonders of nature. It is also a great time to work on building their number sense using manipulatives.

Manipulatives are physical objects that children can touch, move, and play with. They can help children understand math concepts such as counting, addition, subtraction, and more. In this blog post, we will discuss how kindergarteners can use manipulatives during springtime to help build their number sense.

Counting flowers

One way to use manipulatives during springtime is to count flowers. You can use flower petals, plastic flowers, or even real flowers (if available) for this activity. Have the children count the number of petals on each flower and then write that number down on a piece of paper. You can also have the children group the flowers by color or type to help them practice sorting and classifying. * Note allergies and use artificial flowers if needed.

We read From The Garden: A Counting Book About Growing Food by Michael Dahl. This book inspired us to try to grow a pumpkin. 

Thanks to the rain, we have one little pumpkin so far. We'll see what happens.
 

1. Counting flowers

One way to use manipulatives during springtime is to count flowers. You can use flower petals, plastic flowers, or even real flowers (if available) for this activity. Have the children count the number of petals on each flower and then write that number down on a piece of paper. You can also have the children group the flowers by color or type to help them practice sorting and classifying.

Counting flowers

One way to use manipulatives during springtime is to count flowers. You can use flower petals, plastic flowers, or even real flowers (if available) for this activity. Have the children count the number of petals on each flower and then write that number down on a piece of paper. You can also have the children group the flowers by color or type to help them practice sorting and classifying.

Counting friendly bugs

Another fun way to spend time outside is to grab a hand lens/magnifying glass to look for ladybugs, ants, roly-pollies, worms, and more. Again, plastic bugs, bug stickers, and pictures can be used instead of actual bugs. This is a great way to practice sorting into categories and collecting data.

The Kinder Bunnies spent time on our playground looking for ladybugs in the different stages of their life cycle. We are also graphing how many days it will take for our caterpillars to become butterflies. 

We love our bug books. This book is by DK Publishing and is a big hit with my class.

Kinder Bunny entomologists looking for ladybugs.

We were surprised that it took sixteen days from when the caterpillars arrived to the first one to emerge.

Springtime is a great time to use manipulatives to help children build their number sense. These activities are fun, hands-on, and engaging for kindergarteners. By using manipulatives, children can learn math concepts memorably and enjoyably. So, grab some flowers, bugs, and raindrops, and let's get counting!