Blue Room - Home Learning for week of 18.5.2020

'Everyday Maths' Theme - This week our focus is 'Everyday Maths'. Maths for 2-3 year olds covers many important areas of development - far beyond numbers! This week's learning activities demonstrate ways to make maths 'everyday', using resources you have at home and inserting maths into activities you are quite probably doing anyway! The other great thing with mathematical language – which also illustrates how important it is – is that you can play games using it wherever you go! Unpacking shopping, you can play guessing games – which bag is the heaviest/lightest, which lettuce is bigger, and so on. When out for a walk, you can ask your child out of two cars, which is smaller; if you see a cat and dog, which is shorter; when colouring with crayons, which is the longest crayon? Once you start thinking about how you can incorporate mathematical language into your day-to-day activities there are endless possibilities.

(I am following the interests/needs of the children, so please let me know of any new interests that your children have!)

Remember to follow our Twitter page @kingsley_EYFS for daily updates and activity ideas! Tweet us the children's work or upload an EYLog observation.

The children are all working at their own level and stage of development, so please change any of the home learning to suit your own child :)

Maths / Communication & Language

A simple and practical time to use 'maths talking' together at home is when preparing meals. Here are some great ideas from Stanford University's 'Development and Research in Early Maths Education'...

Set the TableDon't forget to include your child in the process of setting the table. She will be using an important mathematic matching skill called one-to-one correspondence as she matches the correct number of plates, cups, forks, etc, to the number of family members eating. Placemats help her count and match the items.

A Yummy Counting GameNext time you are having snack together, try using small snack crackers or dried fruit pieces for a simple counting game.

Ask your child to put 4 pieces on his plate.

Invite him to eat 1 piece and ask him how many are on the plate now. Yes... 3!

Ask him what would happen if he put 2 more pieces on the plate. He can count and see how many he has now. Yes... 5!

Ask him to eat 3 pieces. Now how many are left?

Keep adding and subtracting (eating) pieces until the snack is finished. Not only will your child have fun counting, he also will be getting some important early experience with adding and subtracting.

Tips for Talking About Maths While Cooking with Young Children

There are easy ways that families can practice talking about maths while cooking any meal together - a salad, a sandwich, a pizza, pancakes, and so on.

Count ingredients one by one. Start with a small number (three or four) and ask children to count the number of pieces of food, using a finger to point to each piece. Children often don’t realize that each piece only gets counted once, or they try to count too quickly and skip numbers. Help them to keep track by moving the already counted pieces into a new pile.

Count the total number of ingredients. Ask children to count two, three, or four pieces of food and then say how many pieces there are all together. After they finish counting, ask, “How many do we have in all?” Or simply, “How many?” Move up to larger numbers as the child grows more comfortable with counting.

Guess which pile has more ingredients. Create two small piles of food and ask children which one has more in it. Then have them count the number of pieces in each pile to see if they are correct. Try asking them which pile has fewer pieces—something that many children find more challenging than estimating which pile has more.

Add or take away ingredients. After young children are able to correctly count the total number of pieces, they can be asked to do simple addition and subtraction. Add a piece of food to the pile and ask, “Now how many do we have?” Or take one piece away and ask, “How many do we have left?” Many children will need to count all of the pieces again in order to get the answer. As children grow more comfortable, families can try adding or taking away more than one piece of food at a time.

As a little extra - if you want to do some extra baking, these domino biscuits are a fun idea. Simply follow any biscuit recipe to make rectangular biscuits, and use smarties/raisins/chocolate chips, etc, to decorate with different amounts to count together. Yummy!

Maths / Literacy / Personal, Social, Emotional Development

A key development in young children's mathematical understanding is recognising their daily routines - this is also important for their emotional development. Understanding routines helps children to feel a sense of order, and can make the world feel less overwhelming. At this unusual time, it is particularly helpful to try to keep some sense of routine for children - for example, regular mealtimes, wake up and go to bed times, and also familiar activities that they take part in throughout the day, such as story time, play time, bath time, active time.

'Baby's Day' is a short book that has been provided for families by Health Visitors over the last few years. If you have your own copy of the book at home - or in your home school reading book bag - read the story together. If not then you can watch a short read-along version here:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/babys-day/

A good way to help young children to understand routine - particularly those who might need a bit of extra support with speech and language development - is to use an 'object of reference'. You may have noticed our visual timetable as you enter Blue Room - this is a collection of objects in the order of our day's routine. For example, you could have story book that you hold up when you say "Story time", a ball that you show when it's "Active time", a sponge to hold up for "Bath time", and so on. Once your child begins to understand what each object means, you can line them up together, from left to right, showing their routine for the day - this gives children a feeling of more control and security.

Here is an example of a bedtime routine timetable:

Maths / Expressive Arts & Design

If you have seen our 'Song Jukebox' board in Blue Room, you will know that we use songs every day - throughout the nursery session - to teach our 2 and 3 year olds. This is one of the most effective ways to learn - through musical expression (which is also a great help towards language development).

We try not to rely on screens too much at nursery (although we understand they can be very useful when needed!), as 'real world' learning is always better. Here are links to lots of familiar maths songs/rhymes, as well as a few new additions to try. We would advise watching the video first to learn the song together, but then singing it without using the video - you could use props instead! For example, use your child's teddies to act out '5 Little Monkeys', jumping on the bed and taking one away and re-counting each time. The songs can become part of everyday life and routines - for example, '5 Little Ducks' (from our 'Animal' learning pack) at bath time!

Anita singing Blue Room's 'Days of the Week' song

https://vimeo.com/419602939

BBC Teach - '5 Currant Buns'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9bkEqA4x8o

BBC Teach - '5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_1-TrP9jwA

Mr Tumble - 'Fish Alive'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thTysPVvSSQ

KidsTV123 - '5 Little Monkeys'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L6e0mwbGXw

Cbeebies - 'Number Raps 1-5'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sePZkXefyE

Cbeebies - 'Number Raps 6-10'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-6JrB-hS2k

Little Baby Bum - '10 in the Bed'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwutR8gxgto

Little Baby Bum - '10 Little Dinosaurs'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izjXKA7CSbg

BBC Teach - '10 Fat Sausages'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNNBHQTfb8k

KidsTV123 - 'Count 1-10 and back down again'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RfIKqkvHTY&list=PL9bsPVRSg1sn_Op6yAQ54Rr1fniByD8UI&index=3

KidsTV123 - 'How Many Animals are on the Farm?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uuh3zG21ts&list=PL9bsPVRSg1sn_Op6yAQ54Rr1fniByD8UI&index=16

Jack Hartmann - '1-20 Workout Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVzXKfr6e8

The Singing Walrus - 'Shape Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEbRDtCAFdU

Cbeebies - 'The Shapes Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRiWpCfp75g

Jack Hartmann 'Shape & Size Freeze Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOf4lKln0KE&list=PLQK2XiUY9C2go6LVGolqmi0PrOg-ClpEb

Cbeebies - 'Colour Carnival'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2x1z3wyiY

Maths / Physical Development

There are so many ways to link maths into your daily activity or exercise time! Here are a few ideas that we have been using at home:

Big and Small 'Freeze Song' - Show your child how to make their body BIG like an elephant, and small like a mouse. Play their favourite music and each time you press 'pause', shout out an instruction: "Big elephant" or "Small mouse". Ask other family members to join in too, for extra laughs! Once they are confident with big and small - add in a 'Medium sized monkey'.

Counting Stairs - Every morning/evening as you go up/down the stairs together at the beginning or end of the day, count each step together. When you reach the top or bottom, ask "And one more would be...?"

Time Races - Turn simple activities into timed races, to practise counting and add lots of excitement! For example, say: "How many seconds will it take for you to take off your coat and hang it on the peg?" Count in seconds as your child completes the activity. "How long will it take to run to the lamp post and back?", "Can you finish the last piece of your dinner in less than 10 seconds?", and so on.

Home Basketball - We don't have a basketball net, but no problem! Use a laundry basket or old box to practise under arm throwing - or chalk/paint a large target goal onto the garden wall. For younger 2 year olds, use a larger ball - and if the activity is too difficult, move the goal as close as possible to practise, or try rolling the ball into the goal instead! Count each goal scored, and take turns to have a go! Who can score more?

Maths / Understanding the World

Returning to the mathematical importance of understanding routines, link this in to the 'People and Communities' strand of early science, and role play together! Does your child enjoy playing dressing up? or with cars / dolls / teddies? Join them in their play by taking on a role, and help them to act out scenes from their daily routines. For example: playing shops by putting objects into a bag or basket, giving dolly a bottle of milk and putting him to bed, cars being stuck in a traffic jam and beeping their horns at each other, teddies sitting in a circle for 'school time'.

In this familial role play, there are lots of opportunities to use language of time, number, counting, pattern, size, measurement:

"It's very late, it's getting dark, time for dolly to go to bed"

"How much does my fruit cost?"

"There are so many cars in this car park - let's count them"

"Our school carpet is so pretty, it's pattern is blue, red, blue, red"

"You have the big spoon and I will have the little spoon"

"My cup of tea is empty and your cup of juice is full!"

"The dinosaurs are having a competition to find out which is the biggest..."