Math Exploration

 The first three weeks of school are dedicated to exploring and playing with our math tools.  Letting the kiddos have free reign with the tools before we begin our formal learning really cuts down on the playing when it's time to get down to business.

Favorite Items for Exploration:

• buttons
• plastic animals
• legos
• pom-poms
• hot wheel cars
• plastic alphabet letters
• ribbons
• gems
• glass stones
• barbie shoes
• linking cubes
• linking shapes
• teddy bear counters
• bottle caps
• etc.

The options are endless and the planning is non-existent for the first 3 weeks of school.  Gotta love that!

Simply rotate the kidlets through a series of stations for 10-20 minutes at a time.  I usually choose 5 different buckets a week with the last week being a repeat of the 5 favorite stations from the previous 2 weeks.

Simple * Fun * & Full of Learning

P.S.  I take this time to do lots of kid watching and write down information about the kids I'd like to remember.  I also offer suggestions on how to play with the items and see who is able to do this will little guidance.  I guess you could say I use it as a pre-assessment of sorts.