Does your child love to jump in the leaves you rake? Make that activity even more fun by counting how many times you have to rake before the pile is big enough. Then count "1,2,3...jump! Counting things you do is an easy way to make math a part of your everyday life. Children learn math best when it is incorporated into daily activities. Here are 3 more ways to "fall" into math with fun:
One of the fundamental math concepts is being able to sort and classify things based on size, shape, color and other characteristics. Children become intensely engaged in the challenge of comparing things and then counting how many are in each group. Deciding how to sort something, or seeing that something can be sorted in different ways (by color or by shape) develops important math concepts. Give your child fall things to sort like:
After sorting, your child can count the number of things in each group or even make them into a graph.
M&M Falling Leaves
This fun game lets kids learn about subtraction. Here is how to play:
Keep rolling until all the leaves have fallen down. Play again. Don't forget to eat the leaves when you are done!
Apples and Seeds
Another important math skill is learning to match objects with written numbers. This apple seed game does just that.
Want more? Try measuring and counting while making pumpkin muffins. Or line up a row of pumpkins by size. Do you have other fun fall math ideas? Share them in the comments.