Buttons and Numbers

Becca was super anxious to have her first day of preschool after we dropped Seth off for his first day of kindergarten.  We'd had runny noses and things so I didn't have anything big planned.

Remember our fabric number squares?

We pulled them out for some fun with buttons and numbers.  Becca LOVES to play with buttons.  In fact afterward, she grabbed all the buttons the first chance she got and tried to take them off to her room.  First we put the appropriate number of buttons on each number.  Then when Becca got tired of that, she matched the color of the buttons.

Fun with Flashcards

The other day, I was up on Firecracker's loft bed, trying to get her bed made up nicely with her new quilt, so I could take some pictures of it...which I'll share with you next week.  (Anyone else notice what a pain it is to make up a loft/bunk bed?!?)  The whole time I was up there wrestling with the sheets and quilt, Sweet Pea was down in her bed babbling away and practicing her letters.

My mom gave us several sets of flashcards for a Christmas gift, and Sweet Pea especially LOVES them.   She especially loves to find R's...

YEAH!!  I found an R!!!!

I Love You the Purplest (Fishing for Numbers)- Read Along with Me

We were first introduced to Barbara M. Joosse's books when Firecracker's birthmom gave her Mama, Do You Love Me? as a baby.  Since then we've fallen in love with many of her books and own 4 or 5 of them.

As much as we love Barbara Joosse's other books, I Love You the Purplest by Barbara M. Joosse is one of my all-time favorite children's picture books...EVER. 

It's the story of a mother who takes her two boys (either fraternal twins or similar in age...we're not told) fishing.  Throughout the story, they're competing for their mama's attention and  praise, but Mama cleverly chooses her words to help both boys feel accomplished and important.  At the end of the book as she's tucking them into bed, each boy whispers to ask who she loves the best.  To one she says she loves him the reddest and goes on to describe red things that remind her of his firey personality. 

10 Black Dots - Read Along with Me

I remember Donald Crews books from when I was a child.  This illustrations are so simple and engaging...so when I saw 10 Black Dots by Donald Crews on the shelf at the thrift store, I knew I couldn't leave it there. 

The story starts with one black dot that makes a sun.  Each page adds another dot and uses them in a creative way for a different part of the picture.

For our activity, I pulled out our number squares.  You can see how I made them here, or you could easily make something similar with just paper.  My kids love it when I pull out the number squares, and they love it when I pull out the buttons, so this activity was a double success as far as they were concerned.

My plan was to have Little Brother put buttons on each square to add up to the number that was on it.

But it turns out that putting brightly colored buttons onto brightly colored numbers is just too much fun...one can't limit oneself to just a few buttons.  The number must be completely covered.

Sweet Pea wasn't too interested in the number aspect, but she really got into sorting the buttons by color.  It started when Little Brother needed  more buttons to cover his 6. 

Sweet Pea noticed and started finding blue buttons for him without even being asked. 

When I realized she was interested, I had her sort out a few more colors and match them to the color of the numbers.  (Here she is sorting purple, white and yellow.)

So in the end, this ended up being more of a colors/sorting/fine motor skills day than a numbers day, but the kids had fun and that's what matters.

Also, don't be surprised if your living room looks like this when you're done...because it turns out brightly colored  buttons are fun to throw around too...especially when you're overdue for a nap.

The buttons that I let the kids play with were bought in a large assorted package from the craft store...but if you're looking for some super sweet affordable handmade buttons for a special project, be sure to check From the Red Kitchen (my sister's shop) where she has a whole rainbow of pretty ones.

(And in honor of her appearing on MADE a little later today, all her boy stuff is on sale, and you can even get free shipping by using coupon code "CELEBRATETHEBOY" at checkout.)

And as a bit of a disclaimer...you'll want to be careful giving kids buttons to play with.  Buttons can be a choking hazard.  Sweet Pea is almost 2 and not at all inclined to put them in her mouth.  However, many toddlers her age DO put things like buttons in their mouths, so you need to know your child and their abilities.  Be sure to supervise them at all times.

If you're just now joining us, be sure to visit our Read-Along Archives to see the books we've already read.

I'll be linking to:

Active Math Games and AWESOME Book

This project has been in the works for a few weeks, and I finally have it ready to show you.  Anyone with preschoolers and kindergarteners in the house knows they love to move around and this is a great way to use that to your advantage to help them learn their numbers and colors.

I saw this post on ABC & 123: A Learning Cooperative a while ago that gave a lot of ideas for using play to help kids learn about numbers.  The picture of the girl playing hopscotch got me thinking because Firecracker really likes hopscotch lately.  I didn't want to use paper cards, though, because they'd get ruined fairly quickly and slipping on paper is Sweet Peas #1 favorite way to slip and fall, so I decided to make mine out of fabric.

Greater Than-Less Than Felt Alligator Game

I've been subbing a lot lately while Hubby is home with the kids during the day and taking night class to get his teaching credential. While my favorite assignments are chemistry and math, I sub from kindergarten up through high school and everything in between. One of my elementary classes was comparing numbers using greater than and less than when I remembered this number fish game I made for my kids.  They still love playing with it.  Then I thought...I should make them an alligator to help them practice comparing numbers...perfect since an alligator eating the bigger number is often how we teach kids to remember how to use the greater than and less than symbols...which apparently blogger won't actually let you use in written text.

So I thought I would post my first non-felt-food project with felt today in honor of Fun Felt Friday's over on Camp Slop, so head on over and check out her blog after you've checked out this post.  I think Heather's Felt Fridays officially start next week, but her blog is awesome.  There's plenty of other cool stuff to look at.

Here's what we did.  I found this image via google image seach.  I copied it into Word and made it bigger.  Then I used my computer screen as a light box and traced the shapes for the head, mouth, and teeth and then drew the body for it myself.  I wanted the head exaggeratedly big so that it would stand out. 

I wanted my alligator to be reversible, so it could be turned around for greater than and less than.  To do that, I cut two alligator pieces, two red mouth pieces, and one set of teeth (one top piece and one bottom piece.)

Then I sandwiched the teeth between the two red mouth pieces, and sewed along the edge to hold the teeth in. 

Then I sandwiched the mouth between the two alligator pieces and sewed. 

Before doing any of the sewing, you want to make sure you've pinned everything really well, so it stays lined up.  (Felt has a tendancy to stretch slightly as you sew.)

Then you're done.  As you can see, my alligator is still blind, but it seems to find fish to swallow anyway.

I was going to do eyes with embroidery thread...and maybe I will...but who knows when I'll get around to it.

I let Firecracker out of bed for a trial run, and she had no problem using the alligator for two number fish.

Adding the numbers up on multiple fish was a bit tricker...which wasn't a surprise since we're working on her adding lately.

You could also put up fish without numbers and have your child decide which side has more fish.  Like the flannel board that's part of our puppet theater?  Click on the link for more info. 

If you're looking for some extra cute counting fish, check these out by Counting Coconuts.

So for all of you that don't want to go through all that to get your pattern for making a Number Crunching Alligator, you can print mine, and I even included my number fish pattern for good measure.

Please click here to download the printable Number Munching Alligator Pattern.

Going Fishing...for numbers

NEW ADDITION: Printable Fish Pattern added at the bottom of this post! 

I made these fish a while ago. Firecracker helped me sew the buttons on their eyes. (Meaning she helped with 2 or 3 and got tired of it, although she did help me choose the colors for a lot of them.) I just drew a fish pattern on paper. Sweet Pea contributed by letting me trace one of her favorite teething toys. I cut two fish out of each color. For the dark purple and green I sewed a white stripe on so the marker would show up. I used a Sharpie permanent marker for the writing but "dabbing" to make the shape, so the marker wouldn't get caught in the felt fibers.I had originally planned on making a fishing pole with a loop to go over the button eye, but then saw a fishing game in the Friend magazine (great for Sunday afternoons) that suggested a magnet fishing pole with paperclips on the fish. We certainly love magnets at this house, so I thought this sounded like a good idea. Firecracker liked helping me choose paperclips for them and they make respectable mouths. Then we used the magnet fishing pole that came with one of our puzzles. I have several plans for these fish as Firecracker gets better at her numbers. These work up on our flannel board or Firecracker likes them even better is they're on the floor and she "goes fishing" from on top of the kid craft table.

*Identifying numbers...Firecracker goes fishing and then identifies the number (or I tell her which number to go fishing for.)

*Beginning to add numbers...Firecracker goes fishing for two fish and then uses the dots to help her tell how many the fish add up to.

*More advanced adding...Give Firecracker a number and have her find two fish that add up to that number. (We're not there yet.)

*Identifying Colors (for Boy). Boy goes fishing and then tells what color it is.

Firecracker and Boy are loving them. It makes practicing their numbers fun. Firecracker even went and found a bucket to put her fish in after she caught them.

Number Munching Alligator
I'm linking to:

Pinkalicious Matching Alphabet and Number Cupcakes Tutorial

I've had a couple projects done for a while, but life has gotten in the way of posting them...so here's one of them.

A year or so ago, I ordered a phonics program for Firecracker called "Happy Phonics" which was developed by Diane Hopkins a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. It was recommended by my friend Lisa. As soon as I heard about it, I knew it was for Firecracker...instead of workbooks and things this program helps kids practice phonics concepts through a series of games. Firecracker is the type to think a workbook is fun for about 2 minutes and then want to do something else. Anyway, Happy Phonics has exceeded our expectations, so if anyone out there is looking for a phonics program, you should check it out.