Teaching place values - tens and ones - Shopping game extended

We extended our shopping game to learn place values. This time I used only ten rupees and one rupee coins in our game (I introduced only the meaning of tens and ones).

Initially, when I asked my little one to pay Rs.12/- she put a one rupee coin and a 2 rupees coin side by side and said , “here is the money.”   I expected this and hence, I gave her only ten rupee notes and one rupee coins.  

Here are some pictures from our shopping game.

Cardboard Roll dolls

I have seen many toilet paper roll dolls in internet and was very much inspired by those projects.  So, I too wanted to do some recycled crafts and we made some cardboard dolls this week. These are really easy and fun to make.  

I used a base cardboard tube of thread rolls.Here is a step by step tutorial

Here is our cardboard tube Rapunzel

Our Math Story Board

In kindergarten, a child has to learn beyond counting and writing numbers and I want our math activities to be real and meaningful.  I already posted some of our math activities like egg counting, simple additionand subtraction with toys … 

In one fine evening, when we were in the terrace observing the babblers, I said, “They are always seen in groups of 6 to ten. That’s why it is also called as seven sisters"

My little one started counting it.  I said, “Actually there were 8 and 3 flew away”.  She immediately replied, “Then, there would be only 5.” I was surprised to hear it.   Because, my little one is very good in counting, shapes recognition and comparisons.  But she never shows interest in addition and subtraction.  In fact, if I ask her to add two numbers or if I give her some worksheet on addition/subtraction, her reply would be like, “No, I don’t like this sort of math.”   So I thought of trying a little later.  But, now I understood, she loves ‘real and meaningful’ math, not worksheets.

I started including science quizzes and simple math concepts in my own stories. I pinned the idea of creating a story board from carrotsareorange a long before.  I created our math story board yesterday.  I cut pictures from old textbooks, comics and magazines and pasted the pictures in a chart paper to create various scenes.   Here comes our story.

This is our little heroin Tinu. Her mom asked her to visit her grandparents.  Her mom asked her to pluck some vegetables and flowers from their vegetable garden and give it to her grandparents.  

On her way, Tinu stood some time near the pond, counted the ducks, fishes and the frog

(I asked my little one some questions like “5 ducks standing and 1 swimming. Totally how many ducks are there?

How many frogs would be there, if the eagle eats one frog?

if the crane eats two fishes, how many fishes would be there?”)

Then, she went to their vegetable garden.  In the entrance, there stood a big tree asked her to identify its name from the seed. Once she answered,  she was allowed inside. 

She compared tomato and brinjal plants which has more number of vegetables.  She plucked 3 from each plant (addition). 

Then, she counted the honey bees flying around the hibiscus plant.  She plucked 4 flowers (Subtraction to find the flowers in the plant).

  She saw one more brinjal plant and plucked two more brinjals (I asked her the total number of   brinjals in her hand).  While returning, she saw 4 parrots sitting in the tree.  3 more parrots came and sat. The tree asked her to tell the total number of parrots sitting in the branch.  She would be allowed  to leave the garden only if she answers . She added them up and replied 7.

On her way to her grandparents’ house, She compared a coconut tree and a papaya tree and said which one is taller.  Then she reached her grandparents’.  

This is my first submission for the challenge 'Something every week - a 90 day homeschoolers challenge"