Learning how to Measure

Another activity we did for our Before FIAR unit last week was measuring fruits and vegetables using a ruler and a tape measure.  I list the names of the objects that we used on a paper and added two lines for each object for the result (ruler, tape measure).

 

We used the ruler to measure the height and ended up measuring the circumference using the tape measure.  Anyway, using the result I discussed why the the circumference has a bigger value compared to the height of the apple.

 

For the carrots, it was easy to measure the length using both medium.

  

Then he asked what’s the number on both sides of the ruler for.  Though it’s pretty early for me to discuss centimeters and inches, I explained it a little bit to him.  I realize that he gets confused on which side to use.  Maybe I should have used a customized measuring tool wherein there’s only one unit to use :)

Our record sheet.  It was fun!  Am thinking of measuring his body parts the next time we do measuring.  For sure he would love it!

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Bear in 4 Seasons

Mavi is 41 months old.

We’re rowing Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? this week... and I included “the four seasons” as a side topic to go along with the book.  We accomplished this today and I might as well share it here.

We started by making him color the four teddy bears which I printed out on a cardstock.  It’s just a random clipart from Google... and I chose a simple image that we can simply cut and paste.  He traced the bears when he realized that the lines were no longer visible (covered by the brown crayon).

And he got tired along the way so he decided to color the remaining two bears on the manner shown on the picture below LOL.

Once he’s done with the bears, I told him that we will be setting up the four seasons in each paper and place each bear on it. 

He wanted to cut the yellow craft paper first so I decided that we should do “Summer”.  Here he’s cutting the paper so we can have a sun.

 

Once he glued the son, I described to him what is summer.  What can be seen on summer... and kept on saying “grasses, oceans, beaches and playing”.He made grasses, and glued them.  I was just there to guide him, he did 90% the work :)

We did spring next, where I cut some flowers.  When he glued it, he told me that the stems and leaves were missing, so he added those to each of the flowers.  Love love love it that he includes the stems and leaves here, it’s unbelievable that he was able to absorb what he learned from our plants and flower units.

In autumn I made leaves from different crafting paper.  I showed a leaf prototype and he made the rest.  He wants his version to be as detailed as mine so he added veins on each one.  Again, he enjoys cutting!

Winter was the last and I explained to him why we needed to use a blue paper instead of white.  Then we added a few snows and a snowman.

 

And this is what we ended up afterwards.  It would have been better if we dress up the bears according to season, but I wasn’t in the make one.  Maybe you can try it :)

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Continent: Antarctica Unit (Arts and Crafts)

Mavi is 41 months old.  Last of the 3-parter post on our Antarctica Unit.  

My was in the food for drawing (which was timely) when we started the activities so it wasn’t that hard to convince him that we will draw the things he sees in our Antarctica pictures.  Then to give him an idea on what to do... I showed him a picture of a child’s art work.  I randomly Googled the picture by the way.

He made mountains and and added oceans.  The glitters were snow.

 

We usually work together... I work beside him.  Here’s what I did.  I know! It’s a work of a child LOL. Obviously I am not an artist (I went to Engineering school)!

My son’s work.  He kept telling me he wants to go Antarctica... he whines about it all the time.

Then there was a time I encouraged him to paint.... I showed him an artwork inspired by Antarctica but he insist that he wanted to paint his letters.  He’s been obsessed with alphabets for 2 years!

Another variation was to use watercolors. 

His painting.

  And this was mine.

And lastly, our penguin crafts.  And cutting is his favorite thing to do here! 

The finish product.  Supposedly, there will be glitters all over... but it was already 8PM :(

And that’s our entire unit Antarctica.  If you haven’t read the first two, here’s the link":  Part 1 and Part 2.

We will be doing Asia: Philippines next, but I still have to prepare my materials.  Hope it’ll be ready by March or April.

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Continent: Antarctica Unit (Math Activities)

Mavi is 41 months old.

This is a continuation of our Antarctica Unit which we started last week.  Here are the math activities to go along with our unity study.

PENGUIN ADDITION

We used Safari Toob Penguins for our addition. The cards that you see were homemade.  It will make the addition game a little more interesting if he has these picture cards(control cards).

Another version of our penguin addition is using the concept of Montessori’s Addition Strip.  I previously used the technique using bear counters and it worked for him.

Later, he started to do it on his own using the control cards.

SKIP COUNTING BY 2’S AND 3’S

We haven’t done this for a long time.  So I decided to revisit it.  I used white and blue beads, pretending that they’re penguin eggs (and candies according to my son).

Here I told my son that the penguins are hungry and needed two candies each.  Once he placed the beads, we started counting by 2’s.  I explained that counting by 2’s means that we start counting from 2 and skip some numbers along the way (thus the 1,3,5,7,9).

Then he wanted to have another set-up.  He said that the penguins want to eat rice!  He gave each penguin 2 rice (LOL) and he started counting by 2’s again. I was surprise that he can do it on his own. I am in awe of how can a little one learn by doing repetitive activities. 

We did the same thing when we counted by 3’s.

And revisited a few activities using these penguin printables from Making Learning Fun.  See how we used these printables here and here.

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