How to Teach Addition to Preschoolers Using Number Bonds

We’ve been practicing and learning addition using "Number Bonds" for the past days.  We are taking a break from our Golden Beads Addition and exploring another approach to spice up our math lessons.  It’s a surprise that after these activities, Mavi was able to memorize most of the "number combinations", the concept introduced through "Number Bonds", thus the ease of performing addition for him.  We’ve done a couple of math activities before and I was surprised that these activities accelerated his math skills.

Animals in the Freshwater Ecosystem

A few weeks ago, I would take the boys in the park for nature walks.  And we would always stop by in this huge pond were we get to see different animals and insects like swans, flies and ducks.  It’s a good thing that we previously had our Insect Unit as Mavi was always on the lookout for insects and was identifying them.

So I was thinking then that since we have the Marine Animals, why not talk about the animals in ponds, lakes, streams etc.  And that’s what we exactly did yesterday.  I made picture cards similar to our Marine Animals Cards and talked about each of the animals in the pictures and identified in which freshwater ecosystem they belong.

If you would like to have a copy, simply click on the image below to go to our subscriber page for the download link to the free printable.

Animal Exploration: A Study Guide

One of my objective this year is for Mavi to have a bigger understanding of the animal kingdom.  During his preschool and totschool days, I introduced animals via themed activities which he truly enjoyed.  But there was a point that he would asks more complicated questions and I just knew that I have to put “depth” into our lessons.

So let me share with you our outline of study which I considered as a guideline whenever we have a study about animals.  Now, this outline is for elementary level and I would not recommend this to preschoolers.  Familiarization is the first key for preschoolers to understand about the animals and the themed activities are best for this.

ANIMAL KINGDOM (Blog Post, Animal Kingdom Chart and Cards)

• VERTEBRATE SORTING (Blog Post, Vertebrate Sorting Cards)

 

• Study of Birds (Bird Unit I, Bird Unit II, Bird Activities, Bird Printable Pack)

 

• Study of Fish
• Study of Reptiles
• Study of Amphibians/Frogs
• Study of Mammals
• Animal Lifecycles (Blog Post, FREE Animal Lifecycle Cards )

 

• MOLLUSCS:  The Study of Snails  (Part One, Part Two, Snail Nomenclature Card and Definition Booklet)

• ARTHROPODS (FREE Arthropod Chart)
  • ARTHROPODS: The Study of Insects (Part One, Part Two)

• Butterfly Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet (FREE)
• Insect Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Grasshopper Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Ant Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• Caterpillar Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Crustaceans
  • Crab Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Arachnids
  • Spider Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet
• ARTHROPODS: The Study of Chilopods
  • Centipede Nomenclature Cards  and Definition Booklet

We also looked into the habitats of these animals:

ANIMALS AND THEIR HABITATS (Part One, Part Two, Animal Habitat Learning Materials )

 

For animals in freshwater and marine animals:

ANIMALS IN MARINE ECOSYSTEM (Blog Post, FREE Animals in Marine Ecosystem Cards )

ANIMALS IN FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM (Materials Used, Blog Post)

There are fields that we haven’t touched yet, and I am hoping that we could explore them before the year ends.

Hope that you find this post helpful.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

How to Teach Static and Dynamic Addition to Kids

In this post I am going to present how to do static and dynamic addition using the Montessori Golden Bead Material.  I purchased our Golden Beads at Absorbent Minds UK and I am happy of the learning material despite of the high price.  These materials can also be purchased in any Montessori Shop or in Amazon.