Math Tips for K-1Students

Math Tips for K-1Students

Measurement:

1. Opportunity: Explore measurements in natural settings

·  Cooking – Measuring cups, spoons, temperature, volume, and time

·  Measuring by comparison of household items (Who is the shortest person in your family? Whose boots are heavier? Whose wingspan is longer?)

2. Units: Weight, height, length, time, volume, and temperature

3. Comparisons:

·  Use proper vocabulary: more/less, taller/shorter, narrower/wider, heaviest/lightest

Understanding Numbers:

1.  Counting can be fun but be careful to avoid making it tedious. Look for numbers everywhere! Take a walk around your house. Baseball has one home plate, two teams, and three outs. Count how many bites it takes to eat a sandwich or finish your bowl of popcorn! Start a family penny jar and count it from time to time!

2.  Counting backwards is good practice in becoming a nimble counter. Try starting at different numbers.

3.  Try counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. This is called “skip counting” and it is a useful skill.

4.  Practice counting to 100, at first start the count at 1, but later as counting becomes easier; vary the starting number to 15, 26, 45 etc... Sometimes help them go beyond that 100 barrier.

5.  Matching numbers with the sets of objects helps develop the “sense” for a number. This is called one-to-one correspondence.

6.  Create short and playful counting opportunities everyday that incorporate adding and subtracting.

7.  Use the words plus and minus when your child is adding and subtracting.

8.  When working on addition and subtraction story problems be sure to stress “in all” and “what’s left” to indicate the operation that is necessary.

9.  “Counting on” and “counting back” can be thought as simple addition and subtraction.

Patterning:

1.  Try to incorporate patterning into everyday activities at home (morning routines, dinnertime, bedtime).

2.  Ask your child to find the pattern that is being repeated. Find the repetitive pattern and ask you child “What comes next?”

3.  Create a starting point and then provide patterns for you child to extend.

4.  Vary the patterns: AB, ABB, AAB, AABB, AAABBB, ABC, AABBCC, AABC, AABBC, ABCD.

5.  Incorporate patterns into art projects and music – fruit loop necklaces, paintings, rhythms, songs

6.  Number patterns - writing numbers to 100 using a 100s chart grid, writing by 2s, 5s, 10s

7.  Look for letter patterns – learning to read

8.  Materials you can use at home for patterning: Fruit Loops, stickers, stamps, colored mini marshmallows, plastic Easter eggs, conversation hearts candy, M&Ms, small holiday pictures, Smarties, Skittles, Bingo stampers, Unifix cubes, Links, colored cubes, hand movements

Money:

1.  Work on coin recognition and value.

2.  Try to create practical situations where your child can use money. Have your child help you use the vending machine or purchase something at the store.

3.  Role playing is an excellent way to help your child retain the concept of money. Have a flea market sale in your own home for fun, pretend to be a cashier and a customer using coins, or allow your child to be your coin organizer.

4.  Anytime you can involve a tactile movement with a verbal use of the name of the coin it is helpful. Throwing a nickel into the wishing fountain would help reinforce coin recognition as well as having a “Dime Hunt” around the house.

5.  Exchanging smaller valued coins for larger valued coins is an excellent way to help reinforce the value of the coin and the dollar bill. Encourage your child to organize pennies into piles of ten to exchange for dimes, and then ten dimes to exchange for a dollar.