We have been big fans of hands-on learning in this household. It works well for my active boys to explore and get lost in the sensory aspect of any activity. It certainly doesn’t always end up as intended, but there always seems to be learning happening. I was inspired to make these math kits as one of the curriculums we are using, suggested putting something together, so all your
resources were in one spot. Making things easy to grab and go but also begin to create a sense of independence, as your children can easily find and grab whatever resource is needed. It seemed like a no-brainer to me; any excuse to pull out a cute basket, and I’m in!
Before I get into all the resources, here’s something to keep in mind. I really didn’t need to put a kit together for my 2.5-year-old. No “formal math lesson” will be done with him. But, he’s always wanting to do almost exactly what his brother is doing, even if it only lasts for a short while. So I made him a math kit too. More age appropriate and really just centered around things he’s currently into. Puzzles, play dough, and stacking, for example. This will hopefully keep him occupied so, I can work with and help my oldest when needed. My kindergartener's basket is more based on his math curriculum we have been using this year.
So here’s a breakdown of what’s in each kit:
Preschool kit:
- Sunflower Puzzle: my youngest is so into puzzles right now. So this is perfect for honing logic skills, fine motor practice and can even become the perfect lesson in symmetry.
- Number Cookies: to begin to work on number recognition.
- 5-frame Felt Balls & Tweezers: he loves picking up felt balls with tweezers and placing them into any 5 or 10 frames. The felt balls are contained in the acorn pouch to keep them together.
- Clip Board with Coloring Sheets & Leaf Crayons: these coloring sheets from Mornings Together have numbers and clocks on them and are just so fun to switch gears if needed.
- Wooden Ruler
- Wooden Checkers: for stacking and counting.
- Playdough and Shape Cutters: this is just such a playful way to become familiar with shapes. Play dough, in general, is a favorite with my youngest to play with and keep his little hands occupied.
Kindergarten Kit:
- Ten Frame
- Mini number tiles up to 100 from Tree Fort Toys. They fit so perfectly into the ten frame!
- 100 Maple Leaf Counters- the goal is to count to one hundred this year.
- Acorn Pouch with ten acorns
- Clip Board with coloring sheets: again, great to switch things up, OR our math curriculum comes with a read-aloud option. So this is the perfect activity to do while reading. Don’t forget to grab your favorite color by number pages too, and add them in.
- Tangram shapes for creating various patterns and larger forms.
- Wooden Shape Puzzle: I like that these also have the name on the cards for further recognition.
- Real Coins
- Wooden Ruler
- Sand Tray & stylus: to be used in multiple ways, you could skip the sand and build/stamp the number with play dough too!
- Nature pencils & coloring pencils
- Clock flashcards from Mornings Together to practice telling time.
- Play dough for stamping numbers and exploring various math concepts.
We are excited to have these on hand through our learning this year! I have a feeling they will likely get tweaked here and there based on what works best for my boys. Be sure to check in over on my Instagram account to see how we’re doing with them, as I plan to do an update
later this year. I hope this inspires you to put together Math Kits for your early learners too!
Happy Fall, friends!
Kendra
