Ready for school

Presented by Minneapolis ECFE

Parents, you can make a huge difference in helping your young child get ready for school. This column features fun activities you can do at home. Together we build school success!

Numbers & Math

To help children succeed with numbers and math concepts, they need to be prepared even before they start kindergarten. This does not mean hours or long minutes of studying. Instead it can be found in the fun times you and your child spend “learning through play.”

Before kindergarten children develop number skills and learn about math related ideas by:

• Working with real objects.
• Counting common objects.
• Sorting objects into groups by color, size, shape, etc.
• Classifying or giving a name to the sorted groups.
• Making a pattern or repeated design with objects of different size, color, or shape.

Children learn best when the activities involve familiar or practical everyday events. Try these activities to help your child learn about “number sense.”
Look for places your child naturally can practice sorting and grouping such as:

• Putting toys away.
• Sorting laundry to wash.
• Putting groceries away.

Look for everyday opportunities to practice numbers:

• Count money such as pennies, dimes, quarters, nickels, dollar bills.
• Sing songs and nursery rhymes about numbers.
• Put magnets on your refrigerator for your child to count, sort and make a pattern.
• Count objects around the house such as toys, toes, fingers, chairs, shoes
• Count dishes and silverware as the table is being set.
• Ask your child to match and fold socks, match shoes and place them in order from smallest to biggest.
• Look for numbers on billboards, elevators, clocks, at the bus stop, food containers such as cereal boxes, calendars, in newspapers, on buildings and houses.
• Use playing cards to play number recognition and matching games.

Information in this column is adapted from “Getting Kids Ready for Kindergarten” published by Early Childhood & Family Services. It’s available on line at the following url: www.mpls.k12.mn.us/departments/tis (Click on “School Readiness”)

ECFE is Early Childhood Family Education, a program within Minneapolis Public Schools. Registration for winter classes in underway, For more information find ECFE online at: www.mpls.k12.mn.us/ecfe or call 612-668-3927.