Lots of Love for Math!

    As Valentine's Day approaches us, bags of candy have been sneaking in my shopping carts at the store and making their way into my house! I know if I put them in candy dishes around the house, they may or may not be eaten. And I know I am not sending tons of candy for my little munchkin's Valentine's Day party at school.
   So of course, we need other ways to use the candy! So, we used Hershey Kisses to practice counting on ten frame mats.

These mats are available FREE from Amanda Pauley at Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten.

    Some activities that the little munchkin and I have done lately has been from her February Binder. This is just a a binder where I just place a few worksheets that she can do independently, as she pleases. Most are just a mix of worksheets I have made or have downloaded somewhere for free.

    Annie Moffat of The Moffat Girls creates some very cute and awesome packets. I have purchased  a few of her products and have a ton more of her products on my TPT wishlist! 

    We have been using some worksheets from her Valentine No Prep Packet this month!

    I have chosen a few sheets that I feel are at her level and put them in her lovely pink binder. Then when she want to, she gets her binder and then chooses which sheets she wants to do. If it seems too overwhelming for her (since it is a Kindergarten packet), I find ways to make it more fun and engaging.

    For example, she used sticker hearts for this "Let's Make 10" worksheet. And she chose which problems she wanted to do. I do this because it allows her freedom in choosing what and how much she wants to do. When she says she's done, she is done and we move on.

 Although I want to encourage her to see it through to its completion, I do not want to make her finish it all and overwhelm her... that just causes way too many unnecessary issues! 

And plus, she's only four and a half (almost five) and I want her to enjoy what she is learning.

Here, she did some literacy work and did really well-but after two pages of CVC words, 

she wanted to move on.

    We needed to getting active, so we played a game we called "Collect & Count". I put heart shapes all around the house with numbers or heart stickers on each one. (We worked up to number 25)

   She walked, or ran actually, around the house looking for the hearts (some in obvious places like on the cat scratcher) and  placed them in her basket. But before she could put them in her basket, she had to say the number or count the number of heart stickers. If she was incorrect, she had to leave it where it was at.

    We continued to play until she found all the hearts and correctly identified the number or correctly counted the heart stickers.

    It was just a fun and active way to practice number identification and practice counting. She had a blast with it!

    Tomorrow the hubby is taking me out somewhere and I made some chocolate playdoh for the munchkin and the sitter! It smells yummy, and I know she will love it. I haven't made scented playdoh in awhile so I know she will be excited!