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Classroom Activities: Ready-Set-Math: Measuring (2 short lessons)
  


Ready-Set-Math

Beat the Clock

Ages: 6-8 years

Items needed:
Bowls of medium-sized objects such as nuts/bolts, large macaroni,
large buttons, bottle caps
Plastic spoons
Paper plates or trays
A kitchen timer

The teacher gives each child a bowl of small objects, a spoon, and a plate. The goal is to scoop as many objects onto the plate within one minute. The rules include no fingers-only use the spoon. Any dropped items that don't make it to the plate will be subtracted from the total on the plate. (Children competing against one another should have similar items, for example, everyone has bottle caps.) The action stops when the bell goes off. Each child counts the total on the plate, subtracts the dropped ones, and submits a score. The highest number wins the game.

Ready-Set-Math

Animal Puppet Patterns

Ages: 7-9 years

Items needed:
The storybook and song for "There Was An Old Lady (who swallowed a fly ...)
Tongue depressors
Glue
Heavy construction paper

Children draw the animals swallowed by the lady (fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, cow, horse), color, and cut them out. The creation is traced and measured in inches or centimeters, depending on the unit of study. These puppet patterns are exchanged with other classmates, who try to use the pattern to make one animal of their own. The animals are glued on or stapled on tongue depressors, and the class acts out the story while singing along to the record. The class may wish to order the sizes of each animal from smallest to largest.

From Susan Sperry Smith Early Childhood Mathematics, Second Edition, ©2001, page 192.

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