monsters

Monster Math Mats: Craft, Counting, and Busybag Fun

The monster math squad has arrived! If you are looking for a craft to let your kids be creative, an on the go busy bag activity that will keep kids occupied while waiting at restaurants, doctor's offices and other places, and a way to work on early math skills, including number identification, one to one correspondence, and ordinal numbers, then this is it.  I came up with the idea while watching an episode of "Monster Math Squad" on Kids' CBC and noticing that different monsters in the show had different numbers of eyes, but it would fit in perfectly with a Halloween theme or a monster unit as well.

 

 

Here is what you need to do to make your own set of counting monsters:

  • Several sheets of construction paper in various colours
  • Scraps of construction paper in various sizes and colours
  • googlie eyes (in various sizes if possible)
  • scissors
  • glue
  • number stickers (optional)
  • marker (optional)

1. Cut each full sheet of construction paper in half lenthwise.

2. Cut monster body shapes, mouths, legs, arms and hair from scraps of construction paper.  We tried to keep the look of our monsters consisent to focus on the change in the number of eyes, but you could make each monster completely unique:

 

 

3. Glue a monster body, plus arms, legs, mouths and hair onto each half sheet of construction paper:

 

 

4. Stick a number sticker, or use your marker to write a number on each monster page.  We also added dots to indicate the number of things that number represented, but you could skip that if your child is already familiar with one to one correspondence:

 

 

5. Set out your monster math mats with a pile of googlie eyes.  Have your child try to place the correct number of eyes on each monster:

 

 

Here is our one-eyed monster:

 

 

Our two-eyed monster:

 

 

And our five-eyed monster:

 

 

The best part about this activity is that when you're done, you can take the eyes off and start again.  Every time you arrange the eyes, you make a different monster! It was fun to just play around and see what we could create.  If you want to make your math monsters more durable, each card could easily be laminated, or simply covered in contact paper. 

Of course, there are all sorts of other activities you could do with your monsters too.  Try arranging the cards in their proper number sequence, adding the eyes on two or more cards, or sorting the monsters by their body colour, background colour, arm colour, or leg colour.  However you use them, this squad of math monsters will be sure to "do the job" in your household.

Posted by momstown Teach on 09/28/2012 - 13:20
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Shape Monsters

Shape recognition is an important part of kindergarten readiness. From counting the number of sides an object has, to developing fine motor skills by drawing and cutting various shapes out, to learning spacial awareness through manipulating shapes once they are cut out, playing with shapes can be a gateway to so many wonderful learning moments.

The great thing about using shapes as a learning tool is that they are free and portable. As you stand in line at the grocery store, you can talk about the shape of the magazines on display, in the car there are circles to spot on the tail lights of other cards, triangles to see on road signs, and squares in the windows of houses.

Shapes are hiding in plain site everywhere, even on popular television shows such as "Monster Math Squad" on Kids' CBC. Goo is a triangle with rounded edges, Lily has triangle spikes down her back and circular bumps all over her skin. Max's body is a rectangle, and he has a square on his tummy, circles for eyes, and semi-circle ears.

After talking about the different shapes we could see on the monsters as we watched "Monster Math Squad", we decided to make some shape monsters of our own:

 

 

To make your own shape monsters, you will need:

  • old magazines
  • colourful pieces of paper to use as your background
  • scissors
  • glue
  • googlie eyes

Look through your magazines, and find brightly coloured ads or other pictures.  Cut out circles, ovals, stars and other shapes.  Be sure to vary the sizes of the shapes you are cutting out.

Look through the shapes you have cut out, and decide how you want to build your monsters.  This is a great time to add in a bit of extra learning by sorting what you have cut out by colour, size, and of course shape.

Select a shape for your monster's body, and glue it onto a brightly coloured piece of paper.  Glue on other shapes to form arms, legs, hair, horns, and any other monster shapes you desire.  Add as many eyes as you would like to each monster too.  You can use them later for counting practise.  Here are a few more pictures of the shape monsters we created:

 

Posted by momstown Teach on 07/27/2012 - 22:51
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Book Review - Yogurt the Ogre

momstown had an opportunity to review a new children's story, before it hit the shelves - lucky us! We were introduced to Yogurt the Ogre - part of the pdoink series, a relatively new entry into the Canadian children's literature scene.

yogurt the ogre book

We took at look at the latest story about Yogurt the Ogre - the Big Tale of the Not So Tidy Whale.  Yogurt is a friendly young ogre who is learning life's lessons while having fun at the same time!

The book is filled with bright, engaging illlustrations that captured my children's (ages 4 and 6) attention right from the cover. The story follows Yogurt's day as he traipses through the woods and plays at home. He meets a wise old rock appropriately named Granite Mosstop, who helps Yogurt understand that when he's having fun and playing, he needs to remember that what is fun for him might not be fun for everyone.

yogurt the ogre book

Yogurt leaves a bit of a mess when he plays... and learns through the book that he needs to remember to clean up and make sure everyone he's with is also having fun. The books ends with a poem (presented as Yogurt's bedtime story) that reiterates the message - remember not to get too carried away when you're having fun, or it might not be fun for everyone.

 

mom reading to child

 

My kids definitely 'got' the theme from both Yogurt's story and the poem at the end. Reading stories with 'morals' like this one presents a good opportunity to ask your child to connect it to their own lives "was there ever a time when you might have gotten too carried away?" If you are finding this to be a great teaching moment, check out the educator guide online.

 

This book was previewed by momstown and will be available in retail stores by April 15th, 2011.

 

Posted by Teacher Mom on 04/04/2011 - 11:38
Labels:
ShareThis share this post