Oreo® Math
Bring in Oreo cookies to accompany the book. Write the following questions on chart paper and record the children's responses:
How many Oreos are in a package?
Are there enough cookies in a package for all of the children?
Now ask them to count the cookies inside the package.
How many cookies will be left or how many more cookies will they need?
Provide everyone with two cookies and a napkin.
Now how many Oreo halves do you each have?
Ask everyone to twist open his or her cookies.
How many halves do they have in all?
Invite the children to eat one whole cookie.
How many halves are left?
How many whole cookies are left? Time to eat the rest of the cookies!
Review their responses and assist them in summarizing what they learned.
Snacking on Quarters!
Plan a math snack activity using crackers that can be divided into quarters like graham crackers.
Give each child one whole cracker and 4 parts of one cracker. (Older children may be able to break their crackers into fourths by themselves.)
Ask each child to place the four parts on top of the whole cracker. Then ask: How many parts make a whole cracker? How many parts make a half of a cracker? How many halves make a whole cracker? You can tell the children that the four parts of the cracker are called fourths or quarters, like the four quarters that equal one dollar.
Extend the activity by counting how many whole crackers they have in the entire class, how many halves they have, and how many fourths or quarters they have.
Compliment everyone on a job well done, serve some jam and juice, and enjoy this delicious snack.
Counting With Our Bodies
Involve the children in a variety of counting activities that encourage number concept development, number grouping, and addition and subtraction skill building.
Ask the children to count the number of children in the class in the following ways:
Begin by asking one child to stand up. Choose another child to stand next to him or her. The children will say: One plus one is two…another child will join in…then the children will say: Two plus one is three…and so on until all of the children have been counted. Now group children by two. Assist the children in counting by two's. Continue counting by grouping the children by threes, fours, and higher.
Try these counting activities using body parts:
Counting hands: Ask the children to hold up their hands. Ask them how many hands each child has. Then ask them to guess how many hands there are in all. Encourage children who answered correctly to explain how they solved the problem. Now ask the children to count all of the hands to see if their answers were correct.
How many fingers: Now ask the children to hold up one hand. How many fingers are on one hand? Assist the children in counting by five's to find out how many fingers they are all holding up, using just one hand. Now ask the children to hold up both hands. How many fingers are they each holding up? How many fingers are they all holding up? Ask the children what number grouping they will count by to find the answer?
