Jun 23, 2017

Preschool Math Concepts and the Felt Board




Felt pieces on a flannel board provide young children visual cues for basic math. Many songs, poems and stories  teach math concepts such as number recognition, counting, matching as well as the introduction of adding and subtracting. By including mathematical concepts within the telling of a story or poem,  it will foster cognitive development within the young audience members.



Every time we have a felt story with numbers, we can ask children to count along, or ask open ended questions to encourage subtraction and addition. For example, "If I have five ladybugs all together, and one is on the felt board, how many are in my bag?" These type questions stimulate the minds of older preschool children.



There are so many felt stories and preschool songs with the number five. Next time you are telling the story, try including some math questions to challenge the children's minds: 

"If I have two on the board, and three in my bag, how many felt pieces do I have all together?' 

"I have four on the board, I will take one away, so how many will be left?" 

"Two felts make a pair. We have four all together, so how many pairs do we have?" 

And so on, and so on...




Apr 7, 2017

Spring Flower Felt Board Activities



To the Tune of Farmer in the Dell 

Springtime is finally here, oh springtime is finally here
Flowers come this time of year
Springtime is finally here. 
Springtime is finally here.
Springtime is finally here, oh springtime is finally here
The bees are buzzing, can you hear
Springtime is finally here. 



Use these Flower Felts for Transitioning out of Circle Time

Other felt board activities, such as matching or sequencing, work particularly well with transitions and of course language development. In larger groups, in order to allow every child an opportunity to visit the felt board, you could ask children to bring pieces to the board, and then ask children to remove the pieces. In the flower example, 9 children bring a flower to the board to place in the right sequence, and 9 children remove one flower. But, with smaller groups, the children could simply take the pieces off. For example, "Jenny, could you please come to the board and find me the biggest purple flower?". When Jenny successfully completes this request, the teacher can ask the group, "Is she right? Let's give her a clap. Hooray!" Followed by, "Jenny you can go and wash your hands". The amount of time this takes with each child, will allow for a gradual transition.


Matching and Sequencing Flowers


Preschool children can learn basic math concepts with these visual felt flowers. In this activity, children can be provided a flower to bring to the felt board. This hands on activity works well for circle time management. When the children bring the flower to the board, they can find which color it matches as well as the order of size. The Educator will then promote language development by emphasizing the words bigger and biggest, smaller and smallest, while asking children to repeat the words together. 



Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas