Ice Cube Game

E is still obsessed with the Hot Chocolate Game I made for him before Christmas and so I have been looking for ways to build upon the same concept.

So, while playing Don't Break the Ice after Christmas I thought to use the pieces as ice cubes in a new game.  In this one, rather than working on adding and subtracting, we worked on equal sharing (early division).

I found 4 see-through cups and made a die with multiples of 4 on each side (4, 12, 16, 20).  E rolls the die, counts out the number shown and then divides them among the cups equally.  

We simply practiced saying "1 in here, 1 in here, 1 in here, and 1 in here.  Now, 2 in here, 2 in here, 2 in here, 2 in here, and 2 in here."  We did this until all the cubes we had counted out were placed in cups.

At the end of each turn, we counted to make sure all the cups were equal (or matched as E says).  We then pretended to drink our drinks, dump the ice out, and do it again.

Several times E would have a pair that were not equal and it was a good chance for me to talk with him about how we could fix it.  By the end of the week, he was starting to grasp that you have to find the cup that has too many and move some ice to a cup that has too few.

E is currently 31 months old

Scarves for Snowman

Now that Christmas break is over and illness has cleared out of our house, we are finally back to our normal schedule.  Currently, we are doing some winter activities.

I received this pocket chart/felt board for Christmas and I was so excited.  I made a snowman with a set of different colored felt scarfs to go with him.  I then created snowman sentence strips that mimic the rhythm of Brown Bear, Brown Bear (see second photo for words I used).

I also made color word cards and had E practice putting the right word in the blank spot as we changed the snowman's scarf.