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April 2004 PBS Ready To Learn is supported by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education, PR/Award Number R295A00002 Everyday Math

While Watching READING RAINBOW: Ask children, How have you used math today? Talk to them about how their answers compare to the kids’ on the show. Encourage them to brainstorm other places where you use math or people that use math regularly (i.e. the bank ,the grocery store, engineers or accountants.)

PBS Resources for Everyday Uses of Math: Lessons & Activities:

http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math/preschool_math.shtm http://www.pbs.org/parents/fungames/ In the activity search,

choose math & numbers to find 110 activities! http://pbskids.org/arthur/grownups/activities/math.html

Thinking and Reasoning Skills: http://www.pbs.org/wholechild/providers/minds.html

EVERYDAY MATH Math is a part of almost everything we do, whether it be spending money, sorting our laundry, cooking dinner, telling the time or using a map to ride on the train! But, for children, math can be an abstract and complicated concept. By watching Reading Rainbow, reading The Doorbell Rang, and setting the table, children will see many varied uses for both numbers and logical reasoning skills. These activities will help children to think about math as a part of their everyday lives, making it less of an overwhelming idea.

VIEW: READING RAINBOW

Math Cure

LeVar Burton asked kids on the street, “How have you used math today?” Some answers included using money, measuring their height, and measuring ingredients for pancakes. Then LeVar takes viewers to an artist’s studio where the artist uses math to create ceramic tile murals.

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April 2004 PBS Ready To Learn is supported by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education, PR/Award Number R295A00002 Everyday Math

Recommended Books: Math Curse by Jon Sciescka Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root Jane Chapman (Illustrator)

• Activities from Mister Rogers • Everyday Math for Preschoolers

Quick Tip Point out that Sam and Victoria are using math to figure out how many cookies they will get. Make paper cookies and act out the story as you read it.

For older kids, check out CYBERCHASE activities at: http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/

READ: The Doorbell Rang

By Pat Hutchins

Victoria and Sam are delighted when Ma bakes a tray of a dozen cookies, even though Ma insists that her cookies aren't as good as Grandma's. They count them and find that they each can have six. But the doorbell rings, friends arrive and the cookies must be re-divided. This happens again and again, and the number of cookies on each plate decreases. See how many cookies Sam and Victoria end up with.

DO: Kitchen Math

Help children develop counting skills during snack time! After you read The Doorbell Rang, bake cookies together-you can use the included recipe from Mister Rogers, or use one of your own. As you place the batter on the pan, count out the number of cookies. While the cookies are baking, help the children figure out how many cookies each of them will eat. After that, ask the children to set the table. Have them count the number of chairs to figure out how many plates, napkins, cups etc. you will need. Then ask them to place one plate in front of each chair and one napkin next to each plate, etc. Developing one to one correspondence is an important step in learning to count.

ALSO INCLUDED:

Activities from Mister Rogers

http://pbskids.org/rogers/

Bake some yummy cookies.

First gather a few things: mixing bowl electric mixer cookie cutters or plastic knives cookie sheet 2/3 cup of shortening 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract 2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg

Mix the shortening, sugar, almond or vanilla extract with an electric beater. Add the egg and beat the mixture again. In another bowl, mix the flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and refrigerate for one hour. After an hour of refrigeration, you can roll out the dough, cut it with cookie cutters or make your own shapes with plastic knives. Bake the cookies on a greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 6 - 8 minutes.

Making cookies takes a lot of work! As you read the recipe, you're showing your child the value of reading. As you measure, you're showing your child the value of understanding numbers and careful measuring. The other benefit of making cookies together is that your child learns to appreciate that most things are made by a "process" that involves steps and time. Then your child may not give up as easily on the first steps of other things he or she is working on.

Sorting Laundry Any time the family laundry is done is a chance for a sorting and matching game. You can help sort the clothes when someone in your family is getting ready to do the wash--into whites or colors, or things that are delicate or sturdier. After the wash is done, you can help sort things for putting them away--for example some shirts are big and others are little. Whose rooms do they go in? Which socks go together? Play and learning go hand in hand, and giving your child these experiences doesn't take extra time or involve extra materials. It can happen naturally in everyday family life, especially when you make something fun out of a chore, like setting the table, putting away silverware, or helping to make the bed. As children take in information about the world, they are often fascinated by sorting and categorizing things. With the laundry game, you can help your child understand that the same things are likely to get re-sorted differently for putting them away: while the pre-wash sorting may have been by color, the post-wash tends to be by size. That can help your child learn that things (and people) are alike in some ways and different in other ways. Just working at something "grown up" alongside you can make any such activity a treat for your child.

Matching Shoes Bring out several different pairs of shoes and mix them up in a pile. Can you find the mate to each shoe? Do you have shoes from different people in your family? You could arrange them according to size. Or you may want to arrange them according to the different people in your family…or by color. You might even want to play "shoe store" with the shoes.

Matching games give children a way to practice careful looking. One of the early steps in learning to read is the ability to see similarities and differences in the letters of the alphabet. Preschoolers can also be fascinated with matching games because they're just learning about the world around them, and in order to make some sense of all there is, they work on classifying things into different categories.

Everyday Math for Preschoolers

Preschoolers need sensory activities in order to understand the abstract concepts they are learning. To help them understand that numbers have meaning, give them opportunities to “feel” the number.

Get a deck of playing cards and take cards 1-10 out of the deck. Put the cards face down on the floor. Have each child take pick a card. Ask them to identify the number on the card and have them count the hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades. (You can also use playing cards to talk about shapes and color.) Next have the

child jump as the group counts to the number on the card. So if they pick up a 4, they will jump 4 times.

Have the children help you label the sections of an egg carton by writing the numbers 1 through 12. Together, count out 78 beans (or other small objects.) Then have them count out the corresponding number for each of the sections of the carton.

There should be one bean in the section marked "1" and two beans in the section marked "2" and so on. If they have counted accurately, exactly 78 beans will be needed. For younger children, divide the egg carton into smaller sections or have them put one bean in each section as they count to twelve.

Make Cheerio necklaces to practice counting to 10. Set out bowls of Cheerios. Give each child a string with tape on the end so the Cheerios don’t fall off. Ask the children to count as they string

the Cheerios onto the necklace. Most preschoolers will be able to count to 10. If they can go higher, let them keep going. If not, have them start at 1 and keep stringing.