Tutoring
Right now I am working with a preschooler and a kindergartner. We focus on colors, shapes, counting, name identification, and introductions into letters and sounds. Here are some of the things we've been working on.
Counting Beads
I found this activity through Pinterest on Tot School Tumbler: Counting Bead Flags. Its a quick and easy hands-on activity to help children understand the relationship between the number of beads and its written numeral. For my older student, we started with the beads already on the "flags". We pointed to the numeral and then counted the beads. This child will be starting Kindergarten this fall and we have been working on identifying the written number. I would cover the beads and point to the flag and have her tell me what it said. Another way to use these beads would be to take all the beads off and have the child put on the correct number of beads. While making a second set, I thought about how you could use different colored beads to help practice skip counting (number 4: 2 red beads, 2 green beads). *just a thought :)
Even my 2 year old had fun with these Counting Flags (though be careful if you use pony beads since they are a choking hazard!).
Counting
There are endless possibilities when it comes to teaching counting. Number sense is a very crucial skill for students to learn—without the basic understanding of numbers, they will struggle with addition, subtraction, etc. All of these skills build on one another!
Food is a great way to help children connect a number (said or written) with the actual concept. My daughter and students love having "Snack Math" .Here are a few ways to use food as counters:
1. Place a few pieces on the table and practice counting them. Show the child how you touch and count—this is called one-to-one correspondence You may notice that many children can verbally count higher than they actually understand—this is called Rote counting (also in saying/singing the Alphabet)
2. After you count the pieces, have the child eat a piece. Ask them how many are left? Keep doing this until there are no pieces left (0 is a number and a great concept to understand too).
3. Use a piece of paper and write a number on it. Tell the child the number and help them count out the correct number of pieces. You can make this more challenging later on by telling/showing them a number and having them count out the pieces by themselves.
4. Simple addition and subtraction games are easy even for toddlers! For example, give them 5 Goldfish. Count the Goldfish and tell the child there are 5. Take one away (or add one) and lead the child in recounting the Goldfish.
Food is a great motivator and kids are always hungry! I used food in math many times with my first graders: patterns, fractions, graphing, addition, and subtraction and it was always a big hit!
Name
There are so many lessons you can teach with a child’s name! Recognizing and knowing your name when called (infant), recognizing your name in print, counting the letters in your name, learning the letters and sounds in your name, putting the letters in the correct order, and of course, writing your name---and they can all be fun!
One way I work on names is to make them into a puzzle (here is one great example I found on Pinterest: name puzzles) I type up the child’s name (Jane); then I make a copy and cut the letters apart (J-A-N-E). We start off by introducing this word as their name and start to echo-read the letters (Teacher: “j” Student: “j”). Then we try to match up the letters. After some practice, the student can do this by themselves. To make it more challenging you can take away the full name and have them put it together by memory or to make it even more of a challenge, add in additional letters (makes them really have to think!).
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