Make Your Own Light Table Numbers

We are so excited to show you how we made our own transparent numbers for the light table!  My preschooler enjoys playing with these colorful numbers as we work on math concepts.

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Number Line Games

I absolutely love when we can adapt one activity to the current learning levels of both of our kids! This active number line turned into several games that met the needs of our two and five year old. It'd be a great idea for recess for an entire classroom of students, too!

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Preschool Number Flower Garden

We used flowers to create a math garden that reviews number identification and order! I was thrilled that both our preschooler and toddler loved this activity plus it only required a few materials!

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Bathtub Learning

Lately, I've been taking some time when E is not in the bathroom to clean her artwork off the tub walls.  Then I add my own art for her to find!  I did animals for pretend tub play during our farm theme.  She colored them in and fed them for several days.

We use these crayons which we got during the holidays.  They've lasted all year and wash off well:

Last night after she went to bed, I washed the animals off.  I added uppercase letters, her first and last name, shapes, and numbers.

During her bath, I asked her to find and circle letters and numbers.

After we did a few of those, she started erasing them with a wet brush, saying, "Bye bye E!  Bye bye L!"

Numbers, too!

She also erased her name, spelling it as she did so.

She loved this activity!

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Window Math

My preschooler has been so incredibly interested in math. (Thank you, Math Seeds!) The theme of this month's activity for the Light & Reflections series is motor skills. We did a few window math games with a gross motor twist!

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All About Me Math Race

For our preschool All About Me theme, we're practicing number identification with a gross motor math race! People retain information faster and better if it is relevant to their lives. Preschoolers are no different and adding movement increases understanding as well.

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Back to School Process Art for Kids

Our kids love collaborating on process art projects together. Painting with a school bus is the perfect large and fine motor back to school invitation to create! Kids can learn their school bus route number as an added bonus, too.

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Foam Dough with Literacy

We've joined up with fellow KBN bloggers to co-host 12 Months of Sensory Dough.  Here at Still Playing School, we'll be loading the sensory dough experiences with literacy!  Each month you can read about our spin on the dough as we incorporate letters, words, reading, and writing into our messy, fine motor packed fun.

January is foam dough!  We've made sparkle dough in the past using similar ingredients, but I wanted to experiment with adding color this time.

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Bottle Cap Hundred Chart

A Hundred Chart is a fantastic  tool for children to naturally discover patterns in math. We recycled bottle caps to create a loose parts math invitation for the light table!

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Hundred Chart Patterns on the Light Table

During any creative play with math manipulatives patterns will emerge. We put a hundred chart on our light table to explore numeric patterns in a colorful way!

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Dominoes Place Value Game for Kids

We love using everyday items to work on educational activities! We used dominoes to play a game that practices math concepts including place value and comparing numbers. We've even included the free worksheet so you can play at home or school, too!

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St. Patrick's Day Literacy and Math on the Light Table

To add a festive St. Patrick's Day spin to our light table play I created some DIY transparent letter manipulatives for literacy that we called gold coins!  We also found some holiday themed ways to explore math, too!

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We Love Starfall

Since the days when I taught in public and private classrooms, Starfall has been the hands down favorite for educational activities.  If you don't know about Starfall, you'll want to and if you do, I might be able to show you a few things today that you didn't realize were available (because I've just discovered them, too)!

With my kindergarten classes, we always worked on the ABCs section until they were proficient in their letters and sounds, then we moved on to Learn to Read.  Both of these sections are complete free.  The ABCs page works on letter naming, letter sounds, and both uppercase and lowercase identification.  Learn to Read provides sight word practice, phoneme blending, and word family games.

I had our (then) toddler first try out Starfall when we got our home theater PC.  She was 2 1/2 years old. Lately, we checked it out again and I stumbled upon new (to us) sections (that actually published about a year ago) called More Starfall.

In addition to literacy and reading, there are sections for math and songs/rhymes.  Like the other sections, it was easy for me to level our preschooler to what she needed to work on like numbers 11 to 20...

...and sorting by several attributes.

Starfall offers one month trials to anyone who requests them.  When ours expires, we'll definitely be subscribing.  To get your free trial, just email Starfall and ask (and let them know that Still Playing School sent you, please)!

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Word Pop! - Bubble Wrap Sight Words

What started with bubble wrap sight word practice turned into a whole collection of ways to learn words with a bang!  We've included both fine motor and gross motor ways to practice any skills your child is working on: letters, numbers, colors, shapes, math facts, etc.

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Twelve Snails to One Lizard Measurement Activities for Kids

Measurement can be a tricky concept to introduce to kids. Present new material in a fun and relevant way with literature!

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Green Eggs and Ham Letter Recognition

Read Across America Day is approaching. Yet no matter what time of year it is most kids love Dr. Seuss books. We chose to turn one of our favorites into a hands on literacy activity for preschool or kindergarten!

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Frozen Inspired Winter Writing Salt Tray

We are a bit Frozen obsessed! Hearing E sing the soundtrack would melt anyone's heart! After the movie inspired us to build snowflakes on our light table, we next decided to make a Frozen inspired winter writing salt tray for fine motor practice.

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Paper Chains for Countdowns and Patterns

The concept of time is abstract so it can be difficult to explain to children. We use paper chains to count down to exciting events!

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Fine Motor Color Sorting

We had everything we needed around the house for this fine motor color sorting invitation for kids! What a fun way to discuss the colors of the rainbow!

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Ten Apples Up On Top Gross Motor Game

When you think of the beginning of the school year, apples immediately come to mind! Preschools have apple themes and everyone loves to count with the book Ten Apples Up On Top. We've extended the math learning in this book by turning it into a gross motor movement activity for kids!

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