Saturday, February 1, 2014

Homeschooling - math centers

This is the last of three posts on centers.  Remember, there are a million variations on these centers.  Be creative and try to use what you already have around the house.  When you do need to  purchase something try the dollar store or yard sales before paying full price.

Numbers – number flashcards, counters (bingo chips, checkers, connect four pieces, etc.)
Your child pulls out a number card and counts out the correct number of counters to match.

Patterns – blocks or beads of various colors and/or shapes, pattern cards
Make pattern cards on index cards with markers using only the colors/shapes of your blocks/beads. Your child will pull out a card and repeat the pattern as many times as possible with the blocks/beads.

Clocks - a simple plastic, cardboard, or wooden learning clock
These are great to use with any type of worksheet dealing with time.  Younger ones may just like to play with it or try to make it match the clock on the wall.


Domino math (adding) – a simple set of dominoes (from dollar store if you don't have any), domino math worksheets and/or a domino garage
For younger ones, just matching up the dominoes is a good start.
I'd start with double sixes but you can go higher as they get the hang of adding. The child picks out dominoes and places them on the worksheet. They count the dots on each side and write the number. Then they “add” the numbers together by counting all of the dots. This can also be done for subtracting but it is a little trickier and they have to understand to start with the larger number.
For the domino garage, divide a piece of construction paper into 12 sections by folding or measuring and drawing lines. Write the numbers 0 through 12 on the sections. Your child “parks” the domino “cars” in the correct space by counting or adding up the dots.



Feed the Seals (odd & even) -  two envelopes decorated as seals, fish with numbers (I made mine out of index cards.)
This is a simple sorting game that can be used with many concepts, odds and evens are just one example.  Your child "feeds" the seals the correct fish.  Then you can check their work.
I can't take credit for this idea, but unfortunately I don't remember where I found it.

No comments:

Post a Comment