Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Helping Preschoolers Learn Their Name & Numbers

Being a teacher I definitely don't want Little Man to start school without knowing his letters and how to count using one-to-one correspondence.  He can sing his ABC's and on most days count to 20.  I thought it was time for him to be able to identify his name, and recognize numbers. 

Name Matching Game

Cut up a brown paper bag into two rectangular strips.  On both strips write your child's name.  Set aside one strip.  Take the second strip and cut between each letter of your child's name.  Let your child use the first strip as a guide, and the cut-up strips to match up.  It's really pretty simple.  As your child gets more advance, take away the guide.  Once they can easily put the letters in order, move on to tracing the letters of their name and/or writing it on their own. 


One-to-One Correspondence

One-to-one correspondence is where a child is able to count by pointing to each item.  My mom (also a teacher), purchased Little Man some Counting Picture Cards.  He loves them.  He counts each item and I help him find the correct number.  Right now we are just working on identifying numbers 1-5.  After he can count and match up the correct number 100% of the time, we'll move to the bigger numbers.  So far, he's doing pretty well.  He can count without error, but needs help identifying the numbers.

What are some things you do to help out your Preschooler?

2 comments:

Lynne said...

Good ideas, Mama!
When I want my girls to memorize something, I set it to a familiar song. Like a 7 digit phone number fits well with 'camptown races': 555-1234, 555-1234, 555-1234 THAT's our phone number! Or I taught them both to spell their names with the two versions of the Mickey song...L-A-N-D-R-Y, that spells Landry, my, oh my! (in place of 'classic' Mickey) and K-E-L-L-E-N, R-E-E-S-E (in place of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse jingle.)
We also love sidewalk chalk. They have to skip to 'A' or hop on 'H', etc.
:)

Unknown said...

That is a great idea! Rhett had struggled a bit with know what #'s 13, and 15 were. So I made 15 cards that had the number 15 written on them and then hid them in the house for him to find. It has sure helped him. =)