Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath—You Can Do This!
by Terrie Lynn Bittner
ISBN: 0-9728071-5-2

One More River: A Noah's Ark Counting Book by Joan Paley

Two by Two: A Puzzle Book (Board book) by Allia Zobel Nolan (Author), Luanda Rinaldo (Illustrator)

Animal Counting Lessons

A math lesson about animals

Materials needed:

• pictures of five wild animals. You need at least five of each picture for each child and one for you. They should be pictures the child can color. You can use clipart or coloring book pictures.
• A set identical to yours for each of your children. The children’s sets should be on cardstock, but do not need flannel.
• Pictures should be printed on cardstock, but not colored. Your set should have flannel or pellon backing and be colored. Make sure each type of animal is identical to the others in the same set—for instance, every lion should be exactly the same, even the same color.
• A flannel board
• Five pieces of yarn for every child, plus a set for you. The yarn should be large enough to circle five animal pictures—all the lions will go inside one piece of yarn. All the elephants will go into another, for example.
• Crayons

Procedure:

1. Introduce one picture of each type of animal. As you show the animal, ask what it is. Ask questions about the animal: What sound does it make? Where does it live? What does it eat? Be sure you know the answers to these questions or help your children find the answer. After discussing the animal, ask the children to pretend to be that animal. Let them get up and move around.

2. Place one of each type of animal on the flannel board. Make a yarn circle around each one, large enough to hold several pictures of the animals. Then hold up another animal picture. What is this? It wants to be with the other animals that are just the same. Is there another animal just like this on the flannel board? Show the children how you put it in the yarn circle with its friend.

3. Give each child a flannelled animal from your set. Call one child at a time to come up and put his animal into the correct set. Use the term set as you talk to the children so they learn the correct mathematical term right from the start.

4. When the children are finished, give each child a set of animals and yarn. Let them spread out around the room and work on the floor to make sets of matching animals with their own pictures.

5. Help the children count the animals in each set. If they don’t know how to count, let them repeat the numbers after you.

6. When a child seems restless, let him stop and color his animals.

7. Every day you're doing this unit study, bring out the animals for the children to sort and count.

If you're doing a Noah's Ark theme: Instead of sets, you can also let your child create sets of two, gathering the animals to line up to board the ark. This is easier for younger children just beginning to count. If you're doing a zoo theme, you can also do this by having the animals go to the correct cage. If there is a picture of the animal on the cage, your child can practice matching.

Teach your child to count by two if he or she already knows how to count by one. Spread out the animals and have your child count them. Say the odd numbers in a whisper, and the even in a normal voice. After your child can do this well, teach him to group the animals in two and count by twos.

Princess Ashilyn Michelle suggests making a timeline to go all the way around your child's bedroom wall. Each time your little prince or princess learns a new number, add that number with a fun picture to the timeline. Get him or her excited about circling the room. I'm up to thirty-seven, and when I circle the room, I plan to ask for a bigger room!

 

Check out the right hand column for book and material suggestions for this unit study..