A really natural and motivating activity can be done at home to support the groundwork we have been laying at school. Oh and its simple and requires almost no prep work! The routine activity I am talking about is snack time. 1.) Pick a snack your kid enjoys. The best snacks are those that are small and you can give multiple pieces of (think goldfish crackers). Pick a quantity concept that has an opposite (few/many is the one we have been working on in school). 2.) Represent the chosen concepts to the extreme on two separate plates or cups or bowls. For example, at school when we presented "few" and "many," 2-3 snack items were in one cup and 8-10 were in the second cup. 3.) Use the quantity words to label each before asking your child which he/she wants. Whichever quantity word they use is the one they get. I wonder which your child will pick? My money is on the larger quantity. The kids learned pretty quickly they wanted to ask for "many!" If your child says "few," but then protests, just use the correct label when giving him/her the quantity he/she wanted. Use only the quantity word and leave out all the extraneous language, so you really focus only on teaching the concept you chose. "Oh, many," (as you handed your child the cup with "many" would be preferred over, "You said you wanted a few. Oh, you meant to say, 'I want many goldfish crackers.'" If your child has limited verbal skills and you think they can't say those words consider printing out the picture choices below. That's how simple the activity is! Give it a try and let me know how it went.
visual_choice_of_two-quantity.pdf |