Fun Summer Math Projects for Toddlers

Before your toddler starts kindergarten, it is a good idea that they have some basic math skills. The summer before school begins, there are a few fun math projects that you can do with your toddler to help them learn these basic skills.

Counting With Egg Cartons

This is a great game to teach children to count, and you likely have all of the necessary items right in your home.

You Will Need:

  • An empty egg carton
  • A bag of M&M’s

Number the spaces in the egg carton from 1-12. Have your child place the number of M&M’s in each numbered hole. If they get all of the answers right, they can eat the M&M’s as a reward.

Number Recognition Game

This game will teach your child to recognize numbers 1-9. It is also fun.

You Will Need:

  • Bag of balloons
  • Laundry basket

Blow up 9 of the balloons. Number each balloon and place them on the ground. Give your child a number and have them find the balloon that coincides with that number. Have them place the balloon in the laundry basket. This time, give the child a number again and have them find it in the laundry basket. When your child finds the balloon, they can pop it.

Counting in Nature

This game will give your child a chance to get some fresh air while they are building their math skills.

You Will Need:

  • A notebook
  • A pen

Before your nature hike, make a list of things in nature for your child to find. The list should include one item, then two of another item, three of another item, and so on. The game ends when your child has found all of everything on the list.

Grocery Shopping Fun

You can make your weekly grocery shopping trip, and turn it into a learning game.

You Will Need:

  • A supermarket trip

While you are shopping, but your child in charge of putting items in the cart. For example, you can tell your child to get 5 cans of vegetables. They would need to count out the 5 cans and put them in the cart. You can even add some subtraction to the game, and tell your child to get 7 potatoes, and then take 3 away.

Funny Money

This game will not only teach your child to count, it will also introduce them to money and budgeting.

You Will Need:

  • A package of play money
  • Post-It notes
  • A sharpie marker

Write money amounts between $1 and $9 on several Post-It notes and stick it on various items around the home. Have your child choose the items that they want to buy, and pay you for each item with their fake money.

The Day Star Montessori Children’s Learning Center applies the educational philosophy and methods of Maria Montessori, M.D., a renowned Italian physician and child educator. For our Montessori children math is more than rote memorization. Our children learn the base 10 system with cube material that is properly scaled. For more information on math for toddlers, contact us today.

 

Three Magnet Activities for Kids

Magnets are a fun learning activity for your child.

Teaching how they have a North end and a South end can be both entertaining and interesting as your child learns how they repel each other. Gathering different items and placing them in a tray to explore which are attracted and which aren’t is also a great learning idea. Use different items such as pencils, paper clips, eraser, and other small items can provide simple but educational time for you and your child. These are three other magnet activities for kids.


Going Fishing

This is a great activity to create for your child they can play with you or even all by themselves. Attach a magnet to the end of a stick. Using a shallow box place a variety of different items inside. Use some items that are magnetic such as paper clips, small scissors, screws, or any other smaller objects the magnet will have the strength to lift. Include some items that are not magnetic such as; pencils or small plastic toys your child plays with.


If your child is playing alone, he or she can simply see how many of the objects they can remove by ‘fishing’ them out. If they are playing with a partner, have each player call out what they are going to remove, then attempt to lift it out. They can continue ‘fishing’ out the items until all those the magnet will attach to are out. The one with the most ‘fish’ will have won the game.


Magnet fun with pipe cleaners

Pipe cleaners are great to use with magnets and your young child. You can create ‘a wand’ by attaching a small rectangular magnet found at a craft store to a popsicle stick and then make a face on one side. You can even paint the creation to give it more of a character look. Using plastic eyes and a pom-pom nose will give it personality.


Cut assorted colors of pipe cleaners into 1 1/2 inch pieces and place into a bowl. When your child dips the ‘magic wand’ or personalized character into the bowl they will be amazed at the ‘hair’ their wand character comes out with.


Painting with magnets

Using the character you created in the previous activity, have your child paint a design. Place a piece of paper inside a shoe box with a few drops of different colored paint placed on it. Place a slightly bent paper clip on the paper. When your child moves the ‘magic character’ created underneath the box they move the paper clip through the paint to create a unique design.


The Montessori School in Newark applies the educational philosophy and methods of Maria Montessori, M.D., a renowned Italian physician and child educator. The Montessori concept of education allows children to experience the joy of learning at an early age.  To learn more about our Montessori Primary and Kindergarten program contact us to schedule a tour.

Summer Science Activities at Home for Kids

Just because school lets out for the summer, it does not mean that your child should stop learning or even that they want to stop learning.

Since Science is such an important subject, it is important that you keep your child interested while school is out. There are a few summer experiments that you can do with your children to peak their curiosity about Science, while teaching them something at the same time.

Build a Fizz Inflator

When baking soda and vinegar combine, ab acud based reaction is created. When the two chemicals come into contact with one another, they create carbon dioxide. This is a great way to teach that to your children.

You Will Need:

  • An empty soda bottle
  • A small balloon
  • A funnel
  • 1/2 cup of vinegar
  • Baking soda

Instructions:

  1. Pour the vinegar into a bottle
  2. Stretch out the balloon and fill it half way with baking soda, using a funnel.
  3. Put the neck of the balloon over the bottle, and try to avoid letting any baking soda into the bottle.
  4. Raise the balloon and allow the baking soda to pour from the balloon to the bottle. It will mix with the vinegar and then start fizzing.

Make a Paperclip Float

This experiment will teach your child about surface tension. This means that there is a ‘skin’ on the surface where the molecules hold together tightly. If the experiment is done properly, the paperclip will float.

You Will Need:

  • Clean, dry paperclips
  • A pencil with an eraser
  • Tissue paper
  • A bowl of water

Instructions:

  1. Fill a bowl with water, and put the paperclip in. Watch it fall to the bottom of the bowl.
  2. Tear a piece of tissue paper the size of a dollar bill.
  3. Drop the tissue paper onto the surface of the water gently.
  4. Place the paperclip on the tissue without touching the water or the tissue with your fingers.
  5. Using the eraser on the pencil, poke the tissue but don’t touch the paperclip. Push on the tissue until it sinks. The paperclip should continue to float on top of the water.

Blow Up a Balloon With Pop Rocks

This is a great experiment to teach kids about pressurized dioxide gas and how it can put air in a balloon.

You Will Need:

  • A 1-liter bottle of soda
  • 1 balloon
  • 1 packet of Pop Rocks

Instructions:

  1. Stretch out the balloon so that you can fit it over the top of the soda bottle quickly and easily.
  2. Slowly pour the packet of Pop Rocks into the soda bottle.
  3. Quickly, fit the balloon over the top of the bottle before the gas can escape.
  4. Watch the balloon inflate after the two ingredients combine.
  5. Explain to your child that Pop Rocks containe a small amount of pressurized carbon dioxide, which caused the balloon to inflate.

If you are interested in learning more about our authentic Montessori Preschool program, contact us to schedule a tour.

 

Summer Camp Education

A Montessori Summer camp is a combination of fun and learning for primary and elementary aged students in a nurturing educational environment that adds so much more in the way of also having outstanding experiences. Campers range in age from 2 to 12, and they do not have to be currently enrolled in a Montessori school to participate in this unique summer adventure.

The Goal

The goal is to strengthen the imagination, stimulate creative talents, foster friendships, teach new skills, and give unforgettable memories. It is an exciting chance for children to explore unique experiences and to follow their personal paths of curiosity and creativity while they also have the freedom of summer activities.

Additional Benefits to the Child

  • Encourage the normal desire for independence.
  • Have them obtain a high sense of self-esteem.
  • Awaken the child’s imagination and spirit.
  • Develop the self-discipline and kindness and courtesy to other people.
  • Help the child to learn how to observe, question, and then explore ideas independently.
  • Be exposed to diversity and connect with children of different nationalities and cultures who they may not normally meet.

What is included?

Activities are age appropriate, and there is special attention given to every camper’s individual needs.

Music, art, literature, and outdoor adventures are in every camp. The elementary program for campers 6 to 12 years old adds visual and performing arts, science experiments, foreign culture and language, math, drama, building things, exploring nature and the environment, sports, fitness, swimming, cooking, playing games and other team-building activities, time management skills, and learning about accountability and responsibility. In addition, there is usually a weekly Trip Day to local museums, attractions, a zoo or wildlife preserve, an amusement park, or hiking on nature trails and through forests and valleys.

Campers work both independently and in groups. Montessori instructors and a teaching assistant comprise the staff, give experienced guidance and care, and are dedicated to the support of growth in every child. Presented is a balance of group projects and times when children can choose their own activities.

Learn More

Camp Montessori experience is a continuation of your student’s regular Montessori education with an emphasis on fun and holistic youthful activity.  To learn more about our Montessori summer camp, contact us to inquire about our two week sessions.

Art and Science Activities at Home

It is a mission of the Montessori Schools to encourage parents to continue to do at home some of the proven Montessori methods of early learning activities that teachers incorporate. Young children have a keen desire to have caring demonstration and encouragement to support and foster their ongoing excited efforts.

What is learned?

Whether the projects are in science or art, actual hands-on experiences are the quickest and easiest way for a child to learn how to accomplish the desired results. Coloring, drawing, painting, using stickers and embellishments, and other skills can be the start of a budding artist. Observing seeds turn into plants, viewing animals and insects, watching flowers bloom, and similar experiments can teach physical science.

Materials Needed

There are hundreds of child-size age-appropriate materials and publications, as well as, simple household objects that can be used in many forms of creativity and problem-solving.

  • Jumbo Thermometer
    • This oversized sturdy plastic weather tool, without mercury and with easy-to-read numbers can be used to teach the skills of observation, measuring, recording, math, writing, and learning the differences between the Fahrenheit and the Celsius (centigrade) scales.
  • Design Cards
    • Art, writing and language creativity can be accomplished on 4” x 6” cards that can be used by the children for birthday and other greeting cards, invitations, or as thank you notes for gifts received. Let the imaginations take over as they create with crayons, colored pencils, markers, paint, lace, small bows, ribbon, and stickers.
  • Body Doodlers
    • Children love face and body painting, and these washable non-toxic crayons glide on and wash off easily. A set of six would probably include white, black, green, blue, red and yellow packed in a convenient plastic case for storage. Not only meant for Halloween, they can be used for any birthday party, make believe plays that the children can put on, dressing up, or just any time for fun.
  • Real Bowles stethoscope
    • This is authentic and really works! It is chrome-plated, has white polyethylene ear tips and plastic flexible 24-inch-long tubing that can be cut to adjust the length. The children will be fascinated as they listen to their heartbeats and other noises in their bodies.
  • Bug Viewers
    • You can purchase real glass magnifiers with an extra-large non-scratch glass that are ideal for small hands and the big eyes of children as they are intrigued when observing insects as well as other small nature objects, leaves, flowers, and more in their outdoor explorations and field trips.

See for Yourself

If you would like to learn how a Montessori preschool education will benefit your child, feel free to contact our school for a tour. The knowledgeable instructors and staff at the Montessori Children’s House will be more than happy to answer all your questions.

Fun Bugs and Insects for Kids

In a Montessori education, your child will learn about living and non-living plant-life as well as animal life. There will also be lessons on animals and their groups including their babies and where they live. In the summer, there are opportunities to study fun bugs and insects that do not fit into an orderly curriculum.

Seeing nature close up

This activity will expand your child’s experience with the natural world. They will develop sensory skills, language, practical life skills, the ability to observe quietly, and a respect for living things. Your child will go out to a grassy area with a magnifying glass and look for interesting things. They can look at simple things such as a blade of grass or rock and see the difference looking at it through the magnifying glass. As a model of respecting our earth, your child will be encouraged to look at items where they are and not pick them or take them from where they are found.

Other interesting things are observed such as; tiny plants, dandelions, sticks, and insects. When any of these items are found; your child is encouraged not to disturb their existence and to observe them where they are found. Your child will be allowed to investigate their world at their own pace and are only guided when they seem unsure of what to look at next.

Observing bugs

There are often bugs found inside like spiders or ants that can be caught with little bug catchers. This gives children the perfect chance to observe them close up and then teaches them to respect living things by releasing it back outside. There are then endless ways to introduce your child to a wide variety of fun bugs in our world. Using plastic bugs in pairs they are mixed up and the task is to match them in pairs, with printed cards of different butterfly species the children then match miniature pictures to the larger ones, through plastic versions or printed colorful cards the children will learn what are insects and what are not, and many other fun activities introducing your child to fun world of bugs

Learning in a Montessori environment

The Montessori environment is a child -centered educational approach. The approach values your child’s human spirit and their development as a whole person; social, emotional, cognitive, and physical. In the classroom, your child, the teacher, and the learning environment will create a triangle that encourages independent learning in a fun and individual process. Teachers encourage freedom within limits, provide a sense of order and allow your child to discover information about the world around them with a hands-on experience.

Your child’s education through Montessori will develop their potential and prepare them to understand and appreciate learning and their world. If this sounds like the kind of education you want for your child, you will love the Montessori approach. Contact our Mission Valley Kindergarten to schedule a tour of our school.