“April Showers” One-to-One Correspondence Activity

April Showers One-to-One Correspondence Activity

 

One-to-one correspondence is a very important concept for young children and is a basic foundation for all of mathematics.  Simply put, one-to-one correspondence is the process of touching one object for each number that is counted aloud.  Little Brother sometimes still points to a group of 5 objects and counts the same object 2 or 3 times.   This isn’t uncommon for young children, but we thought we might do some “April Showers” one-to-one correspondence practice!

 

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Here’s what you’ll need:  construction paper (I used pink, blue, and brown), scissors, clear contact paper, and painter’s tape (or masking tape).

 

 

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 1.  Draw an umbrella shape on a piece of construction paper and cut out.

 

 

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2.  Hang a piece of contact paper, sticky-side-out, on a window and secure it in place with some painter’s tape (or masking tape).  You could also hang it on a wall, just make sure the tape you use won’t peel off your paint!

 

 

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3.  Cut out 15 small raindrops from the blue construction paper.  *Caution*:  If you are doing this activity with children younger than 3, make sure it is supervised at all times due to the small raindrops.

 

 

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4.  Write the numbers 1-5 on the umbrella and have your child place the corresponding number of raindrops underneath each number.

 

 

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 All done!

 

 

 

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Cloud Dough

After reading Little Cloud and making our own clouds yesterday, I remembered an idea for Cloud Dough that I saw on Pinterest a few weeks ago.

‘Cloud Dough’ requires 2 ingredients:  flour and baby oil.  Go here for the recipe.  We only made half because I ran out of flour.  :)

 

To say this was a hit with my boys would be a complete understatement.  They played in the bowl full of cloud dough for well over half an hour (in the record-breaking heat, mind you)!  And I’m not ashamed to admit that even I enjoyed running my hands through this silky concoction.

 

 

"It feels like snow!"

This was definitely the favorite out of any of our sensory activities!  What’s your child’s favorite sensory medium? 

 

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Weather Song

Please excuse (a) my terrible singing voice and (b) our sloppy, beach-like attire.  We just got back from the waterpark.  And I was too lazy to put shorts on Little Brother.  
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The "Why do we need sunscreen?" Experiment

If your kids are like mine, they can’t stand it when you put sunscreen on them.  I was so excited to find this activity from Sid the Science Kid to illustrate to kids exactly why they need to wear sunscreen!

We made a few blunders on our “experiment” but hopefully you’ll learn from our mistakes!

Here’s what you’ll need:  sunscreen (not the spray kind) and a black/dark blue piece of construction paper.

1.  Fold a piece of black (or dark blue) construction paper in half.
2.  Put a VERY SMALL dab of sunscreen on one side of the paper.  This is where we messed up…we put WAY too much sunscreen on.
3.  Let your child smear the sunscreen over ONE side of the paper (again, we messed up and Big Brother got it on both sides).
4.  Put it in direct sunlight for most of the day (you’ll have to move it around a couple times to keep it in direct sunlight).
The paper after about 5 hours.  Had we not had too much sunscreen, you would be able to easily see that the sunscreen kept the paper dark while the sun faded the side with no sunscreen.

Talk to your child about how sunscreen protects our skin just like it protected the paper.  Some sunlight is good for our bodies (vitamin d, anyone), but too much is harmful.  Without sunscreen, the sun would hurt our skin.  Talk about other things that protect our skin from the sun (hats, buildings, clothing, shade, etc).

A helpful reminder for Big Brother is remembering back when I had the worst sunburn of my life back in March and how it hurt to even move…he prayed for my sunburn to feel better for about 6 weeks afterward!

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Make Your Own Tornado

We were under a tornado warning for almost 2 straight hours last night with the sirens blaring about a half-dozen times.  Living in tornado alley, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence during spring evenings.  But after seeing the devastation in Joplin a few weeks ago, there is no way that I will ever take a tornado warning lightly again.

To ease a bit of the tension from last night, Big Brother and I made our very own tornado using 2-liter bottles (idea from here)!

Here’s what you’ll need:  2 2-liter bottles, duct tape, and water.  If you want it to be drip-free, I would suggest a Tornado Tube.  Otherwise, it will drip a little bit.  Also, you can add food coloring and glitter (for debris), but I wouldn’t suggest doing so unless you have a tornado tube as it will leak.


(Omit the food coloring unless you are using a tornado tube)

1.  Fill one 2-liter bottles up about 2/3 with water.  
2.  Place the other bottle on top, lining up the openings  as best you can.

2.  Duct tape the two bottles together as tightly as possible (it will still leak a little bit).

Take it outside (because it leaks) and turn it upside down (so that the water is in the top bottle).  Spin counter-clockwise.

Watch your tornado form and repeat!

 If you have an older child interested in learning about tornadoes, go here for more information on how/why they form.

Literature Link

Tornado Alert (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)

Tornado Alert by Franklyn M. Branley

This book explains tornadoes so that even preschoolers can understand.  Gives young children an understanding of tornadoes, the danger involved, and how to stay safe.


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