Ways to Encourage Math and Literacy During October

You will find that math and literacy often go hand in hand.

Here are some ideas.

1. Engage your child in a variety of cooking activities. I like to try to include my child in a cooking activity at least once a week. To encourage recognition of numbers, words and letters -write, and include pictures, of the ingredients and directions. Simple pictures are best. Just a cue picture to remind them of what the word is. They will begin to recognize numbers, including fractions, pretty quickly as they are exposed to them in this format. I will have examples posted soon.

2. Offer measuring cups during bath tub time or water play. My son uses a measuring cup to scoop out the corn meal when he is painting.

3. Sing a variety of Halloween songs that can be found online. I have a flannel board story called the Five Little Pumpkins that I found online. They had a template that I was able to copy to make the flannel board story with and it also came with the words to say. http://www.preschoolprintables.com/felt/5pumpkins/feltpumpkin.shtml

4. Check out informational books from the library about pumpkins and apples.

5. Post pictures in a play area of your home of pumpkins and apples that are labeled as such. Post the letters A and P and talk about them throughout the month. Just having them up in your home will promote discussion of them and recognition of those letters.

6. Check out books from the library related to Halloween and put them in an area that encourages your child to read them. Check out books with repetitive language. Pick out one story to become really familiar with and act out.