Through her eyes #5 - Dumpling's daily activities journal - a FUN FUN FUN way to learn time! :) + FREE PRINTABLE!

Dumpling is getting the hang of telling the time and has been very excited in being able to "read" the wall clock. One of the things that she usually does these days upon waking up is to look at the clock immediately and tell us the time. If she is not quite able to (as in to the exact minute of for e.g. 7:37am because my wall clock does not have the numerals for minutes labelled on it), she'd sneakily wait for the minute hand to travel to the positions she knows and then read it off proudly (and LOUDLY, I must add).

For some strange reason, one fine day while rummaging through the storeroom, she found my beloved Gruffalo paper plate (which I hoarded for 2 years!!!). While all I saw is 'partyware', she saw a 'clock'! And asked for us to use it and make it into a clock! Here it is!

We made this together with a braid fastener in the middle to hold the hands and we have been using this to revise and to work on our "time" sessions. Along the way, I dug out an old resource which I have and that is a dry erase book which the kiddos can fill in the time and draw in the hands.

It then occurred to me that it would be a lot more fun for the kiddo if the activities listed in it are about her day instead. The idea is to make it 'applicable' for her where she tries reading and recording the time before she begins some of her daily activities!  

I printed mine into a booklet and above is the book cover

Since she likes looking at the wall clock once she wakes up, I incorporated that as part of the 'time' which she needs to record in this journal too  

 The page is designed for homeschooling and non-homeschooling kiddos

And I have included some fun evening activities as a checklist too!

Now, have you gone all excited about this journal? I am pleased to share that you can download this activity journal here! 

Edit: I printed my copy as a booklet but the file is in A4. You can laminate it and then write on it with markers so that it can be reused over and over again. :) This is our last stage in the journey of learning and writing out the time where we have already learnt the basics.  

I received several questions about how one can start off teaching time. I started off teaching Dumpling using a resource which I blogged about here. As an overview, the steps which we went through are:
- introduction of long (minute) and short hands (hour)
- teaching of o'clock (long hand pointing to 12)
- teaching of half past, quarter past and quarter to (use pizza slices, foam etc if you need to, to show half and quarters)
- teaching of counting in 5s so that the child is about to read in blocks 
- drawing of hands (Gruffalo clock is wonderful for that. We progressed from gear clock to our DIY clock where she needs to manually move each hand)
- writing the time in digital clock format (using digits)

For multiplication by 5s, it will take a bit of time. Manipulatives are good. We also used hands & feet - 5 fingers and 5 toes. There's a certain element of rote learning in this but the idea is to let the child understand that each block equals to 5 mins and if the child is stuck, he/she knows how to count in groups of 5 to get for e.g 40 the minutes (half past = 30, and then add on 2 blocks of 5). There are loads of songs on YouTube which are useful in getting the child to remember them too. 

(Please note that as with all the other free downloads in this blog, it is for personal usage and is not for any form of sales. I would also appreciate it if you do not edit it and then sell it as the entire purpose of this is to share this resource so everyone can use and enjoy the pack.) 

This is part of our Fun with Math series! 

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Fun with Math - Out at the Carpark

The focus for Math for Dumpling has very much been on 2 areas lately: namely understanding of place values (being able to 'name / read') and addition.

Dumpling has been able to add on quite comfortably and over the past few weeks, we have ventured into the addition of bigger numbers. So, on a not-so-hot afternoon last week, Dumpling and I took a stroll around the car park.

:: Hundreds and Thousands Hunt! 
Dumpling first got to know how to name / read up to hundreds when we watched ... 101 Dalmatians! Hence at this stage, I am working with Dumpling on the "naming / reading" of numbers beyond hundreds, venturing into Thousands.

Car plates are truly useful for that as shared by a guest in a previous Math post. The number plates we saw last week had 2 digits, 3 digits and right down to 4 digits. Dumpling and I took turns to hunt for car plates within the "hundred series" before I worked with her on thousands.

Above pic: after we did the hundreds hunt, we then went on to a simpler 4 digit series before slowing moving onto something more complex (like below)

Above pic: Dumpling going hmmmmm... 

:: Algorithm Addition

Dumpling does not quite have the patience for worksheets and hence, the walk around the car park proved to be fun and more enjoyable for us both. Dumpling has established her ease in the counting on method and we have attempted simple algorithm addition at home. 

For the car park activity, I hunted for simpler series of digits (as above - without any carrying over) and got her to add the first 2 and the last 2 digits together (be sure to explain to your child that is an entirely different activity and has nothing to do with the earlier exercise). 

This 'hunt' brought a different fun factor as we did several of such additions. Best of all, it costs nothing and is easily done since all you need is to head to the car park! So, take a walk to the car park today with your preschooler! :)

 (Note: please be very careful of any vehicles - Dumpling and I went down during non peak hours where they were hardly any moving vehicles. Of course, children must be supervised at all times at the car park during this exercise.) 

Fun with Math - Living Math

With Dumpling, when she was younger, there was a complete lack of interest in numbers. Books on the other hand, are a totally different thing. She'd get lost in them and would ask me to read more than 10 titles to her at a go.

Now, when it came to numbers, as there was no magical journey to go on and she did not quite find it applicable / useful at that point, she was not interested in wanting to try. Getting her to recite number sequence was futile as she refuses to 'entertain' me to go beyond 20 up till earlier this year. *sigh*

So it became a personal challenge for me to look for fun ways to make Math enjoyable, interesting and applicable. Hence the Fun with Math series was born.

In an earlier Math homelearning post, Dumpling and I had fun with the Supermarket printables which I made.  I have always been talking and discussing things when we are outdoors so it is more of an incidental learning approach. So it was time to head out to the "real world" where mum handed over some duties!

Here's 3 fun ideas on Living Math! :)

:: Reading of price tags
I introduced to Dumpling how prices are being labelled where sometimes, decimal points are used while during other incidents, prices can also be displayed like below where the "cents" are underlined.

After reading the price tags, I asked her to go on a mini "hunt" to identify the item with specific value - 90cents, $1.50, etc.

:: Weight
I also took the opportunity to introduce her to the use of a scale and got her to identify the numbers on it and then to add on tomatoes to the scale till it was at 500gm. This allows her to learn estimation as well as to develop an idea how tomatoes of different sizes vary in weight, etc. She had loads of fun with this and could not bear to leave the scale! LOL

:: Handling of money
I started delegating the "coin" duty to her so whenever we are outside, she'd have to help me search for the right coins, add them up and hand them over to the vendor. Mind you, not everyone was so ever patient waiting for the little ones to pass the coins over so a word of caution there!