St. Patrick's Day Math Activity Tray

Looking for St. Patrick's Day math activities for preschool or kindergarten? Try this simple St. Patrick's Day math activity tray!

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I love putting together simple math trays for my boys, especially since they're always such a hit with them. I mean of course they are when you have a child with hypernumeracy where math and numbers are a huge passion and special interest.

This St. Patrick's Day math activity tray was no different. My youngest son loved it. And I know my oldest, who has hypernumeracy would have loved it too!

This math tray lead to lots of counting, addition practice, stacking, sorting, and so much more for my four year old. It's really simple to set up as well!

St. Patrick's Day Math Activity Tray for Kids: What You'll Need

This math tray was designed to encourage counting, addition, exploration of tally marks, and measurement using St. Patrick's Day themed materials. Here's what we used:

• Dice - Use as many or as little as you. The dice can be of any shape or size too. You decide!

• Measuring tape (optional) - Always a fun addition!

• St. Patrick's Day themed plastic coins

• Shamrocks - Ours are from the dollar store

• Green transparent cocktail stirrers - Also from the dollar store

• Tray of some sort to put all the materials - We used a wooden one that has four compartments.

Simply place all of the materials onto a tray. Since we had a tray with four compartments, I put the coins in one section, the shamrocks in a second section, the cocktail stirrers in a third, and the dice and measuring tape in the final compartment. I think that this tray looked divine and inviting. Math has never looked so pretty and engaging!

A Simple Preschool & Kindergarten Math Activity for St. Patrick's Day

What I love about math activities like this are how open-ended they are. Some kids might measure using the measuring tape. Others might build things using the materials, such as tally marks or shapes. Some might roll the dice. Others might explore in totally unexpected ways! It's fun to watch how things unfold.

As for four year old K, he loved to roll the die and count out the appropriate number of materials. Sometimes he would roll a couple of dice and add the materials accordingly.

Here is an example of his counting, showing how the number four could be represented by four coins, four shamrocks, or four sticks.

I think the thing that K was most fond of was the coins. He stacked them into towers and then separated/sorted them by color (there were gold coins and green coins). You could even make this into a little game where you roll the dice and add that many more coins to the stack.

Like I mentioned before, there are lots of ways to explore mathematical concepts with these materials. It's really open-ended! You could even consider writing numbers on the shamrocks so they could match coins with the number they see on the shamrock or have them match the shamrock to whatever number they roll on the dice. So feel free to expand on this idea as you see fit.

What do you think your child would do with this St. Patrick's Day math activity tray?

Roman Numerals Fine Motor Math Tray

"What's three million in Roman numerals?" 

That's just one of the many questions about Roman numerals that I have been asked over the past few weeks. J is Roman numerals obsessed! Thankfully, I've been able to come up with some great little math activities for him to further explore his interest. The latest is this fine motor math tray that is great for Roman numerals recognition and counting practice.

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For this elementary math tray, you will need:

• Roman numerals flashcards - Try making your own with this washi tape Roman numerals craft.
• Wooden clothespins - Paperclips would work great too!

The main goal of this math tray is to count the correct number of clothespins and clip them onto the flashcard. This activity focuses on recognizing Roman numerals, fine motor skills, and counting.

Five year old J was a pro. After all, he did teach himself Roman numerals this summer. Yet, getting a good picture of him showing off his work was a challenge! J also helped three year old K clip and count as well. K is already mastering a few of the Roman numerals himself (how can he not when he's exposed to J's constant math questions??). This activity was a great way for them to work cooperatively as J was teaching K the Roman numerals that he didn't recognize.

This math tray would also make an excellent busy bag for kids! Just toss all the materials into a zipper seal bag and it's good to go!

Here are some other fun ways to learn Roman numerals:

Roman Numerals Clock Activity

Roman Numerals Math Craft

Learning Roman Numerals with LEGO

LEGO Stamped Roman Numerals

Roman Numerals on the Light Table

Teaching Kids How to Set the Table Using the Light Table

We do a lot of open ended play on the light table, but sometimes I also like to use our light table as a way to learn practical life skills. So here's a simple light table activity to teach kids how to set the table.

Montessori-Inspired Light Table Activity to Teach Kids How to Set the Table

For this light table activity, I used:

• Clear plastic cutlery - fork, knife, and spoon
• Clear plastic plate
• Clear overhead transparency film
• Black permanent marker

To set up this activity, all I had to do was trace all of the cutlery and the plate onto the transparency using a permanent marker.

Naturally, you need to put food on the plate once the table is fully set. Here the boys added some of their felt play food.

K even took the opportunity to practice some fine motor skills by cutting up his felt ravioli.

Then J added some of our plastic play food. I love how it just glows on the light table!

Other Ideas You'll Love

Fine Motor Light Table Activity with Ice Cube Trays

100+ Light Table Activities for Kids

Scoop & Pour Serving Practice on the Light Table from Still Playing School

Sink or Float Science for Kids on the Light Table from Where Imagination Grows

Fall Math Activity Tray

Looking for fall math activities for preschoolers and toddlers? Then try this simple fall math activity tray!

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We are all about math and numbers in my house. That's what happens when you have a kid with hypernumeracy...

As a result, we do a lot of playful math activities with loose parts. And, since the leaves are changing colors around here, we have been in full fall mode for our play activities. So, why not combine the two, hey?

The result is this super simple no-prep fall math activity tray. It's the perfect way to explore counting, grouping, and color sorting.

Fall Math Activity Tray for Kids: What You'll Need

As you'll see, this math tray is super quick and easy to set up. Here's what we used:

• 10 shower curtain rings, small cups, or similar - Use whatever you happen to have on hand. I just happen to have an abundance of shower curtain rings and shower curtains on hand (they were extras that were retired from my parents' motel).

• Acrylic leaves - I used 40 leaves total, 10 for each of the four colors that I had. Feel free to use as many as you want and/or makes sense for your child's skill level.

Simply set out your materials onto a tray of some kind, similar to what's pictured below. That's it! It is now ready for play.

And, as you can see, little hands could barely wait to check it out...

Toddlers & Preschoolers Will Love this Simple Fall Leaves Math Tray!

My oldest J started things off by sorting the leaves by color. He noted that there were 10 of each color and promptly told me there were 40 leaves altogether.

Next, J set out seven rings and practiced some grouping (and multiplying!). He put three leaves inside each of the shower curtain rings and declared, "That's 21, mom!"

My youngest K also attempted some grouping and sorting.

And he did manage to successfully group his leaves into groups of two, as you can see him starting to do here.

If you wanted, you could propose questions like, "What if you did 5 groups of 4?" or "What if you tried 8 groups of 4?" and encourage your kids to determine the total number of leaves.

Personally, I prefer to leave things more organic and let the kids explore the materials on their own and at their own pace. Sometimes they use the materials as I hope and sometimes they take the exploration into new directions that I never considered before.

Regardless, this fall math activity is such a simple and meaningful math exploration for toddlers and preschoolers. Will you be giving it a try?

Apple Math Activity Tray

Looking for apple math or apple activities for kids? Then try this apple math activity tray! It's perfect for preschoolers and kindergarten aged kids.

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Apples, apples, apples - it's that time of year!

And we just happen to have these awesome little acrylic apples that I found at Michaels last year that are perfect for celebrating the season of apples.

In the past, we have sorted and counted apples on the light table and picked them off of a sticky color matching apple tree.

We even worked on fine motor skills, such as scooping and pouring, with them in this apple sensory "soup" bin.

More recently, though, I set up this simple Montessori-inspired preschool apple math activity tray using the acrylic apples. It was a great way to practice counting, one-to-one correspondence, and addition. Yet, as you will see later on, there are lots of ways to adapt and expand the original activity.

Apple Math Activity Tray: What You'll Need

As you can probably tell/see, you don't need much to set up this super simple math tray. Here's what we used:

• Apple manipulatives - We used acrylic apples, but you could substitute apple shaped mini erasers, foam shapes, red or green pom poms, or anything similar that you might have on hand.

• Dice - Feel free to include as few or as many as you want. Just make sure you have enough apples to match all the dots on the dice. You could even consider having a green die and a red die to match the colors of the apple manipulatives.

• A tray to put the materials in - We have a lovely wooden one that has two sections, as you can see in the photos.

I then put the manipulatives in one section of the tray and the dice in the other. Like so:

This Apple Math Activity is Great for Preschoolers & Kindergarten Kids!

For this activity, you simply roll the dice and count out the corresponding number of apples. As you can see below, my son counted out six apples to match the die showing six dots.

Then continued with four, five, and two. And even arranged them into nice little groups.

Then you can add up all the apples in total, which, in this case, there are 17 apples.

Unsurprisingly, my math loving boy, J, was all over this activity. Actually, he's all over any activity that involves numbers and/or dice (see here for example), so I kind of knew that this math tray would be a hit (hello, hypernumeracy!).

He simply rolled the dice and counted the corresponding number of apples.

And rolled some more! Then added them all up.

To be more precise, he would roll all of the dice, quickly add all of the dice in his head, say the correct answer, and then proceed to count out the apples. It's very impressive given his age and the fact that all of this math knowledge came to him naturally (we would later learn it's called hypernumeracy).

Some Variations of this Math Activity to Try

Since the activity is a bit open ended, there are, of course, other ways to use the materials or explore math concepts. So, feel free to get creative. However, here are some ideas to consider:

• Have one green die and one red die. Count out the corresponding number of apples to match the color of the die. For instance, if you roll a three on the green die and a two on the red die, count out three green apples and two red apples.

• Roll two dice and count out the correct number of apples. Roll one die and subtract that many apples. Count up how many are remaining.

• Start with a set number of apples (let's say 10), roll a die, and remove that number of apples. So, if you roll a five, remove five apples. Then count up how many apples are remaining.

• Practice multiplying by rolling two dice and counting out the correct number of apples. Obviously, you'll need up to 36 apples on hand to do this activity.

• Roll two dice and count out apples for each roll and place them into separate piles. Then use an index card with a greater than/less than symbol on it (or you could bend a pipe cleaner into a > shape) and put it between the two piles to show which pile is greater than and which pile is less than.

• You could also graph the numbers you roll each time. Simply roll the die, count out the correct number of apples, and graph the result.

• Explore odd or even by rolling the dice, counting out the apples, and identifying if the number is odd or even.

As you can see, there are lots of different ways to expand this little apple math activity tray. Sure, this simple activity might not seem like much at first, but my son absolutely loved it!

Montessori Inspired Rhythm Building Music Activity for Kids

Looking for a music activity for kids? Then try this Montessori inspired rhythm building activity for kids.

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As a piano teacher, I have created quite a few music activities for kids over the years, both for my own kids and for my piano students. 

I know how powerful a simple hands-on activity like this can be for kids. They're so much more engaging than a theory worksheet will ever be.

This simple Montessori inspired music activity for kids in particular is a great way to explore rhythms, time signatures, bar lines, and more. Or you can use it to have your child create and build their own rhythms.

Music Activity for Kids to Reinforce Rhythms in Music

For this activity, we used:

• Simple rhythm pattern flashcards from this Hal Leonard Music Flashcards Set A

• Toothpicks for bar lines

• DIY music stones - I also made some with the numbers 3 and 4 on them so that the boys could also make the time signatures.

I kept this exploration of rhythms fairly simply since my kids were just shy of ages 5 and 3 at the time that we did this activity. We used simple rhythms in 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures with no rests.  

Rhythm Building Music Activity for Kids

The idea with this activity is to recreate the rhythms shown on the flashcards by matching the notes, time signature, and bar line. Then clap the rhythm after you've recreated it.

This music activity was a perfect fit for J. He carefully examined, searched for, and matched the notes to his rhythm flashcard.

He even made sure to add "sticks," as he liked to call them, for the bar lines. I told J that they were called bar lines, as it was his first introduction to them.

Once he completed the rhythm, I clapped and counted the rhythm out loud for him. J then clapped along with me when I repeated the rhythm.

K is still a bit young for this activity, although he did manage to match the numbers of the time signature correctly.

Other Music Activities for Kids You'll Love

Free Printable Music Theory I Spy Game for Kids

Music Theory Games Using LEGO

Drum Games for Kids

Montessori Inspired Sound Matching Hearts

I have always been intrigued by Montessori materials, such as the Montessori sound cylinders.  These sound cylinders are meant to exercise a child's auditory sense, which is important in music.  And, as a piano teacher, music is extremely important to me.  That means, I am always a fan of activities or materials that can encourage musical development.  So I had to try coming up with something of my own.  And with Valentine's Day approaching, I ended up doing the sound cylinders with a Valentine's twist.

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This activity tray is so easy to set up.  I had six heart shaped containers in three different colors.  I found them at the dollar store.  Inside matching colored pairs, I placed heart jewels from the dollar store, pony beads, or jingle bells.  Other objects could be substituted so just use what you have on hand.

The hearts end up being self correcting as the red heart would match with the other red heart, dark pink with the other dark pink, and light pink with the light pink.  Please note that I did not permanently seal the hearts as I have plans to reuse these containers for other projects.

Both boys loved this activity.  K enjoyed shaking the hearts and listening to the sounds.  He also loved to put the jingle bell hearts in his pockets and dance.  He is still a little young to be discriminating the different sounds and matching them, but I was happy to see him enjoy the music hearts regardless.

J, on the other hand, is at an appropriate age for matching sounds.  He would shuffle the hearts around on the tray, shake one, shake another, and decide whether they matched or not.

After J matched the hearts, he opened each container to check his work.  He loved doing this activity!

Looking for more Valentine's themed activities?  You can browse all of our Valentine's Day activities here.