How Many in All? Spring Walk

[20 Minutes]

Take a walk together with your child and look for signs of spring. This refreshing exercise will also be a rich math lesson!

You'll need:

• items that can be grouped together such as flowers, twigs or pebbles • vases or cups

What to do:

1. Take a spring walk with your child and invite her to look for objects that first can be counted and then can be grouped in some way. For example: How many flowers are there in a flowerbed? How many dandelions or violets are near the tree in the park? How many daisies are in the pail in the florist's window?
2. If you can pick the flowers, encourage your child to pick a few. Challenge her to take the bouquet over to another spot and pick the same number of flowers.
3. Help your child count and pick the flowers in the new spot. (If there is nothing else around that can be collected, use pebbles or twigs.)
4. Upon returning home, encourage your child to find out how many objects (flowers or pebbles) there are "in all." Put each object in a separate vase (or cup).

Let's Talk: Ideas to Explore Together.

• Can you find the same number of an item in the house as the number of flowers (twigs) we found? Let's count them.
• Which is your favorite flower? Why?

Useful information:

While you are having fun together, your child is developing math skills.