Math

  • Blog,  Book Lesson Plans,  Books About Animals,  Books About Seasons/Holidays,  Counting,  Literacy,  Math,  Measurement,  Reading,  Small Groups,  Writing

    Book Review & Lesson Plan: You Get A Tree! And You Get A Tree! In “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree”

    Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry, (purchase a copy on Amazon or find at your local library) is quite possibly my all-time favorite Christmas book to read to my pre-k kiddos. It’s chock-full of flowery, descriptive vocabulary words (glistening! splendid! magnificent! mincemeat!) and jaunty rhyming prose. It’s long, for sure, but so worth it as the illustrations are super cute, and there are many comprehension activities you can do to extend the learning.

    (This post contains affiliate links. A purchase through these links supports Preschooligans at no additional cost to you and helps us continue to provide free educational resources. Thank you!)

    Fair warning, though, you may have to explain some high-brow terms like “parlor” and “butler,” to your kiddos, but Mr. W’s bougie environs notwithstanding, this book rules.

    Anyway…back to our story. Mr. Willowby has a giant tree trucked in, but oops, he failed to pre-measure and lo and behold, that big boy is scraping his 19-ft parlor ceiling.

    So, like a man who knows he better act fast or he’s going to find himself in a tux atop a Little Giant ladder scraping off pine sap and applying a coat of touch-up paint, Baxter the Butler lops off the top of the tree. The ceiling is no longer in jeopardy, the tree looks lovely, and Mr. W goes on his merry way.

    But that’s just where the story and the fun begins. This little lopped-off tree top makes its way through assorted residents of Mr. Willowby’s town — human and animal alike. First Baxter takes it to sweet Miss Adelaide, the aforementioned upstairs maid, but it proves to be too big, so she lops off the top and tosses it out. Gardener Timm ambles by the trashcan, picks up the discarded treetop and takes it home to Mrs. Timm, where, yes, they find it’s just a wee bit too big. The top is chopped off and tossed out, and that’s when the animals get involved. Gradually the tree top works its way to the home of the tiny mice who live in Mr. Willowby’s parlor (how is it Baxter hasn’t found them yet?), and it ends with everyone getting to enjoy a bit of Mr. W’s tree.

    The treetop wends its way through six families after it leaves Mr. Willowby, so the book does get a little long. But it’s a heart-warming story, and it does encourage sharing, even though no one in the story is aware they are actually sharing (except Baxter, of course. That must be why he let those mice stay, he’s a softie at heart.)

    We love this story for older 3s, 4s & 5s!

    The subtle theme of reducing, reusing and recycling also gets a nod here — ahead of its time since the story was originally written in the mid-20th century. And finally, the animals demonstrate sheer joy at being together in the holiday season, as they celebrate finding the bits of the tree. That’s the best part of the story in my opinion, because it truly captures the holiday spirit of being with the ones you love.

    So much to love about this wonderful story!

    We’ve put together a packet of learning extension activities you can download below. And the downloadable version of the lesson plan is there as well. Enjoy!

    (Below please find a list of reading comprehension questions and vocabulary words. This list is not exhaustive, and it may spark additional questions from your kiddos. As always, we recommend that you scaffold based on your age group and the wigglies of your kiddos.)

    *Downloadable/printable copy of the book lesson plan below*

    Reading Comprehension Questions

    Before reading: Show the cover. What do you think this story is about? Can you figure out what is going on in the picture? What do you think this character (point to Mr. Willowby) is thinking? Why do you think he’s making this face? What is a “character” in a story? How about a “main character?”

    After reading title: Point out Mr. Willowby. What do you think is going on with his Christmas tree?

    While reading: I usually say “Uh oh, what happened when they put up their tree?” as each of characters find their tree is too big for their space. I also ask “What should they do?” each time, so the children can interact, and they get the hang of it as each character’s tree gets lopped off and put out for another. There are also a number of complex words that may need to be defined to your students depending on their ages (some suggested ones are listed below).

    After reading: How would you have fixed Mr. Willowby’s Christmas tree? Would you chop off the top too? What’s another way to make the tree smaller? If you chop off the bottom or trunk instead, would others be able to share in the tree as well? What’s a way you like to share at the holidays? How about the rest of the year? Did you notice that the characters were reducing, reusing and recycling? How were they doing that? Since a tree was cut down in the beginning, what would be a good way to ensure there are more trees in the future? What are other ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle at Christmas? How about the rest of the year?

    Vocabulary Words

    • glistening
    • dashed
    • magnificent
    • splendid
    • parlor
    • terrible
    • butler
    • glee
    • trim/trimming (as in “decorate”)
    • delighted
    • snipped
    • snug
    • padding (as in “walking”)
    • drowsily
    • hunk (as in a large piece, not the “attractive person” kind)
    • tinsel
    • spied
    • scampered
    • mincemeat
    • den
    • merrymaking
    • nook
    • mistletoe
    • grand

    Enrichment Activities:

    We have created a whole package of reading and math activities to go with this wonderful story. Our Companion/Extension Activities pack includes beginning/middle/end, count & color, cutting & ordering, and patterning activities to name a few. It’s free to download below.

  • Blog,  Circle,  Counting,  Math,  Science,  Small Groups

    Springtime Exercise & Counting With Eggs-R-Cise (Also Works Great For Virtual/Distance Learning)!

    Eggs-R-Cise plastic eggs with activities inside and sneaker

    Here is a great springtime (or any time!) in-person or distance-learning activity for home-bound kiddos that you can guide via a live meeting or uploaded video. Eggs-R-Cise can help kiddos work on counting and channeling some of that boundless energy at the same time through exercise (you’re welcome, Mom and Dad!)

    This is a great activity for your own child, teen, or a teacher’s helper to demonstrate as well.

    You will need:

    • Up to 30 plastic eggs that open
    • Eggs-R-Cise activity sheet (below, download and print or hand write if you do not have access to a printer)

    Download and print out the activities sheet (below) and cut out the directives so each one is on its own slip of paper. There are 2 of each of 15 unique tasks. Place one slip of paper in each of however many plastic eggs you plan to use.

    Draw an egg or have a helper do it, open it, read out loud and perform the activity listed. There are between 3-17 repetitions of each activity. Make sure you are counting out loud as you do them to help reinforce counting with your kiddos. You may even want to write the number on a white board or piece of paper to match the numeral to quantity.

    It’s that easy! Let us know if your kiddos enjoy it and stay healthy everyone!

  • Blog,  Counting,  Math,  Small Groups,  Subitizing

    Mmm, Subitizing With Cookies!

    Blue cookie jar with word "cookies" on front. Two dice, three chocolate chip cookies.

    We’re back with more subitizing fun! We’ve teamed up with Pre-K Teacher Carolyn Steveson to create this fun freebie that helps preschoolers work on subitizing — the concept of being able to determine the number of items in a set without counting. You can find the link to download your own copy of Cookie Jar Subitizing at the bottom of the page.

    This is a fantastic activity for small groups or one-on-one play.

    Ahead of time, print out the cookie jar image and one or more copies of the cookies. Laminate, cut out the cookies and provide one die for each child.

    Each of the 30 cookies is marked with between 1-6 chocolate chips. To play, a child rolls a die, determines the number, then selects a cookie with the same number of chips.

    Each of the cookies’ chips are arranged differently than traditional dot arrangements found on dice. This activity helps children work on set identification without having to count each dot.

    Let us know your thoughts!

  • Blog,  Counting,  Math,  Small Groups,  Subitizing

    Snail Subitizing Math Game

    Snail Subitizing game board, features colorful snails with dot patterns that are similar to and different from those found on the faces of a standard die.

    Subitizing, the mouthful of a term for “being able to look at a set and know the amount without counting it,” is one of those cringey teacher words that makes parents’ eyes glaze over, you know? But it’s a critical math skill that we teach in Pre-K, as ugly as the word is itself. And one of our absolute favorite free subitizing games is Snail Subitizing from Life Matters Foundation.

    Snail Subitizing is colorful and super cute, and requires few items to play. We laminate the game page and provide dice and either bingo chips or a dry-erase marker and eraser. This activity rocks because once shown how to do it, kiddos can progress through the board at their own speed.

    Most importantly, however, is that the snails don’t always display the typical dot pattern represented on a standard die. We LOVE that it makes our kiddos think beyond the standard dot configurations they’ve come to know. It makes them think about how different combinations still make up the same number, and it reinforces knowledge of the concept thoroughly.

  • Addition,  Blog,  Counting,  Math,  Small Groups

    Domino Math

    Preschool children place black dots on oversized blank domino canvases. They roll the dice in plastic cups and write the numbers with dry erase markers.

    Dominoes are fantastic for teaching all kinds of math concepts in pre-k: counting, one-to-one correspondence, subitizing, addition and so on. This Domino Math freebie from Recipe for Teaching features several different domino-themed math tools. Today we are using the blank, oversized domino canvas, which helps preschool kiddos practice all of the aforementioned concepts in one.

    We used this page a little differently than it is demonstrated on the RfT site. First, we slid the blank domino sheets into plastic page protectors for use with dry erase markers (laminating works as well). We die-cut a supply of small black circles, and provided a dry erase marker, eraser, die and a “dice containment cup” for each kid.

    We asked each kiddo roll their die, determine the number (subitizing!), count out that number of black dots (counting! one-to-one correspondence!), and place them on one side of the domino. Then we asked them to write that number on the corresponding space below. Then, they repeated the process for the second side. After they completed the two sides, then we asked them to finish the (addition!) equation.

    This activity also helped with following multi-step directions, working independently and problem solving, and they LOVED it!