My First Hidden Pictures™ Puzzle (pages 10 and 11)
- After you and your child have found the objects hidden in the big picture, talk about the illustration. Cattails, dragonflies, water lilies, snails, and a turtle sketching a tadpole—there's a lot to talk about!
- If your child is beginning to recognize letters, explore the object labels. How many words begin with an S? How many words end with an e? What's the shortest word? What’s the longest word?
Some of the objects in this illustration may be hard to find. If your child has difficulty, suggest looking in a specific section, for example, the trees, the pond, or the grass. Reducing the area to search will help ensure that he or she can call out, "I found it!"
*Literacy: Alphabet Knowledge (Begins to notice and name the beginning letters in words.)
*Literacy: Language Development (Uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary.)
Ants on the Go (pages 16 and 17)
- To answer the questions, have your child point to each ant when counting.
- You could give your child a small set of objects and see how many different ways he or she can make two groups. For example, 6 pieces of cereal can be grouped into sets of 1 and 5, 2 and 4, 3 and 3.
Learning that numbers represent a specific quantity is an important early math skill. Grouping objects into small subsets will lead the way to a deeper understanding of addition and subtraction. Have fun helping your child count and talk about the objects in this little ant house.
*Mathematics: Number & Operations (Begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects.)
*Mathematics: Number & Operations (Demonstrates an increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means to solve problems and determine quantity.)
Pick Up Pennies (bonus pages)
- Playing this game will give your child more opportunities to count a set of objects. Cereal can be used in place of pennies, particularly for toddlers.
- For younger children, moving only one or two spaces may make the game too long. If you toss a die rather than flip a penny, the game will move more quickly.
Learning the rules of game play and coping with the frustration of winning and losing help children learn how to play with others. After you've played the game, perhaps you'll want to take all the coins you used to the coin-sorting machine at your local bank.
*Social & Emotional Development: Cooperation (Develops increasing ability to take turns in games and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.)
*Mathematics: Number & Operations (Begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to.)
*Early childhood standards based on the U.S. Head Start
Child Outcomes Framework.