Butterfly Math

This week we did a Butterfly theme.  We created butterflies by placing the goldfish and strawberries into snack-sized baggies.  I pushed the food over to the sides and clipped a clothespin (that the kiddos had made beautiful:) in the middle.  We then bent a pipe cleaner to form the antennae and placed it in the "pinch-y" part of the clothespin to secure it.  So where is the math???  First I did have the kiddos count the pieces of food as they placed them into the baggies.  You can never have enough practice counting, especially the larger numbers so that they learn the pattern to the counting sequence.  Second, I sent cards with the snack so that their teacher could ask the kids in school to think about equality, more, and less.  There is a picture below of each of the cards with the questions.

So after the kids find out how many strawberry pieces the have on each side (subitizing practice since they have a small amount on each side), the teacher can focus in on asking them if they are equal on both sides.  If not, have the kids figure out how to make them equal.  I sent extra cut up strawberries so that the kids could add more to one side if that was the strategy they came up with.  Another strategy could be to eat one of the pieces :).

For the goldfish butterflies, the kids can practice counting the large sets.  Then you can ask them, "Which side has less/fewer?"  Too often we always ask "Which has more?" and then children struggle with the concept of fewer, so vary which question you are asking.  As an extension (if you think they are ready), you can ask them how many more they would need to add to that side to make it the same/equal to the larger side.

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