We had many activities related to dots in our classroom today as it was International 'Dot Day'. We read the book Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. The last few days the children have spent a lot of time identifying and singing about their names, so we offered name cards along with black rocks/dots for the children to explore.
It was really interesting to see the children experiment with the rocks - a child decided to place one rock on each letter in his name and then counted to see how many letters he had! What a great way to link math and literacy in a very meaningful way and help us introduce the idea of counting!
Other friends joined in which meant that the children could compare names, thus comparing quantities and seeing who had the longest or shortest name.
Some friends had the same, or 'equal' numbers of letters in their names. Introducing important vocabulary (like the term equal) in a meaningful and playful context helps children relate to and remember the concept.
We are looking forward to further exploring our names and seeing what else we can learn about our names and each other! (Did you know that a child's name is usually the first word they learn to read and the most important word in their life? There are many ways you can engage and extend learning just by using children's first names!)
