Baltimore City Early Learning

Discover how everyday kitchen activities can become powerful math learning experiences for young children!

During this Power Hour, families and Frog Street will explore the important measuring skills children develop while cooking alongside their families, through simple, hands-on activities, and strategies that turn everyday recipes into fun and memorable learning opportunities.

Join us on Zoom at https://frogstreet.zoom.us/j/88234150376

🌱 Math Seed Number 6: Stairs

Welcome back to our Math Seeds series! Baltimore City Early Learning is looking at how physical movement helps children "feel" math concepts.

This week, we are using Stairs. Whether you are in your home, an apartment building, or at a park, stairs are a built-in tool for counting, recognizing patterns, and understanding height. Look for ways to bring math to life on your next climb!
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Ways to Explore Stair Math:

- Skip Counting: Try skip counting as you climb, saying every other number out loud. This is a great pre-multiplication skill. "We are counting by twos: Two, Four, Six, Eight!"

- Counting with Groups: Practice counting objects that come in groups of two, like shoes. "One pair of shoes means two shoes. Let’s count: Two, four, six shoes total!"

- Spatial Patterns: If you have multiple flights, notice the pattern. You might walk up five steps, turn at the landing, and then walk up five more steps.

- Comparing Directions: Stop on a step and look. Ask your child, "Are we climbing up the stairs or walking down the stairs? Are there more steps in front of us or behind us?"

- Rhythmic Movements: Connect a number to a specific physical movement on each step. You could take one big step for 'two', one normal step for 'four', and one big step for 'six'.

- Sequence Estimation: Before you start climbing, ask your child to guess how many steps are in the flight. "Do you think there are 10 steps or 20 steps?" Count them together to check their estimate.
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Climbing stairs is great for developing gross motor skills, but adding "math talk" turns a simple physical transition into a valuable brain-building exercise.

We have one final Math Seed coming your way soon!

🌱 Math Seed Number 5: Cookies and Baking
Welcome back to our Math Seeds series! Baltimore City Early Learning is showing how tasty moments in the kitchen are full of math.

This week, we are looking at Cookies. Even though these pictures show holiday treats, you can find math in any snack or baking project throughout the year. From measuring flour to counting chocolate chips, the kitchen is a delicious place to learn.
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Ways to Explore Cookie Math:

- Counting and Cardinality: Count out the cookies as they go onto the tray or off the plate. Ask, "How many cookies do we have in total?"

- Dividing and Sharing: This is a great way to introduce early division. If there are four cookies and two people, how many does each person get so it is "fair"?

- Shapes and Geometry: Use cookie cutters to talk about circles, stars, hearts, and squares. If you don't have cutters, you can talk about how a ball of dough flattens into a circle.

- Measurement: Baking is all about precision. Let your child help level off a measuring cup of flour or count how many teaspoons of vanilla go into the bowl.

- Patterning with Decorations: If you are decorating, try making a pattern with sprinkles or icing. For example: "Red dot, green dot, red dot... what comes next?"

- Spatial Reasoning: When placing dough on a baking sheet, talk about the space between them. "We need to leave enough room so they don't touch when they grow!"
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Baking together teaches patience, following directions, and, of course, math! It turns a routine snack time into a hands-on lesson that your child can literally taste.

Keep an eye out for our next Math Seed!

Reminder: the deadline to accept pre-K and kindergarten enrollment offers is today, May 22. Log in to SMES to review and accept your offer and download the next step instructional letter. Click here to learn more about pre-K and K enrollment: https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/page/pre-k-and-kindergarten-registration

Recordatorio: la fecha límite de aceptacion de inscripciones para pre-K y kindergarten es hoy, 22 de mayo. Ingrese a SMES para revisar y aceptar su propuesta de inscripción y descargar la carta de instrucciones con los próximos pasos. Más información: https://www.baltimorecityschools.org/page/pre-k-and-kindergarten-registration

Good morning MVA test takers💪🏽❤️💯 we already have 90 people in line at 7 o’clock. The earliest people were out here at 4:30 this morning Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration The Franciscan Center of Baltimore The Food Project U Empower of MD

The Franciscan Center of Baltimore will be here at 10 o’clock to help with vital documents and snap benefits.

NOTE: The next test & vital documents day will be June 12.

LOCATION: The Food Project / UEMD HUB 424 S. Pulaski Street Baltimore, Md 21223

🌱 Math Seed Number 4: Dice
Welcome back to our Math Seeds series! Baltimore City Early Learning is exploring how small household objects can lead to big math thinking.

This week, we are playing with Dice. Dice are excellent tools for helping children recognize groups of numbers without counting them one by one—a skill called subitizing.

If you do not have dice at home, you can easily make your own! You can find a simple, printable template at bit.ly/make-dice to cut and tape together.
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Ways to Explore Dice Math

-Subitizing: Roll a die and see if your child can tell you the number without counting the dots. You can say, "I see two dots!"

- Movement Math: Roll a die and do a movement that many times. "We rolled a four! Let's do four big jumps."

- Counting Practice: For younger children, touch each dot (pip) as you count them together to practice one-to-one correspondence.

- Comparing Numbers: Roll two dice. Which one has a larger number? Which one has a smaller number?

- Number Matching: Roll a die and then ask your child to find that many objects around the room, such as three toy cars or three spoons.

- Addition Games: For older littles, roll two dice and add the dots together to see what the total is.
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Dice games are a fantastic way to make number recognition feel like a play-based challenge. Whether you are using them for a board game or just rolling them on the floor, you are building essential math muscles.

Check back for our next Math Seed soon!