Raise your hand if your child is constantly asking for screentime? I feel like I am ALWAYS fighting the iPad battle. So when I find a game that is educational AND engaging, I have to share it with my fellow mamas!

Our new favorite iPad game is from Osmo and it’s called Pizza Co.

If you aren’t familiar with Osmo products let me just say this, they’re awesome! They combine hands-on learning with interactive play and technology. It really makes kids feel like they are doing magic!

This particular game is this generation’s version of playing cashier. Remember when we were younger and we would pretend to ring people up and give them their change back? Well now imagine that only 10x better! Let me walk you through it and share all of the amazing educational aspects to it as well!

What Do You Get With Osmo Pizza Co.?

When you purchase the Osmo Pizza Co. kit you get some pretty awesome goodies! There is a reversable pizza pie/tray, a variety of pizza toppings, and money (bills and coins).

You do need the base and red projector piece to use with the Osmo apps. We already had it because Santa had brought Nico the Little Genius Starter Kit. But don’t worry about that, you can purchase it here.

What Is The Objective of the Game?

The game starts with the manager of a pizza place asking you to take over for him while he goes on vacation. While he is gone you have a handful of responsibilities. You must:

• Serve customers
• Collect money
• Make enough money to pay the rent
• Get good reviews

To do this, a number of academic skills are addressed. Let’s hop into that now.

What Skills Are Addressed in the Osmo Pizza Co Game?

So the concept of the game is simple, make the pizzas and collect the money. But in order to do that, you have to tap into a multitude of skills.

When a customer comes in they ask for their pizza in a variety of ways. All of them are through the use of pictures, but some more complicated than others. They will either simply show exactly what they like or they will provide clues which you must use to infer what type of pizza to make them.

For example, they might show a happy face next to tomatoes and a sad face next to anchovies. Using this given clue, kids must build a pizza they will like.

While building the pizza, the customer’s facial expressions are changing, and you must be aware of this. Because guess what? If you make a pizza they don’t like, they will leave you a bad review!

After you make the customers pizza you must collect your money because remember, rent is due! You can differentiate this activity to meet your child’s needs. For the younger babes you can make it so that no money is involved, you can make it so that only bills are involved, or have both bills and change.

If you take a long time to provide the change, the math will be done for you. I love this! It gives children an opportunity to do it on their own, but also eliminates frustration and a sense of failure.

After a while, your money and profits are calculated, along with your reviews.

After you pay all of your bills you have the option to spruce up the shop. They can purchase plants, wall decor, even a new oven! My son gets so excited to see what he has earned and can afford after each shift!

When we’re done, all of the pieces store nicely in the organizational pieces provided with your purchase.

We love this game, and my son is often begging to play it. This is the kind of screentime I’m down for!

The post The Osmo Pizza Co App appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

This snow-themed preschool learning pack is a collection of fun and engaging math and phonics activities for preschoolers.

Teaching phonics and math through thematic hands-on activities is an excellent way to help preschoolers retain important information. Here’s a look at some of my favorite snow-themed learning activities for the winter months! They belong to my Snow Theme Pack, which you can purchase here!

Phonics Snow Activities

Beginning Sounds Phonics Mats

Practice identifying beginning sounds and forming the letters with these snow-themed cards. These cards are created to be used with play-dough. This adds an extra element of fun to the letter activity!

Salt Tray Alphabet Cards

Practice letter formation with this hands-on snow activity! Pour salt or sand in a tray or pencil case and have children pick a snowflake card. Using their finger they can practice forming the letter. There are uppercase and lowercase cards and recording sheets for both.

Match the Mitten Rhyming Activity

This rhyming game is great to use in a pocket chart or on the floor. Lay out one of the mittens and stack the others in a pile. Children pick a card from the pile and find the matching mitten by pairing up the rhyming pictures.

Snow-Themed Math Activities

Two Dimensional Shape Snow Activity

Practice identifying and forming 2D shapes with this fun activity. Using play-doh, children will use each card to help them form the shapes shown.

Count It Out Math Game

This snow-themed math game focuses on more than one preschool math skill. First, children pick a number card and must be able to read the card. Then, using manipulatives, children will count out that number and place the manipulatives on their mitten board.

Snowflake Addition

Preschoolers can practice addition to 10 with pictures by using these snowflake cards. Teach children to use manipulatives and pictures to help solve basic addition problems.

Snowball Number Identification

Have fun with number identification by pulling a number card and then finding all of the snowballs that match on your paper. I like using dabbers for this because bringing in a new supply to use always engages children instantly.

Snowman Ten Frames

Becoming familiar with ten frames is an important math skill for our preschoolers. This snow-themed ten frame game is a pre-k favorite!

You can grab this full resource by clicking here!

This resource also includes directions for some super fun snow projects and crafts. Here’s a peek at one of them but you can see more by checking out these blog posts below:

• Making a Snow Volcano
• Fake Snow that is Cold
• Snow Dough

The post 8 Amazing Snow Activities for Preschoolers! appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

Number Activities for Preschool

Are you looking for number activities for preschool? Number activities for preschoolers involves more than just counting to 10. Our pre-k students need to build their number sense, and feel confident with number formation, rote counting, number identification and more! By providing a variety of fun and engaging activities to preschoolers, we can help them develop a solid number sense foundation. Let’s take a deep dive into this critical skill and I’ll show you all of the materials that I use to teach number sense to pre-k students.

The first thing I have my preschoolers master is number identification. I think this is a great opportunity to begin practicing number formation. I do not expect them to master this yet, but through the use of hands-on activities, we can introduce both skills simultaneously.

Number Matching Activities for Preschoolers

Matching numbers is the perfect introductory activity. Preschoolers will start to recognize the shapes that form each number as they match them up. They do not need to know the names of each number to be successful with this type of activity.  Here is Buggy for Numbers, a matching game that allows students to self-check their work. With the use of images behind the numbers, children can easily see if they have matched the correct numbers. It also adds a fun element, as they feel as if they are doing a puzzle, rather than a math task.

Incorporating sensory bins is another way to make number activities for preschoolers fun and engaging. Alien Invasion is a space themed sensory bin that I made using dried black beans play-doh shaped into stars and planets. Inside the bin I have planets with the numbers 1-10 on them. Each preschooler gets a number board and they must match the planets to the correct box on their board. I use velcro dots on both the planets and the boards to stop the pieces from moving and eliminate frustration.

Number Recognition Activities for Preschool

Another great hands-on preschool activity for number identification and formation, are my Trace that Number &Build that Number Cards. I love to use these with my fast finishers or as math warm-up activities. These even make great math centers. Preschoolers can practice tracing the numbers, and learning proper number formation by following the lines on the cards. They can also have fun with other materials like play-doh by building the numbers within the bubble number cards.

Counting Activities for Pre K

While students are working on identifying numbers, they can also practice counting to 10 with different engaging number activities. I love these math games because they incorporate both skills, and have an element of fine motor work.

Pom Pom Count is a great math center that works on number identification, counting objects to 10, and fine motor skills. There is even the option of differentiating for your advanced learners and having them put the number cards in order. Children read each number on the card, and then count out the appropriate amount of pom poms. Dots on each card will help guide them to be successful with this activity. I love using these

 

Number Sense Activities for Preschool

Number and Counting Activities for Preschool

Another great number activity for preschool involves five frames. It is important to expose children to a variety of ways to represent numbers. This will help their overall number sense and fluency. Bow Wow Boards is a number activity that uses five frames and asks your preschool student to identify a number, use manipulatives for representing the number, and then trace the number. This one math activity alone covers number identification, counting objects, and number formation.

Here are a few other ten frames number activities for preschool that will help them with number sense.

Number Learning Activities for Preschoolers

After we have practiced all of these number activities, my students have always shown tremendous growth. I’ve compiled all of these activities into one download to make your life easier. The download includes everything you need to successfully implement these activities and more.

Also included in this download:

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Attribute Sorts: 3 different sorts included to help students recognize and group objects by either color, number of objects or shape
Color Centers: Color puzzles and color sorts (not pictured) help students build fluency with recognizing colors and their names

Ketchup & Mustard Number Match: Students build fluency with recognizing numbers 0-20 by matching ketchup bottles and mustard bottles with the same number. A recording sheet is included
Martian Match: Match the Martian to the correct UFO by finding matching numbers. Cards for 0-20 are included
Number Formation Sandboxes: Pull a sun card and use your finger to form that number in the sand. A spinner can also be used (included) to determine how many times the students should form the number
Number Formation Boards: Practice writing numbers with dry erase markers and then use play-doh to form the number
Number Formation Mats: Tracing numbers, writing numbers, number words and more all on one mat!

Find the Fries: Read the number word and then pace the correct fries inside
Cookie Jar Counting: Count the chocolate chips and put them in the correct number jar
French Fry Counting: Read the number on the ketchup packet and match it up with the same amount of fries
Ordering Numbers 0-100: Pull an envelope and put the given cards in order from least to greatest

Make Ten School Buses: Use the ten frame school buses to practice making ten. Complete the word sentence for added practice!
One More One Less Boards: Build cube trains and then figure out what is one more and what is one less!
Ten Frame Counting: Practice filling in ten frame boards to match a variety of objects, such as, dice, numbers, tally marks, fingers and more!
Sorting Honey Bears: Sort the cards by matching numbers. The cards include ten frames, numbers, number words, tally marks and more!
Popcorn Numbers: Find the correct popcorn kernels for the tub! Practice reading number words, ten fames, dice, tally marks and more!
Monster Ten & Twenty Frames: Pull a card and use it to complete your ten frame!

Peanut Butter Jelly Addition: Match the peanut butter slice (addition problem) with the correct jelly slice (answer) to form a peanut butter jelly sandwich
Bubblegum Addition: Solve the addition problems on the gum balls to figure out which gum ball machine they belong to
Lemon Lime Subtraction: Match the lemons (subtraction problem) with the correct lime (answer)
Subtraction Clip Cards: Use clothespins to clip all of the subtraction problems that apply to the answer in the middle
Shape Puzzles: Build fluency with 2D and 3D shapes with a variety of puzzles. Students will learn shape names, number of sides, corners etc
Pattern Cards: Complete the pattern by finding the missing piece and placing it on the correct card. AB, ABC, ABB patterns included

Greater Than Less Than Ice Cream Cones
Skip Counting Seashells:
Measurement Cards:
Bear Number Bonds:

Analog & Digital Clock Puzzles:
Money Puzzles:
Base Ten Puzzles:
Number Boards:

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