“The term “early math” refers to a broad range of basic concepts such as counting (1, 2, 3); quantity (more, fewer); shapes (circles, squares, triangles); spatial relations (over, under); measurement (tall, short; bigger, smaller); and patterns (red, blue, red, blue). Because children are naturally curious, they explore these concepts as they interact with their environment. Infants begin to learn math before they can sit up. They notice differences in quantity, they compare the shape and size of objects, and they use early math concepts when they play and in other aspects of their daily lives. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594025.pdf
Why is Early Math Important?
Math is an important part of learning for children in the early years because it provides vital life skills. Math helps children to develop the ability to think critically and solve problems. Both are integral to success in school and in life. “Research suggests early math skills are a better predictor of academic success than early reading skills. The more math-oriented activities kids do before kindergarten, the better they’ll understand math in school. Early math skills foretell higher aptitude in high school math and higher rates of college enrollment. Math is the language of logic…Math builds reasoning, which leads to comprehension. Developing a mentally organized way of thinking is critical. To make that happen we need to provide high-quality math education at an early age.” https://www.bluebeepals.com/therapists/https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/early-math-equals-future-success/
Activities to Foster Development of Early Math Skills:
Bluebee Pals:
Bluebee Pals are a great tool to use when teaching and reinforcing math skills. Use one-on-one or invite a Bluebee Pal into peer groups to
practice skills. Paired with reading, storybooks and math apps, Bluebee Pals offer children a special learning friend who makes educational skills practice fun…and therefore, more meaningful. By “speaking and singing” the audio in connected apps, a Bluebee Pal adds just the right touch of warmth and humanity to motivate children. Just connect your Bluebee Pal and get started! Reading books, telling stories, and using “math talk” are easy, effective ways to integrate and promote the development of early math and early literacy skills. Using children’s book and math apps provide many ways to teach and reinforce foundational math skills. https://www.bluebeepals.com
Five Little Monkeys by LoeschWare https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-little-monkeys/id313094173 builds counting and math skills, color recognition and opposites.
A great way to “mathematize” children is to use math in the routines of daily life, either as games or as entertaining ways to solve problems. “Make math fun! “Young children work very hard when they’re playing. Play is the perfect learning environment.”https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/early-math-equals-future-success/
Use puzzles, building blocks for stacking and manipulating, board games, and card games. Chutes and Ladders, Pop the Pig, Hi Ho Cherry-O and Candyland are great beginning games. Games with dice and number spinners reinforce counting.
Use shape-sorters. Talk about each shape—count the sides, describe the colors.
Count and sort. Gather together a basket of small toys, shells, pebbles or buttons. Count them and sort them based on size, color, or what they do (i.e., all the cars in one pile, all the animals in another).
What size is it? Notice the sizes of objects in the world around you: That pink pocketbook is the biggest. The blue pocketbook is the smallest. Ask your child to think about his own size relative to other objects (“Do you fit under the table? Under the chair?”).
You’re cookin’ now! Even young children can help fill, stir, and pour. Through these activities, children learn, quite naturally, to count, measure, add, and estimate.
Sing songs that rhyme, repeat, or have numbers in them. Songs reinforce patterns (which is a math skill as well). They also are fun ways to practice language and foster social skills like cooperation.
Use a calendar to talk about the date, the day of the week, and the weather. Calendars reinforce counting, sequences, and patterns.
The long and the short of it. Cut a few (3–5) pieces of ribbon, yarn or paper in different lengths. Talk about ideas like long and short. With your child, put in order of longest to shortest.
Pattern play. Have fun with patterns by letting children arrange dry macaroni, chunky beads, different types of dry cereal, or pieces of paper in different patterns or designs.
Graphing games. As your child nears three and beyond, make a chart where your child can put a sticker each time it rains or each time it is sunny. At the end of a week, you can estimate together which column has more or less stickers, and count how many to be sure.
Schools are beginning to open up for the new school year. Students and teachers will be wearing masks and following new safety guidelines to help protect from getting and spreading COVID-19.
Although most students have been wearing masks in public over the summer, it’s a good idea now to start getting them used to wearing masks for longer periods of time.
Have conversations with your child about wearing a mask! Be frank with them and even discuss the obvious. “Do you know why we have to wear it?”.
You might practice wearing a mask during a tv program, playing games or when reading a story.
Use books and videos with pictures to start a conversation and open up feelings about what is going on.
Use appropriate vocabulary to see if they really know what it all means.
Don’t assume that a child knows how to express what they are feeling. Children with limited language skills may be experiencing big emotions that they don’t know how to deal with.https://www.bluebeepals.com/educational-resources/
Bluebee Pals are great tools to use to help your child understand reasons for and to practice wearing masks and using safety precautions. Let your child pick a mask for themselves and for their Bluebee Pal and they can practice wearing masks together! Use your Bluebee Pal to “read” Bluetooth connected stories, or read and record your own books in your own voice for your child. You can also practice social distancing with your Bluebee Pal!*Keep everything upbeat and lighthearted to make them feel safe. http://bluebeepals.com
Excellent resources about masks and safety to check out!
Smiling From Ear to Ear: Wearing Masks While Having Fun Paperback – By Kaitlyn Chu Let’s Smile From Ear to Ear! We’re all having to get used to wearing face masks in our daily lives. Let’s see how our favorite animals wear their masks and still have fun! Smiling From Ear to Ear is all about showing kids that they can wear face masks to protect themselves and those around them and still have fun. It was created to address kids’ fears and struggles by normalizing face masks in everyday activities using a playful and imaginative approach.
The Social Distance King: Introducing Queens and Kings to Social Distancing by Eric Desio The Social Distance King sensitively introduces the topic of social distancing to kids. With recent changes in the world, we all find ourselves living…differently. The Social Distance King is a great way to entertain children and also expose them to what social distancing might mean to them. And kids, most importantly, this book helps us learn in a FUN, entertaining and thoughtful way!
Lucy’s Mask – by Lisa Sirkis Thompson Are your kids confused and anxious about wearing a mask? Lucy’s world turned upside down. She’s bored. She can’t be together with her friends. But when she finds out her mom is making her a new mask her boredom turns into excitement. Lucy loves masks! She dives into her toy box full of costumes and opens a world of imagination and make-believe adventure, far beyond the walls of her room. Of course, she doesn’t realize that the mask her mom is making is not a costume at all but one that will keep her safe and make her a real-life superhero.
A Little SPOT Stays Home: A Story About Viruses And Safe Distancing – by Diane Alber What is happening right now? Why do we have to stay home ? What is safe distancing? Why can’t we see our friends? How can we stay safe? A story that is easy to understand and provides education, gratitude, and hope. It empowers young children, to take action and helps them to understand viruses and why remaining home and safe distancing is both important and necessary right now. It will help children and their family to stay safe and have a positive outlook to overcome their emotions of anxiety and sadness during this difficult time in their life.
SHARONA CORONA ; Children’s book about coping and bravery ; Great book to help explain kids about the CORONA Virus Kindle Edition by Dvir Cohen
Germs Are Not for Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick. Achoo! Cough! F-L-U-S-H! What to do? Rather than focus on what germs are, this book teaches the basics of not spreading them: Cover up a sneeze or cough. Hug or blow kisses when you’re sick. And most of all, wash your hands! Child-friendly words and full-color illustrations help little ones stay clean and healthy. Includes tips and ideas for parents and caregivers.
When Virona the Corona Came to Town –by Hailey Glynn Readers follow the main character, MaryEllen, through a story that details experiences during the Coronavirus pandemic. The goal of this story is to shed light on a time of uncertainty and fear in a child-friendly way.
Before the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the use of teletherapy in speech therapy and education was limited. Most education was done in a traditional face-to-face manner in a set physical location such as a school building. With schools unexpectedly closing across our nation in the spring due to safety concerns, educators were taxed with quickly learning and establishing new and flexible ways to teach their students using a wide variety of technology and teletherapy. Teachers learned to use Google Classrooms, Zoom meetings, created Virtual Classrooms, Boom Cards, and more! Using an internet connection, web portal, and two-way live video, students and teachers learned to interact as if they were in-person sessions. The use of teletherapy is expected to continue to grow as schools develop plans and educational options for the 2020-2021 school year.
Teletherapy opportunities are vast and include hands-on activities, interactive games, and unique educational plans. For the youngest students, a parent, or other adult is on the end with the child providing cueing and any “hands-on” techniques that might be needed.
***Even with all of the exciting new ways to teach virtually, teachers continue to use their most favorite, tried-and-true classroom resources in their online sessions!
Bluebee Pals are an example of a wonderful classroom favorite that are well suited to use during virtual instruction.
Use them in your teletherapy sessions the same way you would use them in a traditional education setting! http://bluebeepals.com
What IS a Bluebee Pal? The Bluebee Pal Pro 4.0 is an interactive plush learning tool with a FREE companion (life skills /educational) app that connects to all iOS and Android Devices and pairs with all apps with a narrative. The patented technology allows Bluebee’s “mouth and head” to move while reading stories, teaching through educational games, communicating through speech/AAC apps, learning a language and singing songs. The FREE Bluebee Pals Learning App is a robust life skill and cognitive development tool for children ages 3 to 7. When connected with a Bluebee Pal, children can immerse themselves in activities in five life skills rooms and play 9 educational mini-games. In addition to their app, Bluebee Pals pair with all apps with a narrative providing endless entertainment and education for all mainstream and special needs children.
* Bluebee inspires learning with educational apps.
* Bluebee reads any storybook apps.
*Your Bluebee Pal can become the teacher with your favorite text-to-speech app.
* Bluebee teaches with language and AAC (alternative augmentative communication).
* Bluebee sings with your favorite music apps.
* Bluebee acts as an educational tool with voice recording apps.
Bluebee Pals can easily be transitioned to use in teletherapy!
***Please visit the Bluebee Pals website to learn more about these excellent teaching tools.
Hooray! It’s summertime! School is out and kids are free to play and just be kids! But wait…this is not just any summer! This is the summer in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.Why does that matter? Summer Slide is increasing and effecting early childhood development. The school year was cut short for almost all students by at least 3 months. That is 1/3 of the school year! Although the schools and teachers scrambled to offer some type of educational services virtually and/or through packets mailed to students, educational instruction and progress took a major hit and a significant number of students will show skill regression in the fall when school begins again.http://bluebeepals.com
Even in the best of times, 100% of students experience summer learning loss if they don’t engage in educational learning activities over the summer. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 25% of academic learning is lost by children over summer vacation. This number would be expected to increase following the tremendous loss of instruction this year
The “Summer Slide” is the phrase used to describe the slide backwards that many children normally make in reading and math skills over the summer months when school is not in session. Numerous studies show that kids who don’t practice educational skills during summer vacation actually lose up to 3 months by the time autumn rolls around. It takes teachers 4-6 weeks to reteach material that has been lost over the summer.
**You can combat summer slide by encouraging your child to devote a small bit of time each day to keeping up skills. Just like with playing a sport, Reading and Math are skills that must be practiced… It is important to keep your child’s mind engaged over the summer so they will not fall victim to the summer slide.https://www.bluebeepals.com/inclusive-curriculum/
According to Little Scholars here are “ 10 things you can do to help your child avoid the summer slide:
Read EVERY day! Read non-fiction, fiction, ebooks, poetry, newspapers and read out loud! For most children, twenty minutes is an appropriate amount of time to read for a child who is an independent reader. Most libraries have a wonderful summer reading program with incentives and rewards for books read over the summer.
Cook with your children. This is one of the best ways to integrate math, reading and following directions. Let your child design the menu too! Help your child put together their favorite recipes in a cookbook.
Plant a garden. Your child will gain responsibility and pride as they watch their plants grow and thrive.
Take a field trip to a museum, zoo or local park with walking trails. Keep a journal about your travels.
Learn a new word each week! Hang it on the fridge and see who can use it the most times throughout the week.
Enroll in a quality summer program that will provide your child with opportunities to build their critical thinking skills.
Play quick games with flashcards like Math War or Concentration to keep math skills sharp.
Listen to Audio Books during your road trip.
Take pictures and make a summer scrapbook.
Did I mention READ?!If your child does nothing else this summer make sure he/she is reading!
Great News! Bluebee Pals are a wonderful way to encourage summer reading and combat the Summer Slide! Kids love to be connected! By reading their favorite book apps with Bluebee Pals and online reading sites for 20 to 30 minutes a day, your child can maintain and improve reading skills over the summer! They make excellent reading buddies! www.bluebeepals.com
Suggested Summer Reading Sites:
*Storyline Online by SAG-AFTRA Foundation is an award-winning children’s literacy app that features celebrated actors reading children’s books.
*Little Stories Pro by Little Bee Speech features eighty-two 100 word stories that support reading fluency, comprehension, receptive and expressive language skills.
*Reading Comprehension Camp by Smarty Ears is specifically designed to encourage language growth and comprehension. Contains 50 stories on multiple levels and comprehension quizzes.
*Epic! – Kids’ Books and Videos by Epic! Creations Inc is a leading digital library for kids with instant, unlimited access to 35,000 high-quality ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos and quizzes for children 12 and under. There is a monthly subscription plan for home and a free plan for educators.
*HOMER Reading: Learn to Read by Homer is a personalized reading program for kids 2-8. This award-winning app has been proven to increase early reading scores by 74% with just 15 minutes a day. There is a monthly subscription plan for home, and a free plan for educators.
Some children just love reading; however, others may find it difficult or even boring. They may be missing foundational skills or have difficulty sitting for long periods of time.Reluctant readers can learn to enjoy it! With schools currently closed, parents have an increased need to help make reading fun at home! By making reading fun (instead of frustrating), as well as improving reading skills, your child can develop a lifetime love of reading……Be sure to keep reading over the summer! http://bluebeepals.com
Bluebee Pals and the Bluebee Pal Program are excellent instructional tools for early reading skills! Due to their endearing appeal, Bluebee Pals and The Bluebee Pal Program, Bluebee app, Techie Rangers E-book and free Activity Guide are uniquely suited for use with reading support. The Bluebee Pal Pro 4.0 interactive plush learning tool connects via Bluetooth to all iOS and Android devices and pairs with all apps with a narrative, which provides endless educational opportunities. Each Bluebee’s “mouth and head” realistically moves while teaching curriculum through educational games, activities, and apps.
Bluebee Pal Free Sources for Readers
* The Bluebee Pal Program is a free curriculum focused on PreK and Elementary Common Core State Standards, including reading skills. You will find the curriculum here: https://www.bluebeepals.com/general-education/
* The Bluebee Pals Techie Rangers E-book with Activity Guide takes readers on an adventure with Andy and his Bluebee Pal Techie Ranger friends. Andy, a student with complex communication needs, uses an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device or “talker” to speak to the Techie Rangers as they help him return to the Rainbow School. The accompanying free Activity Guide provides fun extension activities focused on literacy and math. Don’t forget to check out the Bluebee Pals Curriculum for a lesson plan made especially for the Bluebee Pals Techie Rangers E-Book and Activity Guide. You can find the E-book and activity guide here: https://www.bluebeepals.com/bluebee-pals-techie-rangers-book/#
*The Bluebee Pals Curriculum, Bluebee Pals Techie Rangers E-Book and Activity Guide, app recommendations, numerous video tutorials, and extensive professional development resources are all available at www.bluebeepals.com
Empowering Struggling Readers: Fun While Reading at Home:
Use technology! Use Bluebee Pals along with any available technology to increase engagement with reading. Kids love tablets, computers, and phones! Use colorful book apps with Bluetooth devices to encourage reading. A set of personal earplugs or headphones would improve attending skills and give great auditory feedback.
Pick the right books– Select books your child will enjoy according to interests. Let your child help choose books. This will make reading less of a chore and more of a fun activity.
Read aloud– Take turns reading aloud to add excitement to the story using fun, different voices.
Encourage all forms of reading– In addition to books, magazines, graphic novels, road signs, recipes, and newspapers are also great reading materials.
Create a reading space– Make a fun reading area or fort where your child can read on his or her own. This is especially fun with a Bluebee Pal!
Make connections between books and life experiences– Read adventure books before you take a camping trip or dinosaur books before a trip to a museum.
Offer developmentally appropriate reading through audio books– They are a great way to make reading more enjoyable while helping to improve comprehension skills. Providing human-read audiobooks allows struggling readers to focus, visualize, and become engaged in the story. Audiobooks help build vocabulary, comprehension, and critical thinking skills. Students can gain access to grade-level content so they can participate in class and work along with their peers. This builds more confident and engaged learners. Taking away the mechanics of reading and allowing students to work at their ability lowers stress, allowing them to succeed.
Read a series– High interest book series help keep your child engaged. Also read multiple non-series books by favorite authors.
Have a daily “reading hour”– Have a scheduled reading time every day. During this time, ask your child what is happening in the book, what his or her favorite part was, and what he or she thinks might happen next.
Take trips to the library– Let your child get a library card and select books that catch his or her attention. Participate in age-appropriate story hours at the library, as well as any summer reading programs offered.
Teach reading strategies– Lots of kids don’t like reading because they don’t have the necessary skills. Talk to your child’s teacher about strategies to help improve reading motivation.
If your child’s teacher has assigned an online reading program via your school system, be sure to complete assignments as scheduled! This extra reading help will be tailored to your child’s needs and is scientifically-based instruction.
These excellent reading sites for pre-K and elementary children are backed by a tremendous amount of research into how kids learn to read and how they become fluent readers.
With children out of traditional school due to the current virus pandemic- homeschooling, online schooling, and social distancing are the current new normal. Children are missing their teachers, classmates, friends and social activities. Parents are trying to supplement educational assignments to prevent loss of prior learning.This has all been such a big adjustment to our daily lives! Parents need to remember that a favorite stuffed animal can be a comforting companion. We recommend Bluebee Pals plush educational tools as a great resource for engaging communication and learning. .http://bluebeepals.com
Bluebee Pals make perfect friends and educational tech companions.
Family Pack Bluebee Pals
Bluebee Pals make great social distancingfriends! Even if you can’t have human friends over to play right now, you have an instant friend with your Bluebee Pal! They are soft and snuggly, and instantly loveable. They make a perfect friend! Here are some suggestions to help you and your child enjoy playing with a Bluebee Pal friend:
Have a tea party. Have one every day! Invite your Bluebee Pal, mom, dad, sisters and brothers. Set the table, enjoy some snacks, and talk about your day. This is a nice way to schedule some family time and reconnect.
Your Bluebee Pal can receive telephone callsthrough it’s Bluetooth connection! Show your child how to answer the call by pressing on Bluebee’s ear. Then, go to another room and call your child through their Bluebee Pal. Have a conversation, sing some songs, ask and answer questions! Now, change places and let your child call you on your Bluebee Pal! This is wonderful for practicing conversational and social interactions.
Be sure to include Bluebee Pal in daily activities!Let him sit next to you while watching cartoons or movies, and let him sleep with you at night. He will help keep your child from feeling lonely and isolated.
Play games! You can play your favorite board games together and/or with other family members! Pick a game, set it up and get started. Help your Bluebee Pal take turns playing with you! Bluebee Pals love playing games!
Play-pretend! Help your child learn to engage in pretend play with Bluebee Pal! Play pirates, princess, dress-up, take a trip to the moon or act out your favorite books! Imaginative play fosters creativity!
Help your child make Face-time callswith your child’s friends with your Bluebee Pal! Let your Bluebee “read” your favorite book apps with your child’s friends over the phone! This is an awesome way to keep friends connected.
Practicing responsible social distancing is imperative for all us….and, with Bluebee Pal friends, can be fun!
Bluebell Pals are NOT just your average toy! Oh no! They go way beyond that! They are excellent educational tech companions! Bluebee Pals can easily be utilized to address educational needs with young children and make learning fun!
Their patented technology allows Bluebee’s mouth and head to move while reading stories, teaching through educational games, learning a language and singing songs.Bluebee Pals come with a FREE educational app, free resources, lesson plans tied to the Common Core Curriculum, video tutorials and ideas for educational uses, a fun activity guide and a downloadable book! Children love this nurturing tech companion who provides motivation and companionship.
Click the links to learn about Bluebee Pals and Free Resources
Bluebee Pals are a great tool to use when teaching and reinforcing math skills. Use one-on-one or invite a Bluebee Pal into peer groups to
therefore, more meaningful. By “speaking and singing” the audio in connected apps, a Bluebee Pal adds just the right touch of warmth and humanity to motivate children. Just connect your Bluebee Pal and get started! Reading books, telling stories, and using “math talk” are easy, effective ways to integrate and promote the development of early math and early literacy skills. Using children’s book and math apps provide many ways to teach and reinforce foundational math skills. https://www.bluebeepals.com
A great way to “mathematize” children is to use math in the routines of daily life, either as games or as entertaining ways to solve problems. “Make math fun! “Young children work very hard when they’re playing. Play is the perfect learning environment.”https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/early-math-equals-future-success/
Lucy’s Mask – by Lisa Sirkis Thompson Are your kids confused and anxious about wearing a mask? Lucy’s world turned upside down. She’s bored. She can’t be together with her friends. But when she finds out her mom is making her a new mask her boredom turns into excitement. Lucy loves masks! She dives into her toy box full of costumes and opens a world of imagination and make-believe adventure, far beyond the walls of her room. Of course, she doesn’t realize that the mask her mom is making is not a costume at all but one that will keep her safe and make her a real-life superhero.
When Virona the Corona Came to Town –by Hailey Glynn Readers follow the main character, MaryEllen, through a story that details experiences during the Coronavirus pandemic. The goal of this story is to shed light on a time of uncertainty and fear in a child-friendly way.
Teletherapy opportunities are vast and include hands-on activities, interactive games, and unique educational plans. For the youngest students, a parent, or other adult is on the end with the child providing cueing and any “hands-on” techniques that might be needed.
What IS a Bluebee Pal? The Bluebee Pal Pro 4.0 is an interactive plush learning tool with a FREE companion (life skills /educational) app that connects to all iOS and Android Devices and pairs with all apps with a narrative. The patented technology allows Bluebee’s “mouth and head” to move while reading stories, teaching through educational games, communicating through speech/AAC apps, learning a language and singing songs. The FREE Bluebee Pals Learning App is a robust life skill and cognitive development tool for children ages 3 to 7. When connected with a Bluebee Pal, children can immerse themselves in activities in five life skills rooms and play 9 educational mini-games. In addition to their app, Bluebee Pals pair with all apps with a narrative providing endless entertainment and education for all mainstream and special needs children.
Hooray! It’s summertime! School is out and kids are free to play and just be kids! But wait…this is not just any summer! This is the summer in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why does that matter? Summer Slide is increasing and effecting early childhood development. The school year was cut short for almost all students by at least 3 months. That is 1/3 of the school year! Although the schools and teachers scrambled to offer some type of educational services virtually and/or through packets mailed to students, educational instruction and progress took a major hit and a significant number of students will show skill regression in the fall when school begins again.
The “Summer Slide” is the phrase used to describe the slide backwards that many children normally make in reading and math skills over the summer months when school is not in session. Numerous studies show that kids who don’t practice educational skills during summer vacation actually lose up to 3 months by the time autumn rolls around. It takes teachers 4-6 weeks to reteach material that has been lost over the summer.
Bluebee Pals and the Bluebee Pal Program are excellent instructional tools for early reading skills! Due to their endearing appeal, Bluebee Pals and The Bluebee Pal Program, Bluebee app, Techie Rangers E-book and free Activity Guide are uniquely suited for use with reading support. The Bluebee Pal Pro 4.0 interactive plush learning tool connects via Bluetooth to all iOS and Android devices and pairs with all apps with a narrative, which provides endless educational opportunities. Each Bluebee’s “mouth and head” realistically moves while teaching curriculum through educational games, activities, and apps.
Be sure to include
