The kids love the Super Sorting Pie. It's been a versatile toy since Christmas (2011) and great for learning colors, sorting, counting, fine motor practice with tongs, and even pretend play.
Three 2-sided cardboard inserts come with the pie and provides a good visual for the kids to remember how I am asking them to sort the fruits. The inserts are easily interchangeable by simply lifting the sectioned-off part of the pie.
Elizabeth enjoys sorting by color and by type of fruit.
I've even used it for simple addition and subtraction practice with Matthew.
When not sorting or counting, the kids play with it many days in the week pretending to bake a fruit pie in their play kitchen. Today, they were so cute playing together. Matthew was telling Elizabeth what fruit he needed and how many and Elizabeth listened, understood him (she usually always does despite his struggle with articulating some words), and played along. I would've taken a longer video but stopped right after Elizabeth announced, "I'm pooping." Thankfully, she still wears diapers.
As of today, it's selling on amazon.com for less than $20. It's also available on the Learning Resources website but it costs more.
The Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks & Boards comes with 6 wooden shapes and colors - white diamonds, blue diamonds, yellow hexagons, red trapezoids, green triangles, orange squares - and 10 geometric patterns on wooden boards. The shapes can also be used to create more unique patterns without the pattern boards but for a 2-year old and 4-1/2 year old, it was simpler to start with a ready visual.
Not surprisingly, 2-year old Elizabeth can easily scan the box of mixed shapes to find all the needed pieces by herself. She can finish a pattern mostly by herself, with just a little help to reposition the pieces if they move out of place. They move very easily on the board and it may be frustrating for some.
Matthew's visual scanning abilities aren't as strong as his younger sister's and it doesn't help that he gets distracted easily. It was puzzling to me that he couldn't find the pieces he needed for the pattern he was working on even when I told him what shapes (and colors) he needed. Then I remembered that some activities weren't as overwhelming for Matthew if they were broken down into simpler steps.
To simplify the shape search for him, I had both kids sort all the pieces by shape/ color in separate piles. With all the like pieces together, he could now concentrate on counting how many he needed for the pattern he was completing instead of losing focus when digging through a jumbled pile of shapes.
We like to bring out this toy during queiter times in the day or when waiting for lunch to be ready. Elizabeth enjoys sorting the pieces by color as well as helping Matthew locate the pieces he needs.
Great for promoting mathematical thinking, creativity, visual scanning, shape and color recognition, and in our family, teamwork.
Just two months ago, Matthew didn't have a good grasp of early number concepts. I had been teaching him to count up to 3. I hadn't taught him to count from 1 to 10. I had been showing him the difference between big and small as well as same and different, which are prenumber concepts. But I hadn't been doing it as often as I feel I should have. I had been reading counting books to him like "Very Hungry Caterpillar" but he was more interested in other books two months ago.
If I asked him to give me 1 block, he would give me whatever he could hold in his hand. He was excellent at matching and sorting shapes and colors though.
In an effort to teach Matthew the concept of counting, identifying and naming numerals, and sight reading number words zero to ten, we counted everything of high interest to him like crackers, toys, steps, and many other things. We read more counting books. We sang more counting songs. I made number word flashcards since I was also teaching him sight words.
I also made a "Counting Crackers" video for him using my photos of goldfish crackers and Windows Movie Maker. He loves goldfish crackers, looking at photos, learning to sight read new words and watching videos. It was a huge hit and he evidently learned from it.
Progress He can now count from 1 to 10 in the correct order and without prompting, also known as rote counting. He is also beginning to count objects by pointing to them one to one. He can now recognize numerals and number words zero to ten. He says "two" and "eight" the clearest.
The other day, while eating goldfish crackers, I asked him to give me two crackers. I held my hand out and he put two crackers in my hand, one cracker at a time.
Early Math Resources The Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County's (DSFOC) "The Learning Program" offers materials for free on their website. Registration required. They have an "Everyday Math" handout with plenty of activity ideas for prenumber concepts and early number concepts. Prenumber concepts include sorting, comparing objects and patterning. Early number concepts include rote counting, counting with meaning and number symbol (numeral) recognition.
For a more multi-sensory approach to learning math using manipulatives, there are teaching resources like Numicon, which was developed in the UK and is available at downsed USA's online store, or Math-U-See, which was designed by a math teacher and father of a child with Down syndrome. It looks like the DSFOC's Learning Program uses Numicon.
We decided to try Numicon so I ordered the Firm Foundations kit and the book to adapt it specifically for kids with Down syndrome. Beth at Hannah's Shenanigans shares her daughter's experience using Numicon in several blog entries. At this time, I have no blog links to share for personal experiences with Math-U-See.
The book "Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners" by DeAnna Horstmeier also has many activities for learning prenumber and early number concepts.
