Equal sharing work

One of the most important math skills for young children is equal sharing of objects. This starts with one-to-one correspondance. I've been providing activities for Q to practice this since she was a year old--teaching her to put one object in each compartment. Now that she understands that task, we are ready to step it up a little. For this activity she will first put one glass mosaic tile in each compartment. Once that is done, there will be more tiles left over. We'll then show her how to go around and "deal" one more time to each compartment. This particular work task has enough for two tiles in each spot. Once she understands that, we can add more. Eventually we want her to be able to equally share various numbers of objects.

This skill promotes a counting awareness, builds the intial foundation for multiplication and division, encourages fine motor through the hand coordination needed for dealing, and extends a child's awareness of one-to-one correspondance.