Thinking in Glass at the Pittsburgh Glass Center

Silvia Levinson is teaching a class at the Pittsburgh Glass Center called “Thinking in Glass”. If you’re in that area and need something fabulous to do take this class! Take it for me! I love Silvia’s work and would love to spend time learning about thinking in glass. I think I do it most of the time but would love to hear her version of it.

Here’s a description from the site:

Silvia Levenson’s work is never based on technique or technical virtuosity, but rather on how to make visible her thoughts and her sense of perplexity about the world. In making objects or designing an installation, she does not begin by thinking of what she can do, but rather what she wants to do. In this workshop, she will accompany students in the realization of works using the same methodology she uses in her own studio. The basic glass working technique will be lost wax and open face kilnforming. The aim of this workshop is shifting boundaries in order to think new works and installations. We will discuss artwork and artists working in glass. We will explore the lost wax technique, mold making, firing schedules, and how to work on the idea of installation.

Learning numbers actually involves a few different skills, from recognizing the shape of the number and knowing the word that goes with it to understanding one to one correspondence for counting and what order the numbers go in.

A lot of this is learned best through play and activities that get kids counting and tracing and otherwise interacting with numbers. These activities can help.

I specifically mentioned tracing above because of these number formation rhymes cards from Teaching Mama, which can be used in lots of ways to practice making the shapes of the numbers, including tracing, lining up items on the number shapes (and counting them!), using playdough to shape the numbers and so on. Each number has a little rhyme to help you remember how to make it, which is cute.

And speaking of playdough, you can find lots of playdough number mats with different themes for kids to use as they learn about numbers. Preschool Play and Learn, for example, has these cute apple themed ones that also teach one to one correspondence as you learn the numbers and count to 10.

Or use these tree-themed ones from Live Over Cs to form the numbers, count out items on a ten frame and place the correct number of items in the tree to match the number (do this with playdough, little buttons or whatever manipulatives you have on hand). Your little builders will also love these Duplo number mats from Life Over Cs, which allow you to shape the number out of blocks and count out the number of blocks that corresponds to each number.

I also love these mats from The Savvy Sparrow that include the number and the word you can trace with playdough or marker, showing how to count the number on your fingers, a tens frame and a number line.

Finger plays and counting songs are lots of fun for little ones, too, and Childhood 101 has a great collection of songs and rhymes having to do with numbers (as well as printable song cards you can use with them.

This cardboard roll number chain form Hands On As We Grow would be a fun addition to singing number songs or to use in other play and counting games. And we all love something easy to make with stuff we already have.

Older kids who already know the order of numbers can also use these connect the dot number printables from Fun Learning for Kids. Or use the shapes for playdough mats or to practice tracing even for kids who don’t know all the numbers in order yet.

Have you read?