Matching Monkeys, Magnets

You may have noticed this paper in your child's folder today.  I do not always read directions exactly as a worksheet states them.  So for this sheet, I just told them to circle the ones that were exactly the same in each row (I didn't tell them it could only be two or that it was always the first monkey).  It was a fun worksheet for them, and interesting for me. The whole point of it is visual discrimination - being able to differentiate between pictures/symbols, which is one indicator of reading readiness: will they be able to tell a b from a d?  A p from a q?  A b from a p?  An e from a G?...  Of course an exercise like this can also just show how long/carefully a child looks at something :)  1 child got it entirely right.

The other day we read a nonfiction book about magnets and one page showed a child playing with magnets in water.  We thought it looked fun, so we tried it today.