Counting and Quantities for Preschoolers

 We have been working on counting and learning quantities.  Here are some of the activities we have been doing.

1.  Matching milkcaps to circles on filefolders

2.  Spelling numbers - I found these wonderful templates at Confessions of a homeschooler.  I use our foam magnetic letter along with this activity. 

3.  Counting Strip -  OK, I know this looks a bit ragged and it is.  I started with a sentence strip and every week or so I add another.  We count through these number every day. 

4.  Counting animals -  I lay out some of our beany babies and Adeline counts them.

5.  Making Marks -  I had some left over laminated pieces so I write a number, and Adeline makes that many marks with her dry erase pen.

6.  Magna Doodle Counting-  I write a number on our magna doodle and Adeline uses a refrigerator magnet to count out the correct quantity,

7.  Counting Bears -  Again I found these templates at Confessions of a homeschooler

8.  Fine Motor Counting -  Counting beans while we drop them into a bottle.

 

Learning Numbers and Quantities

We are working on numbers a lot lately.  Adeline has been very interested in counting so that is what we are working on.   Here are some of the things I have been doing with Adeline to help her learn her numbers and quantities.

The first thing I did was to make flashcards up to twenty.   I first had her learn how to identify the numbers.

 
Second thing we did was explore the teddy bear counters.

 
Before children can be expected to use a manipulative for a specific purpose they need some time to explore with it.  

Later, I drew some circles on file folders and we added the correct amount of bears to each circle.

We are also counting stickers on a file folder.

Adeline has really been enjoying her abacus now that she is starting to understand numbers.

One other thing that has helped Adeline learn her numbers is her favorite counting app on the I Pad call Toddler Counting.  This is a great simple app that teaches up to 20.

DIY Montessori 100's Board

Adeline has learned to recognize her numbers up to about 20 but not the order, so I have been wanting to work on that.  I really wanted to purchase this neat board on Amazon but now is not the time, so I made one for now.

I found a 100's chart at the Dollar Tree the other day so I cut it up and also purchased a foam poster board.
I laminated the squares and sorted them in groups of ten.  I wrote the first few numbers on because that is what we are working on right now.  I think the matching will help her get started.   I think I need to put a little velcro on yet so that they don't slide around.

Learning With A Box

Yesterday I was inspired when I visited The Happy Holligans.  I had an empty box laying around waiting to be used but I did not have an idea.  After visiting her "Drop Box" I had an idea.

I made a number box using our Rummy O tiles.  Adeline has been working on number identification so we dropped the number into the correct slot.

I covered a shoe box with paper, cut some slots, added a circle for the yogurt cup and we were ready to play.  This activity requires fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.   

Some other activities we have done in the past using recycled boxes are;

Milk Caps and a Box

Straws and a Box 

Pull Box

Cardboard boxes are great for teaching many different concepts.

Christmas Sensory Play

We are starting to think about Christmas and winter.  Today I am sharing some of the sensory activities that we have been playing in lately.

First is a bucket of grain filled with snowflakes and trees.  I used grain as our base but you could use many different items such as rice, beans or popcorn.  We talked about the trees and colors while using some different utensils to dig.  

Second, is a pan filled with salt.  Salt is a great sensory experience and can be used as snow.

Adeline really got into hiding her hand in the salt.

Christmas tree ornaments;
We made ornaments using salt, cardboard and buttons.