A SUPER – EASY way to practise counting and one-to-one number correspondence with your kiddo. The flowers are so cheery too!
Did you know that it’s not uncommon for kids aged 2 to 4 to be able to “rote” count to quite high numbers, but still only have a true understanding of, and be able to count accurately, up to 5 objects?
Take-home message: It takes a LONG time (up to 2 or 3 years) and lots of practise counting small numbers of objects, for kids to learn these fundamental mathematical concepts.
This flower counting activity is a quick one to set up and get started. You may even have the materials at home already!
You Will Need:
* 5 jars or empty pop bottles
* 15 flowers (I bought mine in bunches at the dollar store and cut the flowers apart)
* paper to label the jars 1 to 5
Set-Up:
1. Label each jar with a number from 1 to 5.
2. Add a second label to each jar showing the number in dots (I like to use the dot arrangements that you typically see on dice so that Onetime will come to quickly recognize those dots eventually for future math games).
3. Present the flowers in a bunch to your child and tell them you are going to fill the jars with the correct number of flowers by counting together.
Have fun counting together!
Onetime really enjoyed this activity for several days. When he got tired of counting flowers, we used them for the 3D Spring Art craft.
Then we started using the jars to count buttons, marbles, mini-cars, etc! I’ll be keeping these jars around for a while!
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Cheers,