Little Hands-on ABC’s & 123’s ~ Cards & Counters

The simplest hands-on way I've found to practice counting is using cards and counters.  Line up the number cards from 0 to 9 and have the child place the counters under each card while counting aloud.

Cards and counters are a great way for a child to practice one to one correspondence while counting. Cards and counters are also valuable for teaching and reviewing odd and evens and patterns especially if using alternating counters as Bear did here.

The number cards in the photo above are from the Add It game found on Confessions of  a Homeschooler.  But number cards are easy to make and can even just be written on Post-it notes.  It doesn't have to be fancy.  If you don't have a printer, it doesn't matter.  Just use whatever you have - even those fridge magnet numbers work, or the foam numbers from the bathtub.

Counters can be anything - rocks, glass stones, erasers, pompoms, cheerios.  Whatever you have accessible.  However, it is fun to make it seasonal or go along with your theme.

We used leaves in the Fall.

 

Snowflakes in the winter.

 

Packing peanuts to represent snow blocks for an Arctic theme.

 

Rocks for a rock theme.

 

Oyster crackers at snack time.

 

Now go and get counting!

 

Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s is a bi-monthly feature that focuses on practical and simple ideas that you can do at home to help your tot develop their letter and number skills.