Cake Patterns ~ Once Upon a Book

A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban

Summary: Sometimes it is hard when siblings have birthdays. Frances is a little envious of her sister Gloria and all her birthday attention. Mother and Father Badger are gentle and wise in their handling of their imaginative and precocious offspring.

Early Math Skills:

 

This is a very easy patterning activity to use during a birthday theme.

Supplies:

cake die-cuts (I found mine at the Dollar Tree)
circle stickers 

 

I placed color dots on the cake die-cuts, making sure I had a set of 5 for each color. Then I made a pattern and placed it in our pocket chart.  Then I had my daughter point to each cake in the top row and say the color of the dot.  “Green, purple, green, purple, ---- what comes next?”  Then she would pick the correct cake to complete the pattern.

Once we were done with patterns, I took several pairs of cakes and we played Cake Memory with the cards.

 

During this whole unit we practiced singing the months of the year. I also have a months of the year printable that hangs by our calendar so that we can practice and point out the current month. We talk about which family members have birthdays in each month.

She knew that her cousin Jack’s birthday was coming up, so she asked if she could make him a card.

She used scraps of wrapping paper plus an extra cake die-cut to decorate her card.

Simple yet fun activities to do with your toddler during a birthday theme! Check out all the past Birthday-themed posts for more toddler activity ideas.