Numbers and Counting!

On Thursday for preschool I decided to do various activities involving numbers and counting. I had been noticing that Annie is confident with the letters but needs extra help with this, so I decided to make a day of it. Here is a recap of how our day went:
-We practiced extra hard being quiet while a friend showed his/her show and share. This part of our introduction went pretty well. We worked on waiting our turns, staying on our spot on the rugs, and listening while our friends shared.
-We read the book, One Duck Stuck! It is a pretty cute book where a duck gets stuck in some muck and his friends all try to help him. With each page, more and more friends come to help. I really liked seeing the kids act like snakes, hop like frogs, clomp like moose, swim like fish, etc. It got pretty silly! :)
-We had a number hunt where the kids raced to find numbers hidden all around the living room and kitchen. After our number hunt, we put the numbers in order from 1 to 10. I was curious to see if any of the kids could put the numbers in sequential order, and with a little help from me, it wasn't too hard.
-Then, we played a hopping game. I think this game would work REALLY well in your homes to help improve your child's counting and estimation skills. I glued pictures of various objects in my apartment (car keys, refrigerator, oven, couch, desk chair, car seat, cell phone, bookshelf, etc.) and the child would pick a card and have to guess how many hops it would take him/her to reach that object. If he/she guessed correctly, he/she got to keep that card. It ended up though that all the kids wanted to jump at the same time, which gets a little crowded in my small space. :) It was neat to see their estimations improve though over the course of the game. We have some good jumpers in our group!
-Then we came to the kitchen table and made little counting books with stickers for each number on the pages (one sticker on page one, two stickers on page two, etc.). This took a lot longer than I expected and was a little more difficult than I had thought it would be. We practiced one on one correspondence here. If I did this again, I would follow Rebekeh's idea and have the kids put the stickers in pairs or threes to practice odd and even numbers, and make it easier to count. Next time, I guess...
-I had the kids paint with q tips. They seemed to enjoy this. They traced the numbers I had written with paint. We practiced writing our numbers from top to bottom. I pointed out which numbers have straight lines, which are curvy, and which numbers I liked the best.
-During their free play, I got their snack and closing game ready. For snack, we had grapes and peanut butter crackers with water.
-The last number game we played was a fun one. I had taped numbers 1 to 10 in each cup in my muffin tin. Each kid took a turn and rolled a dice. Then we counted what number was rolled and placed the correct amount of M & M's in that spot. We also used two dice to practice adding and to fill all the muffin cups up to 10. Afterward, I took the M &M's and gave about six to each child. (I didn't want them to have too many but this game could have gone on much longer. Counting with candy is a hit. :)

All in all, I enjoyed having the kids and plan to incorporate more counting activities into future joy school lessons so they can all get more practice. We missed you, Calvin!