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For me, there's not many manipulatives as fun as pom-poms for kids!

They're soft and fuzzy, small and light, coloured and shiney and textured. Delight!
(I wonder if anyone's every written a poem about pom-poms? haha)

This activity couldn't be any simpler to do and set up but is lots of fun and holds plenty of learning!

Use this activity to learn more about colours, sorting/categorising, counting, numbers, estimation, one-to-one correspondence (1:1) and  developing fine motor skills.

Ages: 2+

(see Handy Tips at the bottom for ideas to modify to your child's level)

Materials: Coloured pompoms, divided containers

(I deliberately started with only 1 container with not enough spaces for all the colours to see what she'd do)

It didn't take long before she realised that she didn't have enough compartments to sort the amount of different colours.

I then gave her another tray (just a muffin pan) so she could continue her sorting

Picking out those pom-poms was great for developing pincer-grip

She was happy about all the extra compartment she had and started to divide the lights from the darks.

When she'd divided them all I asked her which colour pom-pom she thought she had the most of? 

Which did she have the least of?

I then had her test her guess by counting the pom-poms. We practiced one-to-one correspondence (1:1) by moving each pompom from one side to another while counting aloud.

Handy Tips

- Simplify this activity by providing fewer pom-poms and colour options to sort and count. Start with 2 or 3 different colours and 5-10 pom-poms of each colour and work your way up.

- Extend this activity by having children guess which colour of pom-pom there is the most of before starting. Graph the results at the end to find out how close the initial guess was.

- Mix it up by doing the same activity with different manipulatives like blocks, legos, buttons, counters etc

- Talk with your child about what they are doing and naturally follow the conversation about colours and numbers. Use descriptive words like fuzzy and soft to help them develop their language.

Here are some more of our fun NUMBER activities for kids

Q-Tip Painting. Learning Numbers 

Ice-cream number learning

Printable Duplo Number Cards

Learning Numbers. Pretend Shop

Shopping Trip Number Hunt

Catalogue Number Find

Egg Carton Maths

You can also follow our Playful Maths series.

Happy playing,

Debs :)

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Welcome back to the "Playful Maths" weekly series brought to you by

  Learn with Play at home and The Imagination Tree

Together, let's make MATHS FUN!

........................................

Last week we brought you 2 great maths activities using egg cartons and this week we'll share 2 more before moving on to a new material next week.

Today's activity from us focuses on "Subitising/Subitizing and Sorting" 

This activity also includes counting, one-to-one correspondence, fine motor skill practice and a little bit of probability/chance.

You can also use this activity to practice number recognition, number writing, graphing, addition etc.

(See the Handy Tips at the bottom)

But First- What is Subitising (Subitizing) and why is it important?

Subitising comes from the Italian Word "subito" which means "immediately/suddenly"etc. 

The skill of Subitising/Subitizing refers to the ability to see a small group and know instantly how many are in that group without counting them. For example, if you rolled a 4 on a dice you would know it is 4 straight away without counting each dot.

Developing subitising skills is important because it is an early form of grouping and aids us in learning and understanding number relationships. When you see a 5 on a dice, we know it is 5 straight away because of the 4 dots that form the square and 1 extra. (It tells our brain that 4 and 1 are 5). If you saw 5 dots in a row, your brain may not be able to instantly recognise it as a collection of 5 but should be able to instantly see a group of 2 and 3 which it knows make 5. 

Regular games using dice and using materials like dominos etc. will all aid your child in practicing Subitising and learning number relationships that will form the basis of their number understanding and aid in all future maths learning.

Right, now onto the activity.

Ages: 3+

(M has just turned 4. See the bottom for handy tips to Extend or Simplify to meet your child's needs)

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Materials: Egg carton, die, paint (or anything you like to colour the inside) and coloured pom-poms (or any coloured manipulatives eg, counters, buttons, large beads etc)

Prepare your Egg Carton. Usually I let my daughter do the painting of things but part of the fun of this activity is the nice colourful surprise.

She was keen to get into this activity and the colourful surprise didn't disappoint

Before starting the game we had a look at the die together and talked about the numbers

Put the die inside the Egg Carton and close the lid

Give the Egg Carton a good shake! 

(This is a fun part, we put it into this activity after having fun shaking an egg carton in this activity)

Put the Egg Carton down and open the lid. She couldn't wait to see which colour the die was in.

Encourage children to tell you the number on the die. See if they can tell you without counting each dot. 

Count out the corresponding colour and number of pompoms.

Keep repeating so that children practice seeing and recognising the amount and then corresponding that to a group they have counted-out

I loved how here she first counted out 4 in one row and 2 in the other and then was all puzzled as to what was going on. She recounted a couple of times to make sure there was still 6 before moving them into 2 rows of 3. Is it just me that gets excited by this learning...?

And repeat...

 "Another 4!" she exclaimed. (we'd had quite a few). Use a time like this to talk about guessing.. (and bringing up basic concepts of chance/probability)

I challenged her to get the dice in a PINK section.. 

To make things a little more interesting I gave her a pair of children's chopsticks (they're joined near the top so easier for little kids and you can get them quite inexpensively..eg $2 at Kmart).

This not only added some extra fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination but brought new life and added  concentration to the same activity.

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by perhaps only including a couple of primary colours. A half dozen egg carton would probably be better for little hands as well.

- You can Extend this activity in many ways:

• add an extra die in the mix to practice addition
• keep a tally of the numbers that come up of each colour to see which colour got the highest overall
• make a graph of the amount of times each colour in landed in... etc

- Mix it up by using this same idea to practice number recognition with a numerical dice and have the children practice writing the number each time.

- To learn new skills and to consolidate their understanding, children need to experience opportunities to practice these skills over and over again. Repeat this activity with different colours, manipulatives etc.

- You don't have to use pompoms. Whatever you have available, so long as you have at least 6 of each colour it's fine

- Don't forget to pop over to The Imagination Tree to see their Egg Carton Maths activity from this week and be sure to stop back next week as together we bring you another 2 fun Playful Maths activities... with Paper Tubes!

Happy playing,

Debs :)

Follow the entire series on our

 Playful Maths Pinterest Board.

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Today we just did a super simple little craft. 

It kept us amused, practiced fine-motor skills, worked on colour recognition, made us aware of spacing and in the end, we had some cool and unique Kids Room Decor lanterns to hang in my daughters room

Ages: 2-6+

(M was 3y/o. See the Handy Tips at the bottom for ideas to Simplify or Extend for your child)

Materials: Paper lanterns (You can source these  inexpensively from your local discount variety shops or ebay! These cost me less than $2 each) & 

Multi coloured and sized dot stickers (if you can't find multi coloured ones, buy white dot stickers and have your child paint them different colours)

Then it's as simple as peel and stick

Talk about the different colours you're using and how they're spacing them out. 

Use different sized dots for varying effects.

When they are done, tie on some fishing line and hang at varying heights from the ceiling

(We used Command Clear Hooks to attach to the ceiling. No drilling, yay!)

Look what else we've done with Paper Lanterns :)

(click the picture to go to the post)

     

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by assisting your child to peel the stickers off the backing. If it's too hard for your child, peel the stickers off first and half stick them on the edge of the table for them to peel and use easier

- Extend this activity by challenging your child to make different shapes and patterns out of the dot stickers. Include some literacy by having them form their name or first letter or some numeracy by challenging them to figure out how many dots they've covered their lantern with

- Mix it up by using different types or stickers or have a go at painting one! Use colours your child likes or that will complement spaces.

- Making something that looks visually pleasing as the end result helps your child to feel proud about what they have created. Giving it a special purpose (like for their room or as a gift) can also help instil some pride in their work.

- Talk with your child as they do this activity. Take the time to discuss what's going on in their life. Some of the best discussions with your child can come when you are simply working side by side. It's a beautiful thing :)

Have you used Paper Lanterns? How?

Happy creating,
Debs :)

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Play dough is a wonderful sensory experience for children and one that most will thoroughly enjoy.

Today we're combining a couple of our favourite tactile materials 

with an easy way to practice Name Recognition, Letters and Spelling. 

This activity is also great for promoting fine motor skills and can also be used to focus

on colours and patterns.

Ages: 2-6+

(Maddie is currently 3.5. See the Handy Tips at the bottom of the post to either Simplify or Extend this activity)

Materials: Playdough, Pompoms, Rolling Pin and Pencil

Roll out the playdough and using the pencil, write in your child's name

Start covering the lines with pompoms to show your child what to do. We used mini pompoms here.

Children place the pompoms to cover the lines to spell out their name using their pincer grip. 

Add tweezers for an added challenge.

Pom-pom name. Discuss the letters and order. 

Use to practice single letters

Using larger pompoms

Handy Tips:

- To simplify this activity, start with single letters, such as the first letter of your child's name. Using larger pompoms will be easier for less advanced fine motor skills as they are easier to grab. When teaching single letters try to start with letters that have meaning to them (like the first letter of their name) and letters that generally have only 1 sound (eg S, M, F etc)

- To extend this activity, have your child do the writing in the play dough with the pencil. You could always do a very faint outline and have your child trace over the top to make the lines themselves if they're not confident at letter formation

- To begin again, simply scrunch the dough back into a ball and re-roll out.

- Use this same idea for teaching sight words or numbers

- Mix it up by providing different materials to cover the lines with such as beans or beads etc.

- Include further areas of learning by talking about and focusing on covering each letter with a particular colour or by encouraging simple patterns.

Want more ideas for Learning Letters?

Try our most popular and comprehensive post ever on the subject: The A-Z of Learning Letters. 90+ Activities

or, try making some fun Alphabet Goo!

How about some different fun Learning with Playdough?

Our Playdough Imprints. Texture and Pattern Exploration activity was really fun

or, how about this fun Invitation to Play with playdough and some other materials?

Happy playing,
Debs :)

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This activity provides a fun and sensory way for children to get creative whilst personalising something for themselves or as a gift.

This would be great for making personalised canvas art, pictures for framing or as we used it, to make gift cards.

Ages: 2-6+

Materials: Paper (or cardboard/canvas), stickers, inkpads

We used the foam stickers as they are good for little hands

Our little inkpads are not technically "child fingerpaints". These were purchased from Kmart and are intended for use with scrapbooking and stamps. 

I am always present and only use these with children that won't put their fingers in their mouth. 

The ink washes off fine afterwards.

 Stick stickers in any design. Here is a name card we did

 Let your child put fingerprints all over the card, ensuring that all around the stickers is covered

Carefully peel off the stickers and your design is done.

 Let your child get creative with their own designs and patterns

Little stickers are fabulous for children developing their pincer grip and fine motor skills

 3 different designs

 Wonderful rainbow of fingerprints

We decided to leave the stickers on a couple of the designs as we thought they looked really cool

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this for younger children by assisting them with peeling the backs of stickers. Allow your young child to stick and arrange stickers as they like and then encourage them with the fingerprinting around/over the stickers

- Extend this by providing number and letter stickers and using for learning spelling, sight words, making number posters and more

- Mix it up by using paints instead of inkpads. You will find the colours blend more with paints

- Depending on the type of material you use as the base of your creation, you may find the stickers difficult to get off without ripping the paper. So as to avoid disappointment, test sticking some stickers and peeling them off your surface first. Note: the harder your child presses the stickers down while fingerprinting over them, the harder it may be to remove the stickers cleanly. Using canvas should alleviate this problem completely or just be careful removing the stickers from paper.

- Use this time to talk about the different colours being used or the letters/numbers, stickers, patterns etc.

- Practice new words such as "overlapping" to assist your child's understanding and language development.

- Remember that sometimes children just create, they don't need it to be a specific item at the end. It could just be an abstract creation. Allow this and don't push them to think they must make something "real."

Happy playing and creating,
Debs :)

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