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Simple counting activity for children

May 21, 2015 by Kate 30 Comments

Here is a fun and simple counting activity for children. It’s very easy to set up at home or in the classroom, can be designed to suit individual needs and will help children build and consolidate their understanding of identifying numbers and how it’s represented using pompoms. 
Counting activity for kids using pompoms
Numbers are everywhere and it isn’t until your 3.5 year old toddler points them all out that you realise (haha). Possum has started to recognise that there is a difference between letters and numbers and likes to enthusiastically count to the ‘big numbers’. You might remember my previous popular post, which is also a number matching activity. 

This activity isn’t new, but obviously a really great one for developing your child’s familiarity with numbers and what they represent using physical objects. In this case I’ve kept it incredibly simple, which is often the best way to get your child to learn, right? 

Recommended age: 3 years +
(Activity supervision is required on all my activity)

You'll need

You will need for this simple counting activity for children- 

  • Cupcake liners
  • Marker
  • Pompoms or similar 
  • Tongs or tweezers (optional)

Begin by writing a number in each of the cupcake liners. Of course this is a very flexible activity and can be made to suit your individual child and where their learning skills are at. If they are just starting out with learning numbers then you might only have two or three cupcake liners with 1 and 2 written inside. If your child needs to consolidate their understanding and accuracy of representing teen numbers then you can cater to their needs by writing larger numbers inside each of the cupcake liners. 

Counting and number recognition activity for kidsThe aim of this activity is for the child to read the number inside each of the cupcake liners and use the pompoms to accurately represent it. I chose to have Possum work with numbers up to 6. This was a great way to see what she knew and if I could challenge her further. 
Simple set up math counting activity for kids
Seriously, this is such a great activity. It was so interesting to watch Possum count out the pompoms and add them to the cupcake liners. I could see if she was able to count correctly, use one to one correspondence and have any understanding of subitising, which is when you automatically recognise a number without having to count it. I found that she knew more than I realised. 

Fine motor skills, one to one correspondence, subtitizing and counting skills
So much learning happens when children do this activity. Understanding the order of numbers, subtilising, one to one correspondence and number recognition can all be achieved. 
Learning from mistakes when doing math and counting

Making mistakes is positive and we certainly learn from them. Children at the early stages of learning to count can make simple errors that completely change their result. If your child makes any errors in counting then you might like to ask them to check their work and see if they can find anything that isn’t correct. If they can identify errors then that’s wonderful and they should be commended. The next challenge is to see if they can fix them. 😉 

Fine motor skills activity This wonderful Maths activity can also double to help children develop their fine motor skills. Having said that, I chose to add tongs after Possum had done the counting activity a few times as I didn’t want her focus to be on perfecting her grip on the tongs and the counting become secondary. Of course if you’re child is struggling to use tongs you might like them to use tweezers instead or simply give them the challenge of only using their thumb and pointer finger when transferring the pompoms.  
fine motor counting activity using tongs counting activity for kidsThere are so many ways you can increase the difficulty with this activity. You can change the numbers written in each of the cupcake liners, as I’ve spoken about, but for some children, simply mixing up the order of the numbers can open up a great learning opportunity. The above image demonstrates how I set the activity up in such a way that a child can not rely on simply increasing one pompom each time. Instead they have to really know the number and what it means. 

Counting game for kids

Some children might enjoy a ‘mystery’ type challenge. Which number is hiding in this order? Children then have to consider what information is available to them and consider what they don’t have. Possum really loved playing that game. 

Can you think of any other ways of playing with this activity?

Some more great ideas –

Fine motor activity using newspaper   Yarn wrapped shapes   Number matching activity for kids 

Follow Kate @ LaughingKidsLearn’s board Laughing Kids Learn on Pinterest. 

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Filed Under: 3 - 5 years, 5 - 10 years, Fine Motor, Numeracy Tagged With: counting, fine motor, maths, numbers, numeracy

Comments

  1. Anastasia @Montessori Nature says

    May 21, 2015 at 8:13 pm

    We do lots of similar activities here too! Kids love them!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      May 22, 2015 at 10:49 am

      Thanks Anastasia! We’ll be doing this one again for sure.

      Reply
  2. kate @ livinglovinglaughing says

    May 25, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    So simple but I can see my toddler just loving this one! thanks!

    Reply
  3. Kate - The Craft Train says

    May 25, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    Looks like she is having lots of fun, great activity Kate! Pinned

    Reply
  4. ivy says

    April 21, 2018 at 5:39 am

    simple counting activity for preschools eager to know more about it

    Reply

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Welcome
Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
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