Number Recognition - The Mommy Teacher

Playdoh Numbers

My kids are having a blast with this SIMPLE and CHEAP number activity. They close their eyes and pick a number (this is a magnetic number from the walmart toy aisle where the playdoh is).
Then they pinch that number of dots (which is great for teaching one-to-0ne correspondence) and roll a chunk of playdoh into a “snake” before forming it into the numeral to match the number they selected. I actually let them do this on a laminated sorting mat in my classroom. My sorting mat is one piece of white construction paper and another piece glued together at the end and then laminated. That way they can place the quantity on one side and the formed number on the other.

EASY, CHEAP, DOABLE, and you probably have everything you need at home!

October 4, 2012 by Jessica | 1 Comment

Christmas Tree Counting Printable

I can’t wait to share my activity ideas and schedule that I am setting up for my little one, as well as another great giveaway on the way!

In the meantime, here is a freebie that I made for your little one to practice drawing sets of objects. Don’t just hand your little one a set of crayons/markers and say “get busy.”

First, lay the Christmas Tree Counting Printable on the table with something small and colorful (like skittles) that you and your little one can use to practice counting sets together.

Then, point to one of the trees and show your little one how you might “decorate the tree.” “Ooh, this tree has the number nine on the star, I’m going to decorate the tree with nine colorful skittles! One, two, three, four, …..etc.”

This is a great way to model the directions by showing your little one how to recognize the number and count out that given quantity, AND by modeling one-to-one correspondence (counting one object per given number).

After you have your little one complete the hands-on round of the printable, on their own (assisting and prompting where necessary), then explain that instead of skittles, this time they will draw the number of ornaments (circles, candy canes, snowflakes, or whatever shape he/she wants). Before they begin, model an example of how to do this on a separate sheet of paper. And that’s it; now you have purposefully used a printable 🙂

December 15, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

What’s Missing?

Children can be really good at “rote” memory – they can sing their ABC’s all day, but that doesn’t always mean that they know their alphabet inside and out.

It is also very common for a little one to mistake a letter for a number or a number for a letter.

So, I made these ABC and 123 sentence strips using di-cut letters (hand-written looks just as good) so that I can help my little ones use their ABC skills to figure out which letter OR number is missing from the alphabet/counting order.

This is an activity that you want your little one using their problem solving skills to figure out. So, don’t fuss if they sing their ABC’s to get to the letter in order to figure it out (that is a resource for them). This is good practice for your little one to start recognizing letters and numbers with increasing observation.

I have made another FREEBIE for you, a printable for your little ones to practice as well. It is a fill in the blank of upper and lower case letters and one fill in the blank of counting. These are activity sheets with only ONE letter/number missing at a time. But I will make two letter, and three letter missing fill in the blanks soon. So, for now, start with the freebies below and see how well your little one can fill in those blanks! 🙂

ABC fill in the blank

123 fill in the blank

September 13, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments