Here is a fun counting activity for your toddler or preschooler involving all those stuffed animals cluttering up, I mean decorating their beds!
How to get started
Grab a sensory bin (or you can just create a big pile of stuffed animals) and fill it up with as many stuffed animals as it can hold. I let my four year old fill it up on her own with her favourite stuffies.
Then grab all the jugs and large jars and containers you can carry and set them up beside the stuffed animals.
Then ask your little one to find out how many stuffed animals each container can hold.
Easy Peasy
That’s it! Well mostly. The best part of this activity is the opportunity for talking math.
Sneak in the Math
Time to talk math without talking about math! For instance you can talk about size: big, small and medium. You can compare different sizes, such as this puppy is bigger than this puppy. And of course counting to see how many stuffed animals each contain holds. Ask your little one to count how many animals fit into each container and compare one container with another.
We also compared how many stuffed animals could fit into one container when we changed the size of stuffed animal used. In some of the containers only one large stuffed animals would fit. She then pulled that animal out and tried to see how many small stuffed animals would fit.
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And Next Comes Play
The best part of this activity is that shortly after we finished stuffing and counting she immediately started to just play on her own.
However, my daughter is 4 year old so she is definitely a lot better at playing solo than she used to be. This started to get better after she turned 3 years old.
Real Life
In case you think that I am not a real mom trying to entertain and teach my kids here is a shot of my four year old doing this activity while my 6 month old twins have a stuffy sensory bin of their own!
Supplies
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- Stuffed animals
- 41 Qt, Clear Sensory Bin (Large)
- Plastic jugs, jars and containers
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