Orange Peel Numbers

This activity was based on the lion dance that is performed around shops and condos in Singapore during the build up to Chinese New Year.  During the dance, the lion is offered oranges (believed to symbolise prosperity and health), which he consumes, leaving an arrangement of "lucky" numbers which he forms out of the orange peel.   The Chinese typically make a note of the numbers and then gamble on them!

I created an outline of our numbers (I followed the year, 2016, but also created individual mats for the boys birth years, 2011 and 2013).  I peeled a couple of oranges and tore up the peel.  The boys then arranged the peel in the shape of the numbers.  It was also a fun way to teach them the year of their birth and to help Dooey (2.7 years) gain a familiarity with the shape of the numbers.

What we used:

Paper

Printer

Laminator

Orange Peel

Bowl

Making Angpow Packets

We have really been getting into the spirit of Chinese New Year this week and decided that today we would make some angpow packets.  In Chinese tradition, the red envelopes (sometimes refered to as "lai see") are usually filled with money notes and presented by the older generation to the younger one.  They symbolise good luck for the year ahead.   Being a part-Chinese family, we follow this tradition and the children will be receiving angpow from us and their grandparents this year.

I designed a template for the packets based on an A4 sheet of red paper.  Once I had cut them out and glued the edges, I presented the packets to the boys for decoration.  Usually the decoration is in gold and includes Chinese symbols for good luck and happiness.  Once they had finished, we added chocolate gold coins.

What we used:
Red A4 paper
Glue
Gold and red glitter glue
Examples of angpow packets and Chinese symbols
(Any red and gold patterned paper would also look good on these packets).
Chocolate gold coins

Christmas Counting Activity

My two-year old is massively into playdough at the moment and his older brother is interested in counting, so I created this activity with both of their interests in mind.

The Christmas tree is made of playdough, which I rolled out and then cut into shape using a cookie cutter.  In one bowl I placed some numbers and in the other a handful of sequins.  I demonstrated the activity to the children, selecting a number from the bowl and placing it above the tree and then counting out the sequins to match the number above the tree.  Wugs (4) did this a few times on his own, the largest number he created was 30 before screwing up the Christmas tree and playing with it to create various shapes.  Dooey (2) didn't engage with the numbers, but enjoyed pressing the sequins into the playdough and then pulling them out again.

An easy activity to set up and engaged the boys for some time - we've pulled it out numerous times over the Christmas holidays!

What we used:
- Green Playdough
- Cookie Cutter
- Plastic Numbers
- Sequins

40 Days and 40 Nights Counting Activity

I created this counting activity as part of our Noah's Ark theme that we have been working on for the past week, but it could be used to accommodate any counting activity.  In the story of Noah's Ark, we are told that it rained for 40 days and for 40 nights.  I was looking for a way to represent days and nights to Wugs and decided to do this by using a clock.  He has developed an interest in clocks and reading the time at the moment.  I was hoping to build on this interest by teaching him that the small hand on the clock must go round twice to represent a day and a night.  Once it has been turned twice, he could add a small piece of straw to the pipecleaner until he had 4 sets of 10 to represent 40 days and 40 nights.  To help him out, I used 4 different colours for each set of 10 so that if he got lost in his counting, he could tell how many more he needed to add of any one colour by checking the pieces of straw of that same colour that were left in the dish.

What we used:
Paper plate
Yellow and red foam (for the clock hands and the numbers)
Black marker Pen
Metal peg (that spreads out at the back - I have no idea of the official name!)
Glue
Pipe cleaners
4 Straws
Scissors
Labels

Please click here to see our other Noah's Ark-related activities.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep Small World

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep’."  (Luke 15:4-5)

Today I put together a completely edible small world play based on The Parable of the Lost Sheep. The parable is about the lengths that God will go to to find us if we are lost.  The edible element was inspired by Dooey (my 18 month old) who puts everything in his mouth. (*Edible meaning not toxic, but obviously most things are not good for you if over-consumed*)  Almost every activity we have done has required my careful supervision that Dooey doesn't choke or swallow anything harmful.   I want him to enjoy his play without me constantly pulling things out of his mouth and telling him "Don't eat it!"  So I headed off to the shops yesterday in search of food that could represent the landscape of the small world play.

What we used:

Broccoli

Twiglets (crushed and whole)

Desiccated coconut    

White Marshmallows, chopped (whole marshmallows can be a choking hazard)

Icing 

Scoops and small containers

I cut up the broccoli to use as trees (although it was tricky getting them to stand upright without some careful cutting and propping).  The twiglets were chosen to look like logs (whole) or the ground (crushed).  I sprinkled some coconut over the landscape to represent frost.  (Yesterday the children saw frost for the first time!)  The sheep (yes they are sheep!) were each a quarter of a marshmallow. I drew the markings on the sheep using an icing pen.    

              

I only had enough resources for one small world play so I had the children play with it separately. Dooey's small world didn't involve all the numbered sheep (just 4 sheep) as he doesn't appreciate numbers yet.  Wugs' small world had the sheep numbered in units of 10 (so I tried to include a bit of Maths into the activity).  In his scene, I hid the sheep for him to find and place into the pen.  

Dooey did what Dooey does...eat!  Once the novelty of the food wore off, he started pouring and manipulating the items in the tub.  When he had finished I brought Wugs down and they played together happily, serving each other containers of crushed twiglets.  Wugs discovered all the sheep, placed them into the pen, read out some of the numbers and learned a few others.  I explained to them The Parable of the Lost Sheep which led to a lot of baaaing!  All in all a good activity and at least one full stomach! 

Counting using Bean Bags

This is my fifth counting activity with Wugs in the last two weeks and I have to admit that I was starting to feel a bit defeated.  He has definitely got into the rhythm of counting and has been doing it during his play and at the supermarket or when looking through a book, but the number he comes up with doesn't always correspond to the quantity he is looking at. Then I remembered a lecture I attended at university about how people have different learning styles and I decided to apply counting to something he loves more than anything else - to physical activity.

I brought out some numbered bean bags that I bought ages ago and have never used.  I placed the bean bags into a basket and let him put his hand inside, read the number on the bean bag, then jump, hop, clap, blow raspberries to match the number on the bean bag.  He absolutely loved it!  His own adaptation to this game was to shout out the number on the bean bag as loudly as he could,  throw the bean bag as far as he could down the corridor and then jump, hop, clap etc.  After we had thrown all the bean bags, I asked him to collect them up and place them in order which he did almost perfectly.  Every day this week, he has gone back to the basket and wanted to do the activity again.  Even Dooey had fun collecting up the bean bags.

What we used:
Basket
Numbered Bean bags

Counting with Petals

This activity was inspired by Wugs' love of flowers and my discovery of a box of fabric petals that I bought from Ikea about 5 years ago - since before we were married.

I made the base by cutting out an A4 size rectangle from a cardboard box and from light blue felt.  I stuck the two together.  I cut out the leaves, stem and head of the flower from felt and stuck them to the base.  The idea was for Wugs to roll the dice and whatever number appeared on the dice, he had to match by the number of petals he added to make the flower.

The first thing he did was roll the dice and took two petals and put them in the centre of the flower head and said "eyes".  He added more for the nose and the mouth.  It was really quite funny.  This was probably the least successful of the counting activities I have tried with him so far.  He learned how to roll and read a dice, but didn't quite appreciate that he was creating a flower.

What we used:
Card
Different coloured felt
Glue
Fabric petals
Dice

Bakery Counting Game

With this counting activity, I was trying to tap into a couple of Wugs' interests: cakes and money!  It's a scenario that he encounters at least twice a week at the supermarket.  Usually I am paying by card, but he at least understands that something must be exchanged in order to take the items away.  Outside our supermarket is "Lamb's Cupcake" shop where we pay by cash and whenever we take a taxi, we get Wugs to pay the "uncle" using cash.

In this game, I made Wugs the baker so he had the satisfaction of collecting all the coins.  I asked him if I could have a cake, if he could tell me how much it was and then in front of the cake, I counted out the number of coins, so he could make the association between the number on the cake and the coins being counted.  We've played this game about 3 times and the first time, he ran off with all the coins!  (I learned to put out just enough coins to play the game).  By the third time, we played a whole game together and later that day I found him counting during his free play, so something must have stuck.

What we used:
Play food (real food would have worked just as well)
Plastic coins (real coins would have worked.  For us they would have been a choking hazard)
Labels
Marker pen
 

Counting Stones using a Chart

Continuing from my last post, I am trying to teach Wugs how to appreciate that numbers can relate to quantities.  This activity was a very simple one which involved lining up the stones alongside the numbers on the blue circles of the chart.

The moment I handed Wugs the activity, he tried to build a tower with the stones and then found it hilarious when they all fell down!  After a few more attempts at getting him to put the stones on the circles, he did the first 3 and then counted them (in the wrong order) as he put them in the bag.  We have some way to go, but these little detours are fascinating and I don't mind if he doesn't follow my exact intention in creating the task.  As my sister assures me, "They are learning all the time" and it's not always discernible to us exactly what they are learning.

What we used:
Stones
Card
Printer
Laminator

I created the chart myself and I'm happy to share it (once I've figured out how to attach a document to a post).  You could also simply draw one out by hand or use a whiteboard and marker.

Counting Crocodiles

I've set myself a challenge to make a counting activity for every day of the week after realising that Wugs doesn't (I think) appreciate that numbers can refer to quantities.  I got the brilliant idea to turn pegs into crocodiles from this site.  I drew the crocodiles' features onto the wooden pegs using a black pen and then coloured them using green marker pens.  I added the pink dots and sealed them with Mod Podge.  (I was concerned that Wugs would try to pull off the dots if he realised they were stickers).   Then I cut out fish shapes from blue card and numbered them.

The first time I introduced this to Wugs he matched all the crocodiles to the correct fish so I breathed a sigh of relief.  Since then, however, he has mismatched them so I think we will still get some more use out of our crocodiles yet.

What we used:
Wooden pegs
Black pen
Green markers
Pink circular stickers
Mod Podge
Blue card
Blue marker pen

Counting Flowers and Petals

When I'm dreaming up activities to do with the boys, I have a tendency to over-think things.  I was looking for some more counters to use with Wugs besides the stone counters he already has.  On our way to the condo playground this afternoon, we passed a Frangipani tree.  The flowers from the tree had recently fallen to the ground and Wugs was collecting them together in his hand and pointing out the different colours to me.  Then he laid them out on the bench by the slide and started to count the petals. I thought what a lovely way to teach children to count and to understand units (ie one flower equals 5 petals) .

Counting Stones

I'm always amazed at how the simplest of things appeal to little children.  I was searching for counters for Wugs to use while learning his numbers and I found these in a home interiors store.  I would love to say we found them in the garden or in the grounds of our condo, washed them off and used them for this activity, but we don't have a garden and I'm pretty sure taking them from the condo gardens would be classed as theft, so I went ahead and bought them.  I added the numbers using a permanent black marker and left the rest to his imagination.  The stones have been laid in a line, bundled under the seat of a ride-on car and carted around in various bags (his latest obsession).

What we used:
Stones
Black permanent marker

Counting Apples

Wugs has recently learned the word "apple" and every time we go to the supermarket he helps himself to one from those baskets that are unhelpfully placed at toddler height.  (Seriously, if I worked for a supermarket after having two children, there are a few things I would change with regards to the placing of food...and breakable items). The apple usually ends up battered and bruised and uneaten in his children's kitchen and is thrown out once he goes to bed.  As I wanted to introduce Wugs to numbers and counting, I thought I would take advantage of his interest in apples and create a foam apple tree for him to add apples to.

I cut out the tree from coloured foam paper, dipped it in water and stuck it to our balcony doors. I made the apples by drawing around a spice pot and using a black permanent marker to number them. Then I placed the apples in a tub with just a tiny bit of water at the bottom so they would stay moist and stick to the tree.

What we used:
Coloured foam
Black permanent marker
Scissors
Bowl with water