Here’s an idea from our archive that’s all about making math fun. With a little help from chocolate chips this muffin math game is a great way for young children to practise counting.
Muffin tin math fun
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‘I’ll do it all by myself’ is being said many times a day by L at the moment. She’s also really enjoying counting, so we combined her two passions, with a dash of chocolate chips, in this fun counting game.
We started off by writing numbers on small pieces of paper. No chance of me writing any though, as ‘I’ll do it all by myself’ said L. She wrote numbers from 1 – 5 and also a couple of zeros (which she regretted later!) It’s great to see how she’s absorbed these numbers from ideas such as our number line so she can now write them by herself.
Then we put one piece of paper in each hole of a muffin tin and I gave her a pot of raisins and some chocolate chips.
Then I asked her if she’d like to play a counting game. ‘You tell me what to do mummy and then I’ll do it by myself’. I asked her to count out the right number of raisins/choc chips to match the number in each muffin hole. (So she has to recognise the written number and match the right number of real objects to the written digit).
And the prize at the end of the game for getting all the counting right – eating the raisins and chocolate chips of course. Which she did all by herself too!
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That looks like a whole lot of fun, and getting the eat the chocolate chips too is even better!
CJ xx
hehe very awesome 😀
I’ve linked to your Muffin Tin activity in my latest blog post, 24 Short and Sweet Preschool Maths Activities. I hope my readers enjoy your ideas as much as I do!
Thanks Caroline – great to link up with you.
Well, having just seen the archive reminder, I did this (literally 10 minutes later) with my 3 and 5 year olds. The three year old had to write the numbers herself (good practise for someone with poor penmanship) and then I generated a number of simple sums (add, subtract, and multiply) with answers that matched the three year old’s numbers for the five year old to do. In order to eat the chips, I made it a little more active – they had to also do a challenge set according to the number. So, I had them choose which pot and they then had to do that many jumps, go up that many stairs, do that many claps, put away that many toys (hurray!), help put away that many dishes from the dishwasher etc, varying the challenge each time. Worked like a dream!
Fantastic!