3 little pegs sitting on a plate...Teaching Numbers

I believe we are all born teachers.  

You don't need a degree to teach your own children as we teach them everyday.

Often it is as simple as modelling something we are doing or the way we speak to them.  But sometimes I like to spend a bit of extra teacher time with the kids, playing and learning specific concepts.

Teaching your child at home does not need to involve buying expensive "educational" products.

Yesterday at the dollar store I stumbled upon these great pegs!!!  The one on the left are your average wooden ones (80 for $2!!) and these great plastic pegs (on the right) that were red, green, yellow, blue. ($3 for 24) and a packet of home brand paper plates from Woolworths!  

The teaching moments you can create with these simple items are endless!  But here is two we did this morning!

Master O has to count out ten plates from the packet.

We lined them up and he told me what numbers I had to write on each plate.

(he loves being the teacher and giving instructions)

I could have also asked him to write the numbers on for me, but today I wanted to concentrate on one to one correspondence not writing.

now for the pegs!  Master O had to attach the correct number of pegs to correspond to the number on the plate. Of course 4 is his favourite number!

Has he grabbed each number I got him to trace over the number with his finger to help him remember what it looked like and how to write to it.

Of course 4 is his favourite number!

He aslo pointed out that the 4 plate is like a dog because a dog has 4 legs and the 2 plate was like a person running because people have 2 legs!

The learning never ends!!!

Why pegs?

Pinching pegs helps develop strength and control in little fingers and hands.

This is essential for developing good fine motor skills used for writing later in life!

counting all our finished plates.

Ordering our finished plates from 1 to 10

and the coloured pegs?

I wrote the colour word on each plate and MAster O had to match them up.

This is great for littlies as young as 2 and also introduces some basic word recognition.

and here is what "fluey" Little Miss A was doing all of this...

sitting on my lap!  She loved to play with the pegs and watch!

One-to-one correspondence

Rote Counting

Ordering numbers 1-10

Numeral recognition and

Fine Motor

ALL IN ONE ACTIVITY!!!