Saturday 7 April 2012

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Montessori Activity: Teaching Basic Counting with Stones



Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 10 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To teach counting.
2. To train number recognition

Materials:
1. 5 bowls with number cards from 1-5 in each of the bowls.
2. 1 container with 15 small stones in a container
3. 1 tray (optional)

Directions:
1. Demonstrate to your child by putting out the number magnets or cards in order from 1 to 5 in the bowls, reciting the name of the number as you go along.

2. Allocate 1 stone, count 1 and place it in the bowl containing the number card 1. Then allocate 2 stones, count it a loud and place it in the bowl containing the number card 2. Do the same for the rest of the number.

3. Put back the materials into the respective containers and encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:
Joshua (3Y1M2D) tried this today. He needed some clues and prompting to get the right number of stones into the bowls. This showed that he has still not mastered the recognition of numbers, although he could count very well now.

This is a variation of the game here. I find that using bowls to contain the stones make the teaching more concrete for young minds. You can also use other items such as marbles, instead of stones.

If you are fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom, you can make your own number cards. For working moms who are short of time like me, I took the short-cut by buying it from Singapore.



You can buy it from amazon:


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