Going on a Bear Hunt
We've been playing with our set of counting bears (scored at a thrift shop for less than a dollar) since January, but lately, now that the novelty has worn off, there's been a lot more throwing and scattering of the bears, and of course the subsequent finding of counting bears in every possible nook and cranny of the house.
So, to keep it educational, I invented this little hide and seek game to play with the bears. While one could argue that he's learning valuable lessons about physics by throwing and scattering the tiny pieces, I guess I still prefer games that are easier to clean up.
While Chobie counts or sings the ABC's a certain number of times in the other room, I hide the bears in the living room. Then when he comes out, I give him a rule of all of the kinds of bears he has to find first. For example, first find all the blue bears (so he's working on sorting skills). While he already knows colors and has just about mastered sorting activities, I do try to remember to keep asking him to do "easy" stuff like that because it's still really fun for him and builds his confidence.
After gathering the bears according to the given rule, we count them, then go find the rest.
I also hid the bears in groups of different numbers then had him pick up only groups of a specific size. Once he picked up all the groups of 4, for instance, we'd lay them out in groups of four to count them. We'd count how many individuals and how many groups, then I'd say "Look six groups of four bears makes twenty-four bears all together."
We didn't do it this time, but you could also try having your kid find the bears in a certain pattern as the searching rule: find a blue bear, then a yellow bear, then a blue, then a yellow.
What kinds of math games do you play with your kids? I'd love to get more ideas!
If you enjoyed this post, PLEASE click here to vote for me on top mommy blogs. I appreciate your support!
So, to keep it educational, I invented this little hide and seek game to play with the bears. While one could argue that he's learning valuable lessons about physics by throwing and scattering the tiny pieces, I guess I still prefer games that are easier to clean up.
While Chobie counts or sings the ABC's a certain number of times in the other room, I hide the bears in the living room. Then when he comes out, I give him a rule of all of the kinds of bears he has to find first. For example, first find all the blue bears (so he's working on sorting skills). While he already knows colors and has just about mastered sorting activities, I do try to remember to keep asking him to do "easy" stuff like that because it's still really fun for him and builds his confidence.
After gathering the bears according to the given rule, we count them, then go find the rest.
I also hid the bears in groups of different numbers then had him pick up only groups of a specific size. Once he picked up all the groups of 4, for instance, we'd lay them out in groups of four to count them. We'd count how many individuals and how many groups, then I'd say "Look six groups of four bears makes twenty-four bears all together."We didn't do it this time, but you could also try having your kid find the bears in a certain pattern as the searching rule: find a blue bear, then a yellow bear, then a blue, then a yellow.
What kinds of math games do you play with your kids? I'd love to get more ideas!
If you enjoyed this post, PLEASE click here to vote for me on top mommy blogs. I appreciate your support!
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