Got a farmer? Try a simple number activity to practice counting to five! This farm activity was a sneaky way to get Henry excited to learn to count!
I’ve been having a little bit of a hard time getting Henry to want to do any kind of activity lately. Especially anything that’s remotely educational.
I brainstormed, trying to figure out what he’d like to do, but still work in some numbers and this is what I came up with:
Learn to Count with Grain Bins
I numbered five empty baby food jars. [I'm overstocked right now, but I'm finding lots of uses for them lately. What do you use them for?] I numbered both the sides and the lids of the jars with matching colored paper. [I only did five so Henry wouldn't get overwhelmed, since he seems to be struggling with counting.]
I then filled each jar with the corresponding number of marshmallows. [I did this to show Henry the number to begin with so he wasn't expected to know it.]
I set out Henry’s track tractor and wagon ‘grain cart’ along with the grain truck. Henry’s a farmer to the bone, so I figured this would get him more involved. It did. I set out a toothpick, as well, with the intention for him to poke the marshmallows to transfer from the ‘grain bins’ to the grain cart. This wasn’t fast enough for Henry, so he just dumped the bins out.
Henry loaded up his grain cart with all five bins worth of marshmallows corn. Then transferred the corn to the grain truck. Which then hauled the corn back to the bins.
When it was time to unload into the bins, Henry unscrewed each lid off, filled up each bin until it was ‘full’ [to the correct number], then quickly found the matching lid and screwed it back on. [Nice work for the fine motor skills, my toothpick idea didn't work, but this did.]
Henry had no problems with counting 1-3. At 4 he added a few too many. When he got to 5, he realized he didn’t have enough and was puzzled. So, I redirected him back to 4 to recount.
He hauled the corn from bin to grain cart to grain truck a few times, until he eventually ate all his ‘corn’. [He then found Cheerios 'beans' to haul and did the same.]
I’m glad to have found a way to include Henry’s interests in counting. Hauling anything is always a hit with him, and the Grain Bin activity wasn’t solely focused on counting, so it was much more fun for him. And me too.
Henry was almost 3 years old.
About Jamie Reimer
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Toddler Activity : Fine Motor Skills with Pom Poms
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I use old baby food jars as glass votives for Candles, Water jars for paintbrushes, drawer organizers for rubberbands (on the outside of the glass) and odd and end keys (on the inside). The bigger ones hold my daughters chore money. The plastic ones are great snack holders and I often recycle them and fill them with homemade babyfood to freeze and take on the go!
Visiting from JDaniel's Mom.
Great activity, perfect for a little farmer!
Visting from JDaniels Blog Hop. Very cute stuff.
Melissa
http://just-starting-out.blogspot.com/2011/03/happy-birthday-dr-seuss.html
Hi Jamie! I just discovered your blog and let me tell you I love it! Your projects are so educational, creative and fun for the kid in the same time. You truly are a great resource for amazing activities with the little ones! I am now following you thanks to Friday Follow, and it would be so nice if you could share the love back on my blog;)
Also today we have the coolest blog hop there is… no rules just fun and would love you to join in with us at Boost My Blog Friday, where you can meet lots of friends and have a great time:) See you there!
Happy Friday
Great blog! I found you on the blog hop! would love a follow back! http://www.lifesgristle.blogspot.com
Marcy
I'm your newest follower from the Friday Blog Hops! Come check out my blog at: http://adventuresofathriftymommy.blogspot.com/
Have a great day!
I try to used my son's interest to engage his learning too. My 6 year old loves heros. So, to get him to practice his reading, I have bought a few level 1 hero storybooks for him to practice with.
That is so creative on so many levels! Love it! So glad you were able to find something that he would enjoy doing! =))
I am stopping by.. or should I say hopping by and following your blog! I would love if you would visit us sometime at Just Married with Coupons
Have a wonderful weekend!
JDaniel would have loved using a tractor to count great idea.
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
What a great activity, fun and educational…I loved it when my kids were this little
Just stopping by from Boost My Blog Friday, I'm your newest follower and I hope you will follow back.
Monica
http://oldermommystillyummy.blogspot.com/
What a brilliant idea! We are farmers and my son is all about the trailer pulling, grain cart and tractors. Thank you for the great idea. I am hopping in from Friday's Hops. Love for you to stop by.
Giveaway Blogdom
Very creative idea on the grain bins!! Love it! Kerri
I love your use of baby jars! Thanks for linking!
nice learning activity for kids…Check out my recent post @ http://blog.memetales.com/2011/03/paper-necklace-kids-craft/
I did something similar with ant stickers in baby food jars a couple years back and my daughter had to "feed" the ants with the correct amount of marbles:)
Love it! My son is a FARMER all the way and I’ve been thinking about making tractors with numbers on the sides so he might be interested in learning to identify the equipment by number like Daddy does but he will LOVE this! I’d like to link to this lesson from my site too!
I’d Love for you to link to it! Thanks for asking!
my son would love. this such a fun way to get them to learn. thanks for sharing, jaime
Thanks Jaime! It’s so fun to be able to make something the kids are really into, into a learning activity!