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Math & 123sKindergartners3 Comments
We had a little fun with Keith Baker’s book 1-2-3 Peas and am excited to share a math activity to go with it for Henry to practice skip counting by 10s.
I got the opportunity to interview Keith Baker about his participation in the Cheer On Reading program and his book 1-2-3 Peas (affiliate link)!
I am so excited to be partnering with the Cheer on Reading program by Cheerios and General Mills! Did you know that right now you can collect 6 multilingual books for kids in boxes of Cheerios?
What is the Cheer On Reading Program?
This is Cheerios’ 12th year of putting millions of books inside Cheerios boxes, through their partnerships with publisher Simon & Schuster and First Book, who works to get new books to kids in need.
In specially marked boxes of Cheerios, you can collect 6 multilingual children’s books! One of them being 1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker.
I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the Cheerios “Cheer on Reading” Program! Putting books in the hands of children and at the same time supporting libraries of all types and sizes (including raising money for Little Free Libraries) was something I just could not pass up. – Author Keith Baker
This year, in addition to putting great multilingual children’s books in boxes of Cheerios, Cheerios is also excited to be partnering with the crowd-sourcing site Indiegogo to raise money for Little Free Libraries, a non-profit that puts small free libraries in neighborhoods to encourage literacy. Community members are invited to both donate and borrow books from the library.
The Cheer on Reading Indiegogo campaign is hoping to raise enough money to build 50 Little Free Libraries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The best part of the Cheer on Reading program? I asked Keith Baker and I think 1-2-3 Peas will be read over and over again in our house!
When I was a kid, back in the 1950s and 60s, it was a treat to find a surprise toy in a box of cereal. Usually these toys didn’t amount to much, just little plastic pieces or paper games that weren’t much fun. The ‘cereal box’ toy never met the anticipation. I am hoping that my book 1-2-3 Peas, when pulled out of the box of Cheerios, will not only surprise but also entertain for many, many readings.
Skip Counting by 10s with 1-2-3 Peas:
We extended on Keith’s book, 1-2-3 Peas, and used Cheerios in a simple skip counting activity.
Counting books like 1-2-3 Peas help kids practice their numbers and reading AND entertain them at the same time! I believe that if you find an activity that a child genuinely enjoys doing and add an educational element to it, it becomes a wonderful learning opportunity. – Author Keith Baker
At school, Henry’s been working on breaking tens away from single digits. Meaning that with a stack of 10 cheerios, he’d then count on from 10, to find 16 Cheerios, for instance. Same with 20s, 30s and so on.
We used this activity to work on both the skip counting by 10s, as well as the single digits added on.
I set up this skip counting activity with a ‘snake’ of play dough rolled out for each Henry and George. A piece of Styrofoam would work well too.
I set a bowl of Chocolate Cheerios by each one of them, along with several toothpicks (be sure to have at least 10) for each of them.
I invited them to come count to 100, just like in the 1-2-3 Peas book.
1-2-3 Peas is a counting book, simple enough. But there’s more—the observant reader will find details of the activities represented on the page, and they will find distinct personalities of all the pea characters.
There are other little surprises to notice, too; for instance, a lady bug on every page, insects throughout, a lost shoe, and a couple of peas in love!
The book also extends counting beyond the basic 1-10.
It ’skips’ through the teens onto the ten groupings—20, 30, 40 all the way to 100.
The book can be used to teach the skill of counting by tens while representing the associative number of peas.
I hope 1-2-3 Peas will help the readers visualize these quantities and make them less abstract. One hundred, I discovered as I painted little peas with hats and shoes and expressions, is a lot of peas!
-Keith Baker, author of 1-2-3 Peas
The book starts by counting by ones through ten and then ‘skips’ through 11-19 and then does skip counting by 10s through 100.
Henry did the same with the Cheerios on the toothpicks.
I was amazed. Right off the bat, he told me he needed 10 toothpicks to count by 10s to 100. Wow. A kindergartner doing multiplication, even though he doesn’t know it.
George just counted the best he could, to 10, and then just added Cheerios to each of the toothpicks. In the same manner Henry was doing, just without the skip counting. That’s what’s great about this, its great fine motor practice as well, and can focus on counting by ones too.
Of course, there was lots of snacking. Who could resist Chocolate Cheerios anyway?
Henry continued skip counting by 10s, turning the pages of the book to follow along with his numbers.
Saying that he was proud to make it to 100 was a little bit of an understatement.
I was incredibly proud that he didn’t shout it though. He ‘whisper yelled’ is what he told me.
After he made it to 100, he then skip counted by 10s backwards back to 0. Eating the Cheerios by 10 and subtracting it from the total. Flipping the pages once again back to the beginning of the book.
1-2-3 Peas is a fun, educational book that you can read 100 times and always find something new in the pages. – Keith Baker
We’re still on the hunt for that ladybug on every page….
More ideas for skip counting by 10s:
- Hop, Skip and Jump by 10s, from Learn Play Imagine
- Use coins for skip counting from What Do We Do All Day?
It is my hope that children have books in their hands—both books to keep and cherish and books to pass around and share. – Keith Baker
Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by General Mills and the Cheer on Reading Program.
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