Counting Numbers 0 to 9

Mavi is 36 months old.

(September 26, 2011)

We’re back in practicing serious counting and number identification. 

The activity let the child learns numerals, amounts and how to match amounts with numerals (1:1 correspondence).

I am using the “identification-recognition-recall” mechanics of Montessori which is known as the 3-lesson period.  This site gives a clear explanation of how this 3-lesson period works.

Working with Numbers 0 to 4.

We started with play coins. 

I let him identify the numerals first, and I would say “let’s put the x(representing the numeral) number of coins in the grid”.  As I place the coin/s in the grid, I let my son count with me.

After I have placed the coins from 1 to 4, I would ask him “where is 3? where is the 0?” .  Then to end our 3-lesson period, we recalled each number of coins in the activity. 

My son participated well in this activity.  I was surprise that he’s beginning to have longer attention span.  After my presentation I let him do the activity by himself:  he placed the correct number of coins according to the number it represented.

Since he wanted to do more, we did other variations by using two more objects:  the beads and the popsicle sticks.

Basically, we just performed the same 3-lesson period as we did previously with the coins.

He’s always in deep concentration when he works.  I grabbed the opportunity to take photos while he’s busy.

This is how it looks using colored popsicle sticks.

 

Working with Numbers 5 to 9

 

Similar procedure on what we did with numbers 0 to 4, we practiced counting 5 to 9 as well.

That’s Mavi placing the appropriate number of coins to the grid.

He did very well with the beads :)  (Our 8 aka brown beads is a little shorter because it is made of smaller beads.  I didn’t find any brown beads of the same size as the rest)

Counting popsicle sticks. It came to a point where the sticks won’t fit on the space allotted to number six so he placed the rest below number 7 hehe. 

You can vary different objects or counters for this activity. Lakeshore Learning has a wide variety of math counters, but I find them quite pricey.  My playmoney is around 60PHP which I got from a thrift shop in Singapore as well as the craft popsicle sticks.  You can also you use erasers, cupcake topping designs, pebbles, flat marbles and much much more!