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Using Trucks for Number Practice

We have been practicing counting for quite a while and Jake is great at counting and seems to enjoy numbers in general. I saw this activity on Deceptively Educational. This is an exceptional blog. Please take some time to check out her amazing activities!
We started by gathering some trucks to use as reference. We pretty much have every type of truck so this was not difficult!
Next, I showed him our supplies. Deceptively Educational provided a printable. I printed it and glued it to a file folder. I then pulled out a round stamp and stamp pad. I told Jake we would need to count the wheels in the picture and that we could use our toy trucks to help too. Then we would stamp the amount of wheels for each truck.
He quickly picked up the correct truck (of course) and started counting the wheels. He is very careful to point to each wheel as he counts. I emphasized pointing while counting when we began counting and he usually does it without prompting every time. 
Next we stamped! I continued to repeat the number as he stamped so he would remember how many stamps to make. This was the first time he used a stamp pad and was excited to do this activity!

He did a few and started to lose interest. This is a involved task that takes a lot of concentration. He worked hard and when frustration started to show I asked him to do one more and told him we would finish the rest another day. He did as I asked and then had the idea to use the wheels and stamp pad to make some tracks. I thought it was a great idea and gave him a piece of paper to give it a go. 
I love how he took this activity a step further and thought outside the box so to speak. This was a good learning process as well. The truck may have 4 wheels but only makes two rows of tracks. We were able to talk about why and how this happens. This was an unexpected activity that really made an impact. Gotta love a creative thinker! 




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  1. AnonymousAugust 5, 2012 at 12:32 PM

    I love how you followed Jake's lead at the end.... I LOVE creativity! <3

    ReplyDelete

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