Story Time @ Home: Story Time Counts!

Read – Read some of these number-filled books to help your child work on their counting and number recognition skills.  Don’t worry, instead of being boring, these titles work numbers into fun and engaging stories and rhymes for even the littlest mathematician.
 

Sing – There are so many fun counting songs and rhymes to sing with your children.

 
Some library favorites are: 
 

5 Little Ducks
Hickory Dickory Dock
5 Little Monkeys
There Were 10 in the Bed
Ants Go Marching
5 Green and Speckled Frogs
Jumping and Counting by Jim Gill

 
Check out the links if you aren’t sure of the tune, but remember it’s not about how well you sing but the time you spend singing with your child.

 
Play – When you and your child are playing with toys or blocks, ask your child questions like “Which toy is bigger? Which one is smaller? How many blocks are in our stack?” Try having them stack different numbers of blocks.  Can they stack 3?  Which stack is taller, 3 blocks or 4?  All of these questions help to build those early math skills in a fun and engaging way.

 
Talk – Counting isn’t just for play time.  Count with your child throughout your day.  Count the number of crackers that they have on their plate or the number of seconds they can wash their hands.  Of course, don’t forget to count those little fingers and toes.

 
Write –  A small tray of salt or sand is a great way to practice drawing and writing.  Use fingers or older children can work on their grip skills by writing in the tray with a paint brush.  In this activity, opens a new window, children can practice writing the number on the card, or they can count the number of dots on the opposite side and write the number in the sand.  This works another skill as well, subitizing.  Subitizing means looking at a group of things (like dots on a die) and knowing how many there are without counting each one.  This is a great skill that builds pattern recognition and number sense.

 
If you want to bring even more story time fun home, check out our Numbers: Story Time Backpack.  This backpack is full of rhymes, songs, books, and other items to enjoy a number-themed story time anywhere.