Preschool Math:
Muffin Cup Count
Today's
Snack: Mix
a batch of your favorite muffins and eat while they're still warm with a glass
of milk. Mmmmmm! Mmmmmmuffins!
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Supplies:
7 paper muffin cups
An assortment of small items: paper
clips, pebbles, pop-tops, beads, cotton balls, pennies, puzzle pieces
Here's a counting activity:
- Line up the seven muffin cups in a row.
- Put one item into the first cup, such as one
paper clip.
- Put two of another item, such as two pebbles,
into the third cup.
- Continue until you've gotten the seventh cup
filled with seven items.
- Now close your eyes, and carefully move the
seven cups around so that they are completely out of order.
- Open your eyes back up, look at the number of
items in each cup, and put them back in order again, starting with the cup
with one item and ending with the cup with seven items.
- Next, you can make piles of the seven different
items, and do a simple addition / subtraction game. An adult or another
child could call out the two things to add, and the muffin counter should
count up the total:
2 paper clips + 3 pennies = 5 things
4 pennies + 2 beads = 6 things
. .
. and so on.
