Milk Caps and Counting

From:  I got this idea from Carissa’s Tot School blog.  So far, almost homeschoolers are using bottle caps for counting and letter names. 

How I made my own Number Milk Caps:

1. Collected my son’s milk caps, watched it and allow to dry.
2. In a white sheet of adhesive paper, I draw circles by tracing the milk caps. 
3. Using a black marker, I write the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles.
4. To prevent the marker not to smudge, I covered the stickers with a transparent tape.
5. Cut the the numbers and stick it on top of the milk caps.

Since I still don’t have counting cards or worsksheets, I made use of the number flashcards which I owned.

 

Since this activity is more about counting and comprehension in numbers I only gave her 4 cards (numbers 1 to 4) for this activity.  Here’s how it goes:

1. Put the cards or worksheets on the table, with the milk caps on the side.
2. Point to the card that contains 1 object and say “This card has 1 frog (or whatever animal it is).  Now Mama is going to put the number 1 on the circle to that 1 frog.”  Then you have to pick up the number 1 milk cap and place it on the appropriate card.
3. Point to the next card and this time, I took his counting finger and we counted the number of animals on it.  Then I asked him “Can you find the number 2 and put it on the circle”. 
4. Repeat the same process with the rest of your cards.

 

This activity didn’t worked well for us.  Mavi was interested in counting but he’s wasn’t into matching the the number milk caps with the cards. As always I try to understand the factors what made it unsuccessful.  First, he must be really tired.  Then he’s distracted by the fact that on the back of the card, there’s another picture or numbers on it (see picture below), which interests him more.  Lastly, there was no circle for him to place the milk caps on the card. 

So I might create a separate worksheet for this activity for him so he can focus.

At 24 months, Mavi’s understanding of counting is basically reciting the numbers most of the time from 1 to 10 (although he knows how to count from 1 to 13).  If he is presented by an object or anything that we will count, he will count straight from 1 to 10.  For example, if there are 4 objects, he will count all the way to 5 or to 10.  

Anyway, this practice is really a good start to introduce comprehension in numbers, although I still believe that there are other ways you can practice counting... with just about anything.