Dots and Digits

One of the things that children eventually learn how to do is to look at a number of things and know how many there are without counting them out one by one. I wanted to do something that helped that skill develop, (and this is also good for learning the what the numbers look like in digit form).

I used the scrap poster paper in my closet-of-clutter to make this game board. The number squares are glued on the sides and bottom, but not the top, to create a pocket. Then on the white strips on the floor, I drew on the dots for all the numbers from 10-12. (like dominoes)

We would take turns turning over a white card.

And then see if we could tell how many dots there were. If we needed to count them out, that was fine too.

Then we looked up at the number pockets and slid the dots into their matching digit pocket.

Seriously, I thought this would be a 'good' activity, and it turned out to be something he just loved. We played it three times straight, until I had to go get the baby from his nap.

Dots and Digits. Good fun.