Counting

Here's a way we practice counting and fine motor skills at the same time, as well as practice comparing different lengths.  

I cut pieces of pipe cleaner in five different lengths to represent 0 to 5.  

(I only had enough cube beads to do these numbers.)

Then I threaded the beads onto the pipe cleaners.  I set up the activity so that the pieces of pipe cleaner with the beads were on one side of the tray and the number cards were on the other side.

First, the activity was for Bear to match the cards to the pipe cleaners/beads, as pictured above.

Of course, Bear decided to slide all the beads off the pipe cleaners, so then it became an activity of finding the right length pipe cleaner for the number of beads and then matching the number card to the pipe cleaner/beads.

Bear does this counting and matching easily with just a bit of help choosing the correct length of pipe cleaner. However, the length of pipe cleaner is almost self correcting because the larger numbers of beads will not fit on most lengths. 

Using a cube bead, as opposed to using a pony bead, adds interest in a sensory way.