Color by number/letter

A few days ago I printed some turkey color-by-letters (O=orange, etc.).  They were pretty ambitious for my kids, and though they each colored in a few spaces, they lost interest pretty quickly.  So, when I found this color-by-number, I thought it might be better.  It was, but they're still not interested in coloring the whole turkey!  I think it's good to try new things; we'll probably revisit color-by number in a few weeks.  Or I may just try some simpler ones here.

Clothespin Games

I mentioned these games when we first made them; I'm bringing them back with a couple of ideas of how to use them.

First, we have our set of clothespins numbered 1-12, and two strips of cardstock with sets of dots.  The goal is to match the clothsepin with the corresponding number of dots.  Today I gave on strip to Lily and one to Jack, piled all of the clothespins in the middle, and their goal was to find their clothespins and pin them.  Not "first"--we weren't making it a contest, and they helped each other find their clothespins.  

 
Next we took our set of alphabet letter clothsepins  and piled them in the middle of the table.  I gave each child a sight work, and he or she had to find all of their letters and pin them to the word card.  They worked together on this one, too ("I need R!  Where is R?!") and it was a fun game.  They actually kept playing for a while without me, though they like me helping to find the clothespins.

Happy with both of these games!

Gingerbread Math

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This is a great game for counting skills, basic math facts and number identification.  There isn't a printable version of the gingerbread man on the site, but I made my own pretty quickly by copying a gingerbread template and then adding my own numbers.  I did 2-12 so that my kids could use two dice and practice not just counting the dots on one die, but also adding together the dots from two.  (They still count the dots, but then I reinforce the basic math facts by saying, "Four on one die plus three on the other equals seven.")

When the child rolls a particular number, he or she marks it off on the gingerbread man.  (You can use a dot marker, but I just had the kids color over it.)  I put three of each number on the paper to keep the game going.  However, I've found that the kids tire of the game after a few rounds, so next time I may just put one of each number on there.  I think my kids will enjoy it more as they get older.