It’s no secret that rocks are a favorite item in our household. Recently, we’ve had fun learning letters with rocks in Alphabet Rocks Nature Play, used rocks to make bracelets in Make Your Own Nature Bracelet, and had fun painting and imagining with Make Your Own Rock People.
Today, we decided to use rocks once again, for a simple counting activity that focuses on one-to-one correspondence.
When young children are just beginning to learn to count, they often are using rote learning, which is basically just memorization learned through repetition. While this skill is important, it’s difficult to move on to more meaningful math fundamentals, until children are able to understand and master the concept of one-to-one correspondence.
One-to-one correspondence is basically the ability to match an object to a corresponding number, or an object to another object. For example, matching 5 toy cars to the number 5 or matching one shoe to one sock.
Sticker Graph For Toddlers, Leaf Counting Math Puzzle, Marshmallow Math, and Paper Clip Math For Preschoolers are a few of the activities we’ve done in the past to work on one-to-one correspondence.
What you need:
- Several rocks (or another item that interests your child)
- Index cards
- Marker
I started by using the marker to write a number (we did 1-5) and the corresponding amount of dots on each index card. I set the cards out on the floor, mixed them up, and helped Zahir (age 2) put them in the correct order.
I put the rocks in a bowl, and encouraged him to place the correct amount of rocks under each index card. As he placed each rock on the floor beneath the numbers, we counted out loud…
Once each index card had the correct number of rocks below it, I pointed to each number, helped him count the dots on each card, and asked him to count the rocks…
He counted all of the rocks several times before moving on to something else…
Quick and simple activities such as this one, are a great way to incorporate basic math skills into everyday exploration. Using objects that are specifically of interest to the child, makes this a much more meaningful and engaging experience.
Looking for more math activities and resources ? Check out all of our ideas here.
