Sometimes you plan out an activity to do with your child and you layout the materials. In your mind you know that the final product will look like. Then you child sits down and says,” Just a minute! I know what we should do?” That is exactly what happened with this preschool math activity. A simple craft became a preschool math activity in just a matter of minutes.I thought JDaniel would have fun using the hole punch to make button holes in construction paper. The buttons would be placed on a paper plate snowman. JDaniel has been hoping and praying for snow. He hasn’t had enough snow to make a snowman in two years.  This would be a snowman he could make without snow.

The paper plates, construction paper, glue and hole punch were placed on the table and told JDaniel that I had an activity for him to do. He came over right away to see what I had planned.While we cut out some circles out of the construction paper, I talked with him about how most button have two or four holes them. Grabbing some of the circles I showed him how to make a four hole buttons with the hole punch. Then it was his turn.

JDaniel grabbed one of the buttons and punched one hole in it. I waited for him to add the extra holes, but he didn’t add any. He grabbed another button and punched two holes in it.  Before he grabbed another button, I asked him what he was doing.

“Mom, I am counting on!” he announced. Counting by ones with buttons was great idea. He continued to punch holes in the remaining buttons. Each time he added one more hole.

At first it looked like he was patterning too, but when the buttons were done the colors weren’t in a pattern. I asked him if we need to cut out more buttons to create a pattern. “No, this is a counting activity not a patterning one,” he said shared with me..

I had thought it was a crafting activity before we started it. In just one minute everything changed and JDaniel came up with a wonderful preschool math activity. Well, maybe it was still partially a craft. We did cut out arms and a nose. We did use glue and scissors. Mostly I think it ended up being a math activity.

It was fun to see how this preschool math snowman hole punch counting activity came together.

 

Here are some more preschool math activities:

LEGO Graphing

Preschool- I Spy Worksheets

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday.