Craft in America – Paul Stankard

Swarming Honeybee 2006

Paul Stankard is a glass god. That is a fact. I have been fortunate enough to have met him years ago at the Gathering of the Society of Glass Bead Makers that was in Corning. He was the keynote speaker. His glass work is so incredible and radiates his love of nature and glass. You can watch him work in a clip from the most recent Craft in America episode that’s on You Tube. I found this last night and was just mesmerized by his work. And of course check out his web site for all of his work and even a tutorial. So amazing!

Four Seasons

Check out the root formations in the larger piece. They’re people…root people. When Paul was in Corning he made a bead. He was very proud of the bead. Us bead makers were stunned at how happy he was to make a bead. It had a root person inside it. A little naked man. On the other side there was what looked like a bean, from the outside…but when you looked through the bead you saw that it spelled fertility on the bean. We were in awe off this man. He donated it to the silent auction to help the Society of Glass Bead Making’s fund raising. It went for $3100. Enough said…I wish I had a picture to share with you. Just go to his web site and enjoy! And check out his poetry too!

Learning numbers actually involves a few different skills, from recognizing the shape of the number and knowing the word that goes with it to understanding one to one correspondence for counting and what order the numbers go in.

A lot of this is learned best through play and activities that get kids counting and tracing and otherwise interacting with numbers. These activities can help.

I specifically mentioned tracing above because of these number formation rhymes cards from Teaching Mama, which can be used in lots of ways to practice making the shapes of the numbers, including tracing, lining up items on the number shapes (and counting them!), using playdough to shape the numbers and so on. Each number has a little rhyme to help you remember how to make it, which is cute.

And speaking of playdough, you can find lots of playdough number mats with different themes for kids to use as they learn about numbers. Preschool Play and Learn, for example, has these cute apple themed ones that also teach one to one correspondence as you learn the numbers and count to 10.

Or use these tree-themed ones from Live Over Cs to form the numbers, count out items on a ten frame and place the correct number of items in the tree to match the number (do this with playdough, little buttons or whatever manipulatives you have on hand). Your little builders will also love these Duplo number mats from Life Over Cs, which allow you to shape the number out of blocks and count out the number of blocks that corresponds to each number.

I also love these mats from The Savvy Sparrow that include the number and the word you can trace with playdough or marker, showing how to count the number on your fingers, a tens frame and a number line.

Finger plays and counting songs are lots of fun for little ones, too, and Childhood 101 has a great collection of songs and rhymes having to do with numbers (as well as printable song cards you can use with them.

This cardboard roll number chain form Hands On As We Grow would be a fun addition to singing number songs or to use in other play and counting games. And we all love something easy to make with stuff we already have.

Older kids who already know the order of numbers can also use these connect the dot number printables from Fun Learning for Kids. Or use the shapes for playdough mats or to practice tracing even for kids who don’t know all the numbers in order yet.

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