When I”m not making dichroic glass beads or cupcakes I find my self enthralled with reactive glass. Double Helix makes me crazy. Iris orange aka Raku glass makes me giggle with joy most of the time. And now Gaffer’s Blue Chalcedony takes me right between the two reactions just described. Gaffer Glass is COE 96 so it isn’t compatible with Moretti/Effetre or Double Helix and all the other 104 glass out there. But that’s OK, as long as you keep your glass properly segregated. The Blue Chalcedony is a blue version of Raku which means it’s a glass that starts one color and then upon heating and cooling and heating and allowing it to bloom all of these different colors appear, with a predominance of blues. So cool. It makes me swoon with delight. Now considering I’ve been making glass beads for over 16 years that’s saying something.
Have you read?
Learning Numbers for Preschoolers
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.