I was playing here at The Glass Studio with some solo vitrigraph and I have to say I was delighted with the experience! For those of you not familiar with vitrigraph please check out iglasssolutions.com and learn all about it. Larr Cunningham and Leigh Adams have worked together in creating the Turbo Top, which excellerates the heating of the glass, and the Turbo Light, which allows you to change the height of the kiln so you can re-seed the pot or if you need to work at different heights…with them I have witnessed or participated in pulling different shapes and squiggles and swirls and rings. Very cool stuff. You get shapes and colors that just aren’t available. But then when I was up at Bullseye last May a very controlled vitrigraph experience was witnessed. Nathan Sandberg, our instructor, used the vitrigraph kiln to make a wigwag. A wigwag cane twists in one direction, a bit is pulled and then the twisting direction is switched. This goes back and forth and the effect just makes me crazy. I’ve been meaning to do this here in my studio and today I did…and all by myself. I couldn’t have been happier and I have to say, I see so many of these in my future…in both Bullseye and Moretti. Come and get’em!!
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.