The twins are three now and really interested in numbers. I have been starting to slowly introduce. number recognition into our play activities. They love play dough and having tea parties and it seemed like a good opportunity to combine the two activities and introduce a bit of sneaky learning too.
I made some play dough and added some pink food colouring, pink sprinkles and some strawberry essence to make it smell wonderful. I laid out lots of silicone cupcake cases which we use a lot for play. They are great as you can wash them and reuse them as often as you want. I also laid out candles and candle numbers as well as a few things for decoration like sprinkles and feathers. The colours I have chosen are unashamedly girly as we are completely in the pink phase in this house. It would be easy to change it to match your children’s favourite colours and make it more appealing.
The twins enjoyed making cakes and putting them in the cupcake cases. I then helped them add a candle number to each cake.
The girls are only just starting to make the recognition between the number and the amount so to start with I have been putting the correct amount of candle holders into the play dough. they then just have to fill them with the correct amount of candles. This is great for practicing fine motor skills as well.
This activity took a lot of concentration.
Once the candles were in they added the right amount of decorations.
The good thing is there is lots of counting practice each time and lots of repetition.
When they had finished they had to find their age and we lit those candles and sang Happy Birthday. Fun!
For more learning ideas made sure you are following my Fun Education Ideas Pinterest board.
Also come back every Monday to find more creative ideas for learning through play.
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