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Egg Box Count and Sort!

February 21, 2011 by Anna Ranson

This is the kind of fun that keeps Cakie absorbed for ages because it combines some of her favourite things in the world: containers and little things to put inside them! 
We had a huge egg box and so I numbered the little holes from 1-15 with a Sharpie marker in alternating colours.
I gave her our new box of sorting and threading beads that we bought at the weekend (from Melissa and Doug- I love their things!) and she was away!

  Lining them up and making sure they all “fitted” in.

 And she instantly counted as she put them into the holes. She added them in no particular order and didn’t count the correct numbers for each hole. But she did get very excited when she saw number 2 “it’s number 2!” and pointed it out for me to see.

 This stage is all about enriching their environment with numbers and letters and making them part of every day play and role play. She loves to look at them and talk about them.

 There was quite a lot of talk about shapes and colours too and things that were “too big” and “not fitted in dere”, especially when she tried to cram the whole lot in and shut the box for a “shake it up”.

 And in wonderful toddler fashion, the beads started to talk to each other too. Their conversation typically went something like this “hello dere, oh hello dere, oh hello!”

 This activity is good for:
* hand to eye co-ordination
* fine motor skills
* counting and recognising numbers
* talking about the names and properties of shapes

* Sorting by colour, size and shape
* awareness of space and manipulating objects to “fit”

These are the beads that we bought:

You could of course use buttons, jam jar lids, large pasta shapes, cotton reels, plastic coins, counters or other small countables.

This idea is shared at:

We Play and Tot School and http://monkeyingaround1.blogspot.com/

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Filed Under: Colours, Counting, Independent Learning, Shapes, Sorting and Matching, Toddler

« Discovery Box 6: Pipe Cleaners
DIY: Portable Art Board! »

Comments

  1. Tricia says

    February 21, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    Great idea! I love that you are re-using an old egg carton.

    My daughter plays a similar sorting activity with bits of nature and an egg carton. I post about it here if you are interested: http://littleecofootprints.typepad.com/little_eco_footprints/2010/12/kids_eco_free_travelling_game.html

  2. pink and green mama MaryLea says

    February 22, 2011 at 12:24 am

    Love it!! Egg cartons are the best : )

  3. SpartanGirl says

    February 22, 2011 at 12:41 am

    Great idea! I’m going to try this one with my son!

  4. Elle Belles Bows says

    February 22, 2011 at 1:55 am

    It is amazing what you can do with egg cartons!! Kerri

  5. Narelle says

    February 22, 2011 at 5:17 am

    Eggs cartons are brilliant for so many things, aren’t they? Love this idea!

  6. Sarah says

    February 22, 2011 at 11:01 am

    Lovely, simple idea. I have a 2 year old, an egg carton and some lacing beads. And this is on my to-do list! Thanks!

  7. JDaniel4's Mom says

    February 23, 2011 at 1:20 am

    I love that the beads talk. What a great way to reuse an egg carton.

  8. Monkeying Around says

    February 24, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    love this idea and the way you are slow introducing her to numbers through play. thankyou for linking this activity on monkeying around.
    Adele x

  9. Tracey M. says

    February 25, 2011 at 5:29 am

    What a great idea for how to use those block beads and an egg carton. We have both! I love the idea of having numbers written out to keep in front of them during play. My J is starting to count past 10 and this would be great and fun way to keep that learning going.

  10. Caz says

    February 26, 2011 at 3:28 am

    What a lovely idea, you can see how absorbed she is in this activity in the photos. Egg cartons are always a hit here too, might have to get our beads out 🙂

  11. Rashi says

    February 27, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    wow, what a simple way to help kids count! Check out my Hand prints Butterfly @ http://blog.memetales.com/

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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