Christmas Tree Counting

Sweet Pea is 44 months old.

From: I saw this on Carisa’s 1+1+1=1 blog. She originally got the printables from Musings of Me (which also has some other great Christmas worksheets). I loved the concept, but I don’t have a color printer and wanted the stars to be easier to cut out, so I made up my own sheets.

Material:

Christmas Tree Counting Worksheets 1-4, 5-8 , 9-12 and the Numbered Stars. (These are .pdf files and require Foxit or Adobe Acrobat for viewing.)

1-4 5-8 9-12 Stars

Scissors
Glue

Procedure:

Cut out the stars from the Numbered Star Worksheet.
Put the Christmas Tree Counting Worksheet 1-4 on the table.
Select the stars numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. Place these stars them near the top of your work space and put the rest of the stars aside.
Sit next to your tot and explain that you want to count the ornaments on each tree and then put the correctly numbered star on the top.
Point to the first tree and invite your tot to count the ornaments. Next ask them to select the star shows the same number as there are ornaments on the tree.

Allow your tot to glue the ornament onto the top of the tree. Offer advice on how much glue is appropriate to use for each star.

Repeat the procedure with the remaining trees.
If your tot is ready for bigger numbers, repeat the activity with the Christmas Tree Counting Worksheet 5-8 and/or Christmas Tree Counting Worksheet 9-12.

Observations: Sweet Pea has been very interested in counting lately, but this was an even bigger hit than I expected. I think that the combination of counting and gluing was irresistible for her. Although I had to give her significant help with counting the higher numbers, she wanted to do every tree all the way up to 12.

This was a good challenge for Sweet Pea. She was very proud of her Christmas tree worksheets when she was done and insisted on hanging them up by her bed so she would be able to see the Christmas trees when she woke up in the mornings.

I would highly recommend this activity for any tot that is interested in numbers or gluing.

Notes from the Trenches: Sweet Pea loved squeezing the glue bottle and had some trouble regulating how hard she squeezed it. As with the Packing Peanut Collage activity, we had to discuss what “just a little bit” meant several times.

It occurred to me after the fact that Sweet Pea would have loved to use glitter glue to color in the ornaments.

Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Frugal)