Today I am sharing an exciting counting activity to go along with the book How to Dinosaurs Count to Ten? This activity gets kids up and moving while practicing math skills like counting and one-to-one correspondence.
This fun book is perfect for kids who love dinosaurs! Kids will enjoy following along with the dinosaurs in the book How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten as they count toys and other objects around the home.
While participating in this activity, kids will practice counting and one to one correspondence in a hands-on and active way. I always find that my kids retain so much more when they get to be active while learning. Children will also work on observation skills and critical thinking skills while going on a fun hunt for items to count.
Preparing for a Math Hunt
Make sure you have the correct quantity of each item in the book. If you don’t have an item, you can come up with a similar replacement. For example, I don’t have alphabet blocks. Crazy, right? So I used regular building blocks instead. You could also have the children come up with a replacement while hunting for objects.
Leave the items in the location where they are normally located so that your kids can hunt for them.
Hunting for Objects to Count
Read How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. Make sure to put an emphasis on each object the dinosaurs are counting.
After reading the book, invite the children to go on a hunt for the objects in the book and practice counting their numbers them just like the dinosaurs did. If your kids are anything like mine, they will be super excited to get going!
Turn back to the beginning of the book and start with the first page. Ask the kids what object the dinosaur has on that page. They will say a “teddy bear.” Ask how many teddy bears. After they come to the conclusion that it is one, they will start looking around the room for one teddy bear.
Continue with each toy or item in the book. Refer the children back to the book to see where to go next and count out that many items.
We don’t keep blown up balloons in a specific place in our home, so I hid them and they had to search around to find them. We looked for clean socks instead of dirty ones. We also counted framed pictures and kid artwork on our wall because we didn’t have that many kid-made pictures hanging up right now.
All of the other objects are kept in a certain place so the children ran right to the place they knew to find those items. Then we counted out the correct quantity of that item.
My kids loved this activity! They enjoyed hunting for each item and counting them just like the dinosaurs did in the book How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten!
BIO: Danielle is a former elementary teacher and a mom of two, and now writes at Mom Inspired Life. You can connect with her by subscribing to her newsletter or following her on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Are you looking for more dinosaur activities? Check out her fun dinosaur excavation activity that uses 2 common household ingredients!
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