{Playing Through Autumn Day 23} Acorn Math

After an unexpected hiatus (filled with illness, long hours at work, and transitioning L into a new bed), our family has finally been able to get back into the swing of things and focus on some fun! It has been a rough couple of weeks in our house, but I am so excited that L and I were able to get back to doing what we do best: playing! In keeping with our Playing Through Autumn series, I recently presented L with a simple bowl of acorns. I wasn't sure exactly what she would make of them, but as usual, she found a way to make the simplest materials engaging.

The first thing she wanted to do was count the acorns. She's been really into counting lately, so it was fun for her to have such a big number of items to count. Pausing only briefly to discuss the fact that squirrels eat acorns, she counted them for quite some time.

Our next phase of acorn-y goodness brought us to talking about the size of the acorns. L noticed that some were "teeny tiny" while other were "big, big, big." She took to holding one in each hand to check which one was the "littlest."

After that, we got out a cookie sheet and lined them up in a row. L loved scattering the acorns across the sheet and listening to the sound they made. Very musical!

I have to admit I was pretty impressed with what a simple bowl of acorns could do for my kid. Having never been much of a math enthusiast myself, I really strive to get L excited about mathematical concepts. All on her own she was counting, patterning, and comparing sizes, with very little prompting from me. Plus, since we have been reading so many books concerning autumn, she already had a pretty good knowledge base about the acorns. I love autumn for so many reasons, and now I have another to add to the list!

How have you been incorporating the season of autumn into playtime? Are your kids interested in any particular aspect of the season?

{Playing Through Autumn Day 19} Spider Sorting

L has been all about counting lately. She just mastered counting to ten by rote, and she's well on her way to counting with one-to-one correspondence. I wanted to capitalize on this interest of hers, so we recently did a little sorting and counting with a Halloween twist.

I found this irresistibly cute silicon baking tray while out and about the other day. Who could resist all that Halloween fun? To this I added those cheap little plastic spider rings (I had a bunch left over from our Halloween rainbow rice sensory bin). Voila! Instant Halloween counting activity.

L quickly got busy sorting those spiders into the baking cups. We placed one spider in each section, counting as we went. Once we hit six, we dumped it out and started all over. It was great fun!

After a few rounds, counting to six lost a bit of its luster, so L went to her rice table and retrieved several more spiders. We lined them up in rows and counted them again and again. There is nothing like engaging a child with something that interests her - we've been at this spider counting thing for several days now!

{Playing Through Autumn Day 13} Scooping Seeds

Most toddlers find such joy in the simple act of scooping and pouring. L is no exception. It is one of her absolute favorite things to do, which is why sensory tubs are such a huge hit in our house. I recently decided to ramp things up a bit with a Montessori-inspired scooping and pouring activity for L, with a little added autumn flair.

I filled a bowl with popcorn kernels that I nicked from our popcorn sensory tub and put it on a tray with three miniature Halloween pumpkins (the plastic kind with an opening at the top). I placed everything on a cookie sheet to help minimize a big mess and added in a tablespoon-sized measuring spoon. (Note: I went with a tablespoon based on the size of the opening on the pumpkins. Anything smaller wouldn't have picked up many of the kernels and anything larger would have made it very difficult to pour into the pumpkins without creating a big mess. I wanted to help L be successful in this activity and limit potential frustrations.)

This activity required a lot of fine motor control in the scooping with a smaller spoon and pouring into small containers. Some of the kernels didn't make it into the pumpkins (but of course!) which led to another wonderful opportunity for fine motor practice: using those fingers to pick up the rouge kernels.

In addition to her love of scooping and pouring, L has also been very interested in counting recently. It was fun for her to count, "One, two, three..." as she poured into each pumpkin, and we were also able to count a few of the runaway popcorn kernels.

How are you engaging your kids this autumn? What sorts of activities do they enjoy?