It’s so easy your child could even play it in the bath. We’ve used soft plastic balls for our numbers but you could write numbers on ping pong balls, small plastic ducks or other objects too.
Summary:
Time: 10 minutes
Age: Little Kids
Difficulty to make: Easy peasy
Skill: Recognising and matching numbers to 10
You will need:
- Colourful plastic balls (soft play balls)
- Black Sharpie
- Muffin tray – 12 piece
- Colourful dot stickers
- Slotted spoon (or small toy fishing net)
Step 1: Create your numbered balls
Count out 10 plastic coloured balls. You can use soft play or paddling pool balls or even white ping pong balls.
Use a black Sharpie to write a number from 1-10 on each one.
Step 2: Add stickers to the muffin tray
Take a clean muffin tray. Stick little dot stickers onto the bottom of each section.
Put 1 sticker in the first, 2 in the next and so on until you have marked out sections from 1 – 10.
Playing the game
Pop all the balls into a large mixing bowl or plastic box. Fill it with water so the balls float around in it.
To play the game your child has to fish out one ball and place it in the right section on the muffin tray.
When they find a ball ask your child if they know what number it is. Then see if they can find the correct place to put it in the tray.
To help they can count out the dots with their fingers to find the right number.
Can your child put all the balls in the right place?
Ask your child to keep fishing until all the balls are in the right place in the muffin tray. The more they play the game, the more familiar they will become with the numerals. And with counting out the dots.
Learning is always more fun when it’s a game
