You know when you have these chunky puzzles and you(the kids) loose half of the pieces? What do you do with it? Do you throw it away? Well, don’t throw a numbers puzzle away because you can still use it! I am showing you today how to use an old number puzzle with pompoms to practice counting and fine motor skills!

Pom Pom Counting Activity

For this counting activity you need:

• Mini Pompoms
• Number Puzzle
• Tweezers

Let your child use the tweezers to grab the pompoms (great for fine motor skills) and add the correct amount of pompoms to the numbers.

Number recognition and counting skills are being developed here. Also, the fact that the zero has nothing in it helps young children to understand the zero concept, which is quite an abstract concept.

You can say the pompoms must match the color of the number for an extra challenge.

Extension:

• Use two(or more) numbers at a time. Add the pompoms to the numbers and then count how many pompoms you have all together. Eg. 1+2=? (Working on adding skills.)
• Which number has more: number 4 or number 2? (More/less)
• If you have 5 pompoms, which numbers can you fill? (Bonds of 5)

A simple activity and easy to setup too. Work on counting and fine motor skills while having fun AND reusing a toy that would have ended up in the bin. Win-win!

More counting activities you will want to see:

• Skip Counting Plates
• Free Fingerprint Counting Printables
• Pom Pom Counting Cards
• 100 Chart Counting Game