COUNTING RHYMES

FIVE LITTLE ROBINS
The robins are made of felt with a small button for an eye. The snow mat is just a collage of felt pieces
stitched onto a large piece of felt and filled with polyester filling to give it some dimension. The birds can be arranged in any formation. My robins are
one-sided but you can make yours with the same details on both sides.
Here are the words of a rhyme. It is very simple and can be easily adapted for more or the other types of bird (blue tit, black bird, chaffinch).

Five little robins playing in a snow,
one got hungry and decided to go.
Four little robins playing in a snow...
10 GREEN BOTTLES
The secret ingredients to preparing this activity are bottles! Those perfect mini gin bottles are collected by Jo. For safety reasons the tops are secured with superglue. Jo has adapted a part of our castle play set as the wall. If you are not able to accommodate any of your existing materials you can paint a cardboard box in a brick pattern or even look on the internet for a picture of any kind of wall type, print it in an A4 size and glue it onto a box. The children really enjoy pushing the bottles off the wall thus having 3D wall is more attractive than just a picture.
5 FAT FIREWORKS
The props are made to accompany Sticky Kids song "Five Fat Fireworks" which we have adapted as a counting rhyme. Fireworks are made with pipe cleaners and attached to the dolly pegs painted black.

Five fat fireworks, five fat fireworks, five fat fireworks
standing in a row.
One's about to go.
Three, two, one... BANG!
Four fat fireworks...
5 LITTLE SPECKLED FROGS
The most attractive part of this activity is a background mat and a log. The mat is painted by one of our very talented teachers Jane. I wouldn't be able to paint it as beautifully myself but I have previously done a collage of a pond. The other option could be a picture from the nature magazine or a felt mat if you are into sowing. The log has been found by the river and eagerly brought to the nursery by Jo. It gives this activity some dimension and provides a sensorial element. To finish the activity you need five frog figures.
MORE RHYMES ABOUT MIGRATING ANIMALS CAN BE FOUND IN HERE.

QUANTITY AND NUMERAL ASSOCIATION

Quantity and numeral association activities are very easy to set up. Firstly you have to think of containers - loose or fixed and add a numeral to each one. Then collect suitable objects to sort into the containers. It is important to make it attractive and easy to manipulate. Young children enjoy putting things in and out of the containers as well as making noise when dropping things into for example a metal bucket. You can set the level of difficulty according to children's abilities (counting 1-5, 1-10 or over 10).
For this activity I bought five mini metal buckets in Hobycraft. Using permanent pen I drew a numeral on the front of each bucket (you can use as many buckets as you need). As sorting objects I have chosen small pebbles (in this case 15 pieces), but you could use all sorts of things e.g. shells, artificial flowers, large beans, marbles, buttons, etc.
In this tray I used large scallops shells as containers, each with a numeral written with a permanent marker pen and small shells for sorting. The children love this activity! Especially tiny shells which they usually put in their hand for counting out.


This is a very appealing activity set up by one of my colleagues. Little paper bags are from Hobbycraft. The felt vegetables and fruit are in quantities 1 to 5, so each group has to be selected to count and then placed in a correct bag. Some children think it is a shopping game! I guess it could be combined with pennies too.
Number pumpkins are made of felt and stuffed with polyester filling to give it more dimension. As counters I have used pumpkin seeds. It is a very seasonal and appealing activity. Don't be afraid to make the pumpkins bigger or more than 5.
Here is a second version of my pumpkins. This time I have used warmer shade of orange and green and have made the pumpkins more 'squashed' looking. I have also added a crease detail to give them more dimension (just a running stitch around the stuffed pumpkin). I have also tried making each stalk different to make them more interesting. Instead of stitching the numbers on I have used brown puff paint. It comes handy in tubes with a narrow pointy end (just like icing) which makes writing numbers quite easy. If you haven't used it before, practice first on a piece of fabric to get some confidence. It takes few hours to dry but the result is worth it. The numbers are raised giving the activity extra sensorial element. One disadvantage of puff paint on felt is that children might peel it off, however it is very easy to fix. Just write the number again.
This is a variation on felt birds. This time I made five birds varying in colours and consisting of a different number on the wing. They go very well with birds theme. For counting we have used red beads as berries as we talked about bird's life in winter but you can use eggs, insects or worms in fixed or loose combination.


This is a very appealing counting activity prepared by Jo. She used ten small ceramic plant pots with the number drawn on each. Blackboard pen works very well on ceramics. As counters you can use beans or any other large plant seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, peas).
This is a charming spring or summer theme activity set up by Jo. She used flower pegs as counters and draw flower stalks on the craft sticks. The number of leaves corresponds with the numeral which acts as a control of error. For a variation you can use different pegs e.g. sunflowers, ladybirds, bees, butterflies, pumpkins or tomatoes.
Another variation on number buckets! They are so versatile. Anything goes in! This time I prepared those beautiful felt daffodils. They are very simple to make and seem to be very enjoyable for the children. I found this excellent step by step tutorial including cutting pattern.
Bonfire Night, New Year, and many other occasions are celebrated with a bang! This is a simple way to make fireworks. You need a Christmas tinsel in your chosen colour. The one I used had a very thin wire in the middle. It proved to be just perfect to wrap up a short piece around a yellow lollipop stick. 
This activity will be suitable for Autumn or Hibernation theme. Unfortunately the size of hedgehogs allows to peg only 5 apples but if you really need more instead of making felt apple just draw an apple on the peg. In that way you should save some space. Here you can find hedgehogs printouts.