Make a Colorful Necklace Decorated With Paper Shapes and Practice Counting

Get creative with this shape-counting necklace craft. In this hands-on activity, your child will practice counting, shapes and fine motor skills!

Learning Goals

This activity will help your child:

• Identify and describe shapes
• Count, add and subtract
• Practice fine motor skills

Materials

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Yarn or string
• Markers and crayons
• Hole puncher

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Create 10 shapes out of construction paper. Draw a variety of shapes on paper of different colors. Examples of shapes are circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hearts and stars. Cut out your 10 shapes.

2. Sort your shapes by color, size or type. Ask your child to count out each group. "How many of each color or shape are there? Which group has more? Which group has fewer? How many altogether?"

3. Create a necklace with your shapes. Punch a hole in the center of each shape with a hole puncher. Next, cut a long piece of yarn or string for your necklace. Count five shapes and string the shapes to the necklace. Ask your child how many shapes there would be with one more. Add two more shapes and ask, "How many now?" Continue adding more shapes until you reach 10. Once you're done making the necklace, tie the two ends of the yarn together.

4. Wear your necklace and practice counting. Count how many circles, how many hearts, how many stars, etc. Count how many shapes you have in total. Ask your child, "What if we take away (subtract) the number of round shapes? How many do we have now? What if we take away one more? How many now?"

Keep the Conversation Going

Use everyday routines and dialogue to illustrate that you get more of something when you "add," and you have less of something when you "take away." For example:

• As you eat dinner, ask your child how many plates are on the table and how many there would be with one more or one less.
• Ask your child how many toys there are, and what the total would be with one more and one less.
• Count family members and ask more and less questions.

• You can also work on making groups of 10. You can say, "We have four shoes. How many more to make five?"

Book Suggestion

"Anno's Counting Book" (Ages 2-4) by Mitsumasa Anno
Use this wordless, illustrated picture book to help your child count from one to 12 and practice addition and subtraction. Explore math while reading and talking about this picture book with its corresponding guide from DREME.

Corresponding Standards

Common Core State Standards Kindergarten

• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.OA.A.1. Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings1, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions or equations.

California Preschool Learning Foundations
Number Sense

• 2.1 Compare, by counting or matching, two groups of up to five objects and communicate "more," "same as," or "fewer" (or "less").
• 2.2 Understands that adding one or taking away one changes the number in a small group of objects by exactly one.

Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework

• Goal P-MATH 6. Child understands addition as adding to and understands subtraction as taking away from.