Monday, November 4, 2013

Countdowns!

I am convinced that visual countdowns for toddlers and preschoolers are magical!! My sweet as sugar 4 year old little girl is a planner much like myself and I love that! BUT lots and lots and lots of questions about days' events are asked because of it. On the RARE occasion I tell her about an exciting event weeks or even days in advance, well, I suffer! It's like an extremely long car ride with endless "are we there yet"s!  Like most moms, I've quickly learned to only share exciting plans hours or even minuets before they take place. ;) And if I do share great news weeks before hand, I now count on our countdown chains to keep track of all the "are we there yet"s for me. I'm telling you, it's magic!


Here's one we used to keep track of the days left to visit family in Alabama. My teacher heart absolutely LOVED all of the hidden opportunities the chain provided to expose my little ones to number sense. We had some great discussion about subtraction, totals, remainders and lots of great practice with good ol' plain counting!


For our Thanksgiving countdown we decided to go a different route. I already miss the number visuals but I'm excited about the different opportunities this chain provides for learning. It gives us a much different visual. My sugar and I pulled out these awesome links we picked up at the dollar store a few weeks ago. She picked the perfect colors! We decided they were the most appropriate given the season. I then asked her if we could use these colors and shapes for making a pattern. She was so excited to do so and quickly choose the unit. We continued with the unit until we reached the appropriate number of days left. Now everyday when we take a link off our chain we get the chance to work on our colors and shapes as well as review patterns. I can't wait to see where our future countdowns will take us.

Do you have different idea for a countdown chain? Maybe one you and your kiddos have used? I'd love to hear! We'll be getting our Christmas countdown together before we know it! :)


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