Teaching Math Through Play with Mother Goose Time

Our children learn to count and recognize numbers through reading aloud and play! We read a ton of number and counting books. We also play math games available from our preschool program, Mother Goose Time!

Here are just a couple examples of how Mother Goose Time has helped two of my little learners just this week!

Watering Hole Math Game

The board games that come from Mother Goose Time are fabulous! The rules are simple and the kids are focused on playing, not learning numbers. Of course learning mathematics happens too.

Supplies for Watering Hole Math Game

To play this game you will need a water hole game board and dice.

In this African Safari themed math game there are game pieces for

• an elephant,
• a giraffe,
• a zebra,
• and a lion.

How to Play Watering Hole Math Game

• The object of the game is to get the animals to the watering hole.
• The animals are moved based on the number rolled on a dice.
• Each animal piece may be played by an individual child or one child can have the animals take turns moving towards the watering hole.

Wins for My Preschooler

• Perfect first experience will rolling a real dice
• A chance to count the number on the dice
• A chance to count spaces as the animals move
• A chance to recognize that the patterns on the dice represent the same number each time they are rolled

Wins for My Pre-K Kid

• This was excellent practice for rolling a dice and keeping it on the table. He tends to roll like a wild man!
• Practice with recognizing the number patterns on the dice without having to count
• Practice with moving exactly one space per number

Bonuses for Mom

Games are Disposable and Recyclable

One of my favorite aspects of having the games arrive as part of a boxed preschool program is that I don’t sweat it when the materials get ruined. I know there are more games coming next month. I find myself much more relaxed about giving the game over to the kids to use and play with and learn from at their own pace. The kids help me cut out the board game pieces. We play with them and I leave them out to be explored by the kids. If a piece of the game (paper) goes into the mouth of a baby or the paper rips when being pulled out of a drawer it doesn’t take $20 to replace the game.

Games Allow for Connection

These games are fun. We are playing. The learning is happening, but not at the expense of time enjoying one another. It’s a great way to learn math!

Digging Tusks Math Game

Supplies for Tusks Math Game

Mother Goose Time provides leaves with numbers printed on them (1-10). You could make your own, but it’s hard to beat the convenience of having them arrive automatically in the company of a bunch of other awesome learning activities each month.

How to Play Tusks Math Game

Hide the leaves around the room or in a big pile of dirt. Have the kids pretend to be elephants rooting and digging for leaves/food. Depending on their current ability, tell them or have them tell you the number on the leaf they find. Then help them place the leaves in numerical order.

You will notice that in several of these pictures not only are the leaves in order, but there are animals nibbling at the leaves. The kids love matching the number on the leaf with the same number of animals.

Wins for My Preschooler

This is a great lower pressure way for my little one to identify numbers and become more comfortable with the ones he already knows. It provides practice with numerical order and since he adds in the animals it also helps him understand that the last number you say when you count is also the number of items (in this case animals).

Wins for My Pre-K Kid

Identifying “6” versus “9” is a challenge for this kid! Since the leaves can rotate and be turned around it was a great opportunity for him to practice putting them in the correct orientation in order to recognize them. He greatly benefits from counting practice and the chance to continue to have fun with math!

Bonuses for Mom

Encourage Free Play

So many of the games from Mother Goose Time can be incorporated into open ended play. This is a fabulous example! The directions for this game focus on digging up leaves like an elephant and are meant to encourage the kids to become familiar with numbers and potentially put them in numerical order.

Create New Games with the Materials

My child loves feeding the leaves to the animals. Both my Pre-K kid and my preschooler like to pretend that the leaf can feed animals in the amount listed on the leaf. For example the number “3” leaf can feed 3 animals and the number “7” leaf can feed 7 animals. You can use any animals for this activity. Since my kids came up with this idea themselves there was no effort from my part in getting them engaged. I simply faciliated their learning by answering questions and gently correcting if I saw them pick the wrong number of animals for a leaf.

Mother Goose Time works because it is fun. Nothing beats learning through play especially surrounded by those you love!

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If you are interested in reading more about our experience with Mother Goose Time, check out our curriculum page!

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Happy Learning!

As a blog ambassador for Mother Goose Time, I am happy to share preschool curriculum ideas, activities, and crafts with my readers.  Mother Goose Time provides our family the opportunity to use their curriculum free of charge in exchange for honest and authentic stories based on our personal experience.