Spring and Easter offer delightful opportunities to practice basic number skills with preschoolers through hands-on play. Use this fun Bunny Math Counting Activity to encourage one-to-one correspondence skills when preschoolers help the bunny plant carrots in the garden.
Spring Math for Preschoolers: Help the Bunny Plant Carrots
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Materials needed:
- Help the Bunny Counting Free Printable – Print here: Bunny carrot math printable
- Laminator
- Self-Laminating Sheets work well if you do not have a laminator at home or in the classroom.
Instructions:
- Print the Help the Bunny counting printable. (Printing in “high quality” is suggested so that the colors are vibrant.)
- Laminate, if desired. This will keep the activity sturdy and resilient for use with multiple children or for use annually.
- Cut out the number cards and carrots.
Prepare an invitation to learn by putting the activity on a cookie sheet or tray at a learning center. I’ve found this method is a great way to intrigue young learners to the activity and cookie sheets help keep activity pieces contained (you can find affordable cookie sheets at your local dollar store.) You can take it a step further and put a few small plush rabbits, felt carrots, plastic gardening tools on the table just to set the scene for fun springtime play.
Activity Objectives:
This activity teaches preschoolers a necessary skill called one-to-one correspondence. That is, assigning one number per each individual item and understanding that each number represents a corresponding number of items. Find out more about preschool math skills and one-to-one correspondence here.
To introduce this activity to kids, you can start with a prompt that the Bunny needs to plant carrots in his/her garden. Encourage them to draw a number card and “plant” (or place) the corresponding number of carrots in the bunny’s garden. Once done, the carrots can be individually recounted to ensure accuracy.
Another way this printable can be used is with adult facilitation or by pairing up children. Child 1 places a random number of carrots in the garden. Child 2 will then choose the number card that matches that specific number of carrots.
There are many fun books about bunnies and carrots for kids that can be used to supplement this activity. Here are some of our favorites:
What Noise Does a Rabbit Make?
Extension Spring Bunny and Carrot Activities for Preschoolers:
There are several other activities that can be done to expand on this one. Some of them are:
- Make a list of what bunnies like to do.
- Spring Fruits and Vegetable Activities for Preschoolers
- Create stamp art with paint and plastic bunnies.
- Make homemade orange “carrot” playdough.
- Get little bodies moving with a bunny color hop.
- Play “Pin the Tail on the Bunny”.
- Plant carrot seeds in a classroom garden.
- Create a garden sensory bin using raw carrots, plastic shovels and small plastic pots.
- Make bunny masks out of paper plates.
- Eat carrots for snack.
Your kids might also enjoy learning with our Spring Weather Theme available here on the blog. It’s filled with Spring Weather playful learning designed with your preschooler in mind!
About the Author:
The Preschool Toolbox is pleased to welcome Andie Jaye to our contributor team. Andie is a former preschool teacher turned stay-at-home mom of 3 kiddos. Her blog, Crayon Freckles, focuses on creative learning and play ideas, as well as parenting topics. Andie strives to be honest in her approach and experiences in parenting to let other moms know that they are not alone in their struggle. In her free time, she writes children’s books in hopes of publishing someday. You can follow Andie on Pinterest or on Twitter.
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