Make these quick counting sticks and use jingly bells to teach counting and one-to-one correspondence.
Ever thought about how complicated counting is for little ones?
First, they have to know number names. Then they have to know what order the numbers go.
Next, they have to understand one-to-one correspondence, which is a fancy way of saying each thing gets counted only once.
I’ll admit, I put counting activities off because they just felt so intimidating.
But Jingle Bell Sticks sounded fun. What toddler doesn’t like playing with bells? And sticks?
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Setting up the Jingle Bell Sticks Activity
For this activity, I used jumbo popsicle sticks and a bowl of small gold bells.
I wrote the numbers 1-5 on the jumbo popsicle sticks in permanent marker and invited Elena (3 years old) to make jingle bell counting sticks.
She was intrigued and immediately came running, “Did you say jingle bells, Mommy?”
First, we read the numbers together: “One, two, three, four, five.”
I asked her to put the same number of bells as the number on each stick.
One was easy.
Then, two. And then for some reason she wanted to start over.
I could sense she was losing interest. So I reined her in with an about me question: “Elena, how old are you?”
“Three!”
“Which stick says ‘three’?”
“This one!”
“Can you put three bells on the stick to show how old you are?”
“Yeah!”
From then on, it was just a matter of naming friends who were one, two, four, and five to get Elena to finish putting the bells on the sticks.
I’m not gonna lie, this was kind of a rough activity. I had to do a lot of prompting and rescuing the activity from Little Sis who wanted to add more bells to each stick, which would make Big Sis feel exasperated.
But Elena stuck with it, which made me so proud. I’d say we spent about 10 minutes actually counting, and then another 10 playing with the bells.
I wonder if she would’ve been able to concentrate better if I hadn’t given her that lollipop five minutes before we started this.
Oops.
TIPS to make this activity go smoothly
If you’re brave enough to try counting with your preschooler, here are my top tips for making jingle bell counting go smoothly.
1: Tape the sticks down. It’s tough to balance the bells on the sticks when they’re wriggling around. A little tape on the backs will help hold the sticks in place.
2: Play on a sturdy surface. See above. Enough said.
3: Keep babies away. There’s a time for bigs and littles to play together, and a time to separate them so the bigs can get the most out of an activity. This is one of those times. Plus, bells are a choking hazard…. so…
4: Don’t give kids candy right before this activity. The worst thing is trying to get kids to focus when they’re all hyped up on suckers and chocolate. I’m still kicking myself for making such a rookie mistake!
5: When all else fails, turn the popsicle sticks into a slide for the bells. Know when to cut your losses. Kids will learn to count when they’re more interested. And believe it or not, they do learn a lot just from free play as well.
Will You Try Jingle Bell Sticks?
The set up for this activity couldn’t be any easier. And remember, if kids don’t want to count, it’s OK to just let them play freely with the bells and sticks.
Happy Counting!
