Early Math Counts

I saw these in a gift store. You can’t really tell from the picture, but they are really little, sized for a two or three-year old’s hands.  They got me thinking about using every opportunity we have to encourage numeral recognition and mathematical thinking even labeling a child’s body with letters and numbers.

Now, I can’t imagine that teachers can run out and buy these adorable little gloves, but I know that my dollar store sells the exact same gloves in solid colors for a dollar apiece.  Wouldn’t it be nice to go and get enough pairs for the children in your room, ideally in white or yellow (or another very light color) and make your own numbered gloves?  The benefits of making your own are really plentiful.

1.  Begin with the numbers 1,2, and 3 and only mark those numbers on the right glove.

2.  Have the children only wear that glove and use them while singing songs like Three Little Ducks Went Out One Day or Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and then encourage children to not only sing the songs, but to use the appropriate finger to represent the numbers of ducks or monkeys.

3.  Provide another visual cue on each finger; i.e., dots (pip) to represent the number.

4.  Add one more clue perhaps by color coding the numbers as well; 1= red, 2= blue, etc.

Once your kids have mastered the use of 1,2, and 3, add the next numerals up to 5 and continue to include the other visual clues (pips and colors).

I might even write a large R on the right-handed glove, and an L on the left-handed glove.  This seems like a really nice and fairly easy way to provide more avenues for children to travel down as they explore early math.

If you give this a try, take some pictures and send them to me, I will put them on the blog.