A great way to begin math learning with infants and toddlers is through song! And songs are just made better through movements and visual aids. One thing that always worked when I wanted to settle down a rowdy classroom or fill some time was to pull out the feltboard for some fingerplay songs. Here are some of our favorites — both L and N love them all! I made these felt pieces, so don’t look too closely. It’s pretty easy to make your own.
5 little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs. Yum yum.
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool. Then there were 4 little speckled frogs.
Repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1.
5 little monkeys swinging in a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, “You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”
Along came Mr. Alligator sneaky as can be and snapped that monkey out of that tree!
Repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1.
No more monkeys swinging in a tree, ’cause sneaky Mr. Alligator snapped them from the tree!
5 little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away. Mama duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack!” But only 4 little ducks came back.
Repeat with 4, 3, 2, 1.
No little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away. So Daddy duck said, “Quack! Quack! Quack!” And 5 little ducks came waddling back.
What are your favorite fingerplay songs?
This is great! I might use this in my classroom. Very creative.
Great post! I sing and “play” these songs with my kids while on the trampoline and they love it 🙂 And we learned most of the tunes by searching YouTube for “nursery rhymes.”
My son loves 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. It’s not really a song, just a rhythm poem really, but those are really good for kids too.
I love this idea! It doesn’t look too difficult to replicate, I’m off to look for some felt. Thank you x
Always been a big fan of “Five Little Ducks” with my son, works great with little pull-along ducks and even ducks in the bath. 😊
I love these math finger plays… And 5 speckled frogs is one of my favorite math songs period! Great idea making these games too!
Oh Gosh I don’t think I would be able to make these, very talented!!!
I love this! My kids would enjoy it, my five year old definitely!
Great idea! One of our favourite nursery rhymes is Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed. What age would you start introducing this tangible maths learning, as opposed to simply singing the songs?
We are counting while doing the songs, so that is the first step. We also count just randomly around the house, like when we’re going up or down the stairs. I recently posted about our next step, the Sandpaper Numbers, which I began with L shortly after she turned two.