Materials
1 package star-shaped foam stickers or glittery star foam stickers
Card stock
Counting
Cut strips of card stock wide enough and long enough to fit several star stickers. Invite your child to stick various stars on each strip. Count the stars. Create numeral cards by writing numerals 1–10 or 11–20 on squares of card stock. Encourage your child to match the number of stars on each strip with the matching numeral card. For an extra challenge, put the strips and numeral cards in numeric sequence.
This activity supports fine motor practice of tearing the paper off the back of the stickers, one-to-one correspondence, recognizing numerals, and sequencing numerals (1–10 and 11–20, then, in reverse order, 10–1 and 20–11).
Sorting
- Sort stars by color, grouping all the red stars together, blue stars, yellow stars, etc.
- Sort stars by size, grouping all stars by large, medium, and small stars.
- For older children, sort using two criteria: color and size (i.e. group all large red stars together).
Patterns
Create simple two-color patterns with the stars (i.e. red, blue, red, blue). Invite your toddler to say your pattern out loud. Ask your toddler what color comes next when reaching the end of the constructed pattern. Create more complex patterns for preschool-age children.
Invite your toddlers or preschoolers to add on to the patterns.
Encourage your toddlers or preschoolers to generate their own patterns. Have them check themselves by saying the patterns as they point to each star.