Counters are for More Than Just Counting!
When it comes to counters, there really is an endless number of activities and maths concepts you can practice with your little one! There are plenty of sets available - my personal favourite are the Jungle Counters, but Counting Bears are another excellent choice (and were a classroom staple, at least they were when I went through primary school!).
Jungle Counters (BEST!) and Counting Bears
While I could go on all day about the merits of using counters, I have restricted myself to a short list of some of the concepts that are absolutely vital for developing number sense:
sorting and matching - bears can be sorted by colour or size, which teaches kids to focus on the features of an object and learn that objects are alike and different. Using the Jungle Counters adds shape to the mix, which allows some higher level sorting and logical thinking e.g., sorting by a shape as well as colour.
one-to-one correspondence - kids can match one bear to one spot. Just counting out the bears one by one helps them form the concept that each item is counted once and only once.
counting and number order - practicing counting helps reinforce number order and creating a set.
cardinality - when counting is finished, seeing the set of bears helps kids learn to apply the final counting number to both the final object counted and the set as a whole.
patterns - kids can create their own, complete or continue a pattern. Mathematics and patterns go hand in hand, and pattern recognition is the basis for many areas, most notably algebra.
And of course there’s equality, graphing, friends of 10, addition and subtraction, sharing… I could go on, but that may take us beyond the scope of this post!
I do, however, recommend this great post from The Measured Mom for some Counting Bear inspiration. Happy counting!