The Rainbow Fish Preschool Counting Activity
I have a tendency to focus mostly on reading and books for our lessons, so any activity that uses a book to work on math skills gets a big yes from me. This Rainbow Fish preschool counting activity was a big hit. It held everyone's attention, was easily changed to accommodate all skill levels, and was easy to set up and clean up.
The Books
The Rainbow Fish books were my sister's favorite books when we were growing up. In fact, she gifted Audra with a set of them when she was a baby. I love these books for the kids now because they are great stories for friendship and kindness. We read Rainbow Fish Discovers the Deep Blue Sea and Rainbow Fish Saves the Day. Everyone was engaged with the story and especially loved the sparkly rainbow scales.
The Activity
After we read, each of the kids received a chunk of the playdough we had made earlier. They had fun rolling it out using their baking pins. I only had one fish-shaped cookie cutter, so we had the opportunity to practice sharing. Everyone cut out 4-5 fish.
I gave them each a bunch of sequins. This is where the fun counting comes in! Wade (2.5) and I counted out the sequins together as he put them on his fish. Hannah (3) counted out her sequins by herself up to about 10. Audra and I have been working on numbers 10-20, so I had her put 13, 18 and 20 sequins on her fish. Brynn (5) also worked on counting with a little addition thrown in.
Extensions
After we added sequins to the fish, I gave them some sea shells from our sensory play, and showed them how to "stamp" their playdough with them. That was another big hit and gave them the opportunity to explore texture and creativity even more. We also rolled out snakes from the playdough and I made them the letters of their names.
My favorite thing is to see the kids take the materials I give them and get creative on their own. I try to avoid showing them a picture of what our end result "should" look like because I don't want to limit their creativity. This Rainbow Fish counting activity was a big hit, and I can't wait to use the playdough recipe to inspire even more learning.
