Counting & Color Clock

I've recently gotten several packages that came with cardboard circles and decided to come up with creative ways to reuse them. The first was this Clock craft, that will help teach numbers, colors and time.

What You Need: A Cardboard Circle, plain white paper (2-3 sheets or enough to cover circle), construction paper, glue, scissor, two pipe cleaners

What to Do: Cover the cardboard circle with the white paper - one way to do this is to apply the glue directly to the circle then lay the white paper on the circle before cutting. This way you can line up edges and get full coverage. Cut out the numbers 1-12 from the construction paper or feel free to draw them directly on the white paper once it's completely dry.  Glue the numbers in place. Use the pipe cleaners - or scissor if cardboard is thick - to poke a hole in the center of the clock. Fold pipe cleaners to desired length and thread them through the hole trying them together in the back to keep them from sliding out of place.

Fruit Chart

Get your child counting with this easy survey and chart!

What You Need: small poster board or piece of construction paper, ruler, crayons/markers, friends & family

What to Do: Use the ruler to help draw columns & rows on the poster board. Remember to make sure the first column is wider than the rest. Starting with the second column, fill in the first row with pictures, or names of different fruits (Ex. Banana, Apple, Orange, Plum, Watermelon, Grapes).

In the next row, write your name (Mom) in the first column and then fill in the chart. For each fruit write either a smiley face or a frowning face to show whether you like the fruit or not. Explain, 'I don't like bananas, so we put a frown in this box. But I do like watermelon, so here we put a smile!' After your row is done, fill in a row for you child.

Next ask friends and family, write in their names then have your child ask 'Do you like..." help them fill in the correct face in the boxes. Once the chart is full or you run out of people to ask, review the chart with your child. Make observations; 'Mommy's the only one that doesn't like bananas.','Yaya likes all the fruits and Papa only likes bananas." "You and Daddy both don't like oranges."

Count how many people like each fruit, how many fruits each person likes, etc. Ask questions like, Which fruit do most people like? Which fruit do fewest people like? How many people like more that 2 fruits?