We love learning activities with a seasonal theme! This fall, E played a simple Contact Paper Fall Tree Counting Game on the window. We used some acrylic leaf table scatter as manipulatives that looked great in the light!
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(E was 3 years and 10 months old.)
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To play the Contact Paper Fall Tree Counting Game, you’ll need:
- Contact paper.
- Sticky tape.
- Acrylic leaves.
- Marker.
- Die.
- Tray or similar – we used a cookie sheet {optional; I wanted to keep the die from rolling off the table, and it worked.}
I drew a simple tree outline on the non-sticky side of a sheet of contact paper while the backing was still in place, then hung the contact paper sticky side out on the window with sticky tape.
On a nearby table, I placed a cookie sheet with a die and a small bowl full of red acrylic leaves.
When E came by and saw the set up, she wanted to play immediately. I asked her to roll the die to determine how many leaves to stick on the contact paper tree. She got right to work.
She started out arranging the leaves into rows and counted them once they were in place to make sure she had the correct number.
Pretty quickly, she decided that the bowl of leaves should be on the window sill for easier access 😉
She still had to turn around and take a step towards the table to roll the die.
She subitized (i.e. knew the number of dots without counting) up to four but often got five and six wrong, so she started counting the dots for the higher numbers.
When she began to run out of room on the top of the tree, she started sticking leaves to the trunk, then started removing them again and finding “better” spots for them. Contact paper is great for keeping items in place, but in a way that allows easy repositioning.
Once all the red leaves were stuck to the contact paper, E asked for more leaves. I didn’t have any more red ones, but I was able to give her a package of brown ones. She put the bowl back on the table to pour the brown leaves in, then placed it back on the window sill.
She worked hard to find spots for the brown leaves in between the red ones that were already there.
By the time she was sticking the last of the brown leaves to the contact paper, she only had room on the trunk, and this time, she didn’t have any problem putting (and leaving!) them there. She actually knelt on the floor to do these with her hands above her head 😉
Her complete contact paper fall tree looked great in the light.
The acrylic leaves are so pretty!
E was quite happy to play this counting game by herself, but two (or more) players could take turns for a cooperative game with the goal of filling up the tree together. Different colors for each player are optional. Alternatively, a second die could be used to determine the color to be used.
Does your child enjoy playing with dice? What’s your favorite fall themed learning activity? Leave a comment below!
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Love this! Featuring on my KBN roundup of Favorite Fall Activities and Crafts for kids at: http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/fall-activities-and-fall-crafts-for-kids/ Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the kind words and for the feature, Monica!