Materials
brown and red poster boardcard stock papermarkersscissorslaminator
Instructions
1. Draw a large tree on a piece of brown poster board, and draw 10 mediumsized apples on a piece of red poster board.
2. Draw two large squares side by side on a piece of card stock paper. Color one square blue and the other green. This is the addition mat.
3. Draw a thick black line about 5" below each square.
4. Laminate everything and cut out the tree and apples.
5. Invite two or three children at a time to play this counting game.
6. Place the tree and the addition mat on a low table. Place one apple on the blue square and one apple on the green square of the addition mat.
7. Point to the blue square and ask, "How many apples are on this square?" Point to the green square and ask, "How many apples are on this square?"8. Ask, "How many apples are there all together?" The children may or may not be able to figure out the answer.
9. Ask the children to count with you as you move the apples from the addition mat to the tree.
10. Continue the game, using varying numbers of apples on each mat. Let the children take turns moving the apples from the addition mat to the tree as they all count together.
11. As the children's skills develop, use a wipe-off marker or crayon to print the correlating numerals on the addition mat on the two thick lines you made.
12. For younger children, you may want to use real apples (some types of apples are very small and easily used for this activity) instead of cutouts. Or use small plastic apples available at any education supply store.
