It is necessary to introduce the baby to basic geometric shapes. Show him a rectangle, a circle, a triangle. Explain what a rectangle (square, rhombus) can be. Explain what a side is and what an angle is. Why is a triangle called a triangle (three angles). Explain that there are other geometric shapes that differ in the number of angles.

Let the child make geometric figures from sticks and simply modify them. Tasks are given with gradual complication. The child first makes object images from sticks: houses, boats, simple buildings, furniture, then geometric shapes: squares, triangles, rectangles and quadrangles of different sizes and with different aspect ratios, and then again object images, but based on preliminary analysis and division complex shape with a highlight in it geometric shapes. Geometric figures are now used as a template to determine the shape of objects.

You can give it the required dimensions based on the number of sticks. Invite him, for example, to fold a rectangle with sides of three sticks and four sticks; a triangle with sides of two and three sticks.

Also make shapes of different sizes and shapes with different numbers of sticks. Ask your child to compare the shapes. Another option would be combined figures, in which some sides will be common.

For example, from five sticks you need to simultaneously make a square and two identical triangles; or make two squares out of ten sticks: large and small (the small square is made up of two sticks inside the large one).

By combining counting sticks, the child begins to better understand mathematical concepts (“number”, “more”, “less”, “same”, “figure”, “triangle”, etc.).

Using chopsticks is also useful to form letters and numbers. In this case, a comparison of concept and symbol occurs. Let the child match the number made up of sticks with the number of sticks that makes up this number.

Exercise “Do as I do”

Regular school counting sticks are also perfect for playing with two-year-olds. On a flat surface, the adult lays out some simple figure from sticks, adding one each time, and invites the child to do the same. So the baby gradually masters the action according to the model, still in the most elementary form:

a) how many sticks are enough to take to make a triangle? (Three.) Take three sticks and make a triangle;

b) how many sticks are enough to add to make a quadrilateral? (One.) Add one and make a quadrilateral. What does your quad look like? (Per square.)

c) fold such a lamp. What else does this look like?

d) fold the following boat:

e) put together a vase like this:

f) fold the following candy:

g) fold the TV:

h) come up with your own figure and make it out of sticks.

Design and transformation tasks

Exercise 1

Divide a rectangle of 6 sticks into 2 equal squares with one stick, a square of 4 sticks into 2 equal triangles, rectangles.

Exercise 2

Move one stick so that the house turns in the other direction.

Exercise 3

Arrange four sticks in a shape similar to a key to make three squares.

Exercise 4

What is the smallest number of sticks that need to be moved to remove debris from the dustpan?

Exercise 5

Move two sticks so that the cow is facing the other direction.

Exercise 6

In this figure, rearrange three sticks so that you get four equal quadrangles.

Exercise 7

In the figure representing an arrow, rearrange four sticks to form four triangles.

Exercise 8

In a figure consisting of four squares, rearrange three sticks so that you get three identical squares.

Exercise 9

Rebuild the ship into a tank by moving six sticks.

Exercise 10

Rebuild the vase into a TV by moving five sticks.

Exercise 11

In a figure of six squares, remove three sticks so that four squares remain.

The ages of two to three years are called the “big leap year.” And indeed, between two and three years the child has brilliant achievements: speech develops intensively, purposefulness, self-awareness, and social interaction with peers appear. Children master creative activities: drawing, the simplest forms of design, children develop the ability to fantasize, and the foundations of intelligence are laid.

Children, especially at preschool age, are very inquisitive. The task of adults is to help them explore the world not only with the help of toys, natural phenomena, specific household items, but also with the help of abstract teaching aids, one of which is ordinary counting sticks.

The benefits of counting sticks in the mathematical development of preschool children

It is a mistake to think that with the help of these improvised means you can teach a child to count, and nothing more. Their task is in capable hands parents - to develop children's thinking, namely:

1. They help to learn colors, fold and study geometric shapes, design intricate castles, solve logic problems. Therefore, counting sticks can be an excellent teaching aid when organizing home activities.
2. With the help of this simple and multifunctional textbook, you can study the order of numbers and their composition, the concepts of “shorter-longer”, “more-less”, “higher-lower”.
3. It is also worth listening to the opinion of psychologists who simply insist that, along with fine motor skills, games and activities with these counting elements help develop in a preschooler:
   • intelligence;
   • independence;
   • imagination and creative thinking;
   • attention;
   • interest in research and knowledge;
   • activity;
   • the will to win;
   • determination;
   • persistence;
   • independence;
   • ability to plan, control and evaluate one’s own activities;
   • concentration.

Options for using teaching aids for children's fun

It is very easy to involve your little one in working with sticks. The main thing is to interest! The most common and main activity of children from 2 to 6 years old is play. Exactly at game form you need to conduct classes by coming up with an interesting plot and even distributing roles. Set the rules from the very beginning and let the little one understand the ultimate goal of the game. It can be anything, depending on what needs to be taught in games with sticks. For example, make a shape out of sticks or arrange them by color into separate boxes, lay out a name or count how many counting elements the house consists of. Thus, in home activities, counting sticks will become an excellent didactic game.

Important! Interest in correctly solving a given task stimulates the child to active brain activity and overcome difficulties in the task at hand. The baby will especially try if someone else is doing the same work next to him - children love to compete and show the will to win.

Games with magic wands for little ones (9 months +)

When and how to organize didactic games with counting sticks at home? Experts emphasize: in early age When kids are just beginning their journey to understanding objects, counting sticks can be used as playing material, used to study colors, construct figures of various sizes and shapes, and used in non-standard drawing.

The starting age for becoming familiar with counting sticks is 9 months. The baby can already grasp objects with two fingers - the index and thumb, which means that it’s time to develop fine motor skills. A great exercise for this would be:

• Take a small box or case, cut an oblong slit in it with a knife or scissors, and show the little one that you can put sticks into it one at a time. Kids will cope with the task “excellently”, because at this age they really like to push objects into holes.
• We make a hedgehog from the dough and invite the little one, under the strict guidance of his mother, to stick the sticks in like needles. It is still difficult for a baby to perform such an action, so the mother’s hand will become an extension of the child’s hand.

Important! Small children should not be left unattended when performing tasks involving small parts. After all, in addition to the hole in the box, a child can, without hesitation, put one of the counting elements into his mouth.

What can you offer a baby aged 1 to 1.5 years?

1. Young children are already capable of learning concepts such as color, size, length. Therefore, armed with a didactic (training) manual, it’s time to offer them such games with sticks :

• Name the color of all available sticks.
• Collect elements of one color.
• Find rods with the same length (Cuisenaire rods).
• Collect one stick of each color.
• Find the shortest and longest stick and name their colors (Cuisenaire sticks).
• Arrange the sticks in a row, alternating two colors, for example, yellow and red.
• Choose any stick and ask the child to the left of it to lay out all the sticks that are shorter than the chosen one, and to the right - all those that are longer. You can make it easier to solve the puzzle by asking leading questions. For example, show two sticks and ask whether they are different or the same. You can make it more difficult by asking how they differ from each other (color, length) or what is their similarity.

2. At an early age, children begin to be interested in and study the properties of plasticine. That's why modeling from plasticine For children it can be both an activity and a game with counting sticks. Sticks in in this case are auxiliary material: act as a stem for a flower, a stem for a fungus or a trunk for a tree; serve as legs-handles for a plasticine man or a chimney pipe for a house.

3. Similarly, you can organize custom drawing with sticks for babies. For example, laying out on the floor or table various items(road, cars, houses, flowers, people and animals) you can create entire pictures and toy cities. Such an activity will definitely arouse interest in an inquisitive child, will develop imagination, and will make him feel not only a member, but also the creator of an exciting game.

Didactic games from 2 to 4 years

During this period, preschool children make significant breakthroughs in the field of self-knowledge and intellectual development. Speech is developing, contact with peers is easily established, and the baby acts purposefully. He is interested in drawing and design, which are increasingly based on children's imagination. It's time to channel these abilities in the right direction and deepen your knowledge of the purpose of counting sticks. The following games with sticks, which are widely used in kindergarten.

Where is less?

The counting sticks need to be laid out opposite each other in two rows, in one of which there will be one less of them. The preschooler must show which row has fewer elements and which has more. They complicate the puzzle by asking: “What needs to be done to make the number of sticks the same?”

Task with a star: ask the child to independently lay out two rows with the same number of elements, and so that there are one or two fewer of them in one row.

Repeat drawing

You will need a sheet of paper with a picture of some object that a child can understand (a house, candy, a butterfly, a Christmas tree, etc.), made in two or three colors. The child must lay out this drawing with chopsticks, repeating the colors on the paper. At the end, ask the preschooler to name the colors with which he created his picture.

This exercise helps to learn colors, develop fine motor skills of children's fingers, as well as creative imagination.

We build and count

The adult lays out some simple figure from the didactic material, for example, a triangle, and asks the student to repeat. After the child completes the task, you need to voice the name of the figure and ask him how many elements were needed to build this triangle.

Then you can build a square, rhombus, rectangle, as well as any other objects with the same problem conditions. For deeper knowledge, you can ask what geometric figure the roof of a house, window, truck body, etc. resembles.

The star task will ask an adult to divide a rectangle of 6 sticks into two equal squares using one. Or use one stick to turn a square into two triangles.

The purpose of such a game exercise is to develop spatial, logical and creative thinking in children.

Games for older preschoolers

Classes with children aged 5-7 years involve more thorough preparation of them for school. This will require not only perseverance, but also basic knowledge in the field of reading and mathematics, the ability to generalize, highlight, and compare. Of course, you don’t have to stress your child with any tasks, because everything he needs will be taught in due course at school. But if a preschooler has an interest in learning, he should not be denied self-development. Using counting sticks, you can ask him to perform the following exercises according to ready-made schemes. This is exactly how games with counting sticks are played in kindergarten.

Complete the picture

It is necessary to show the child a diagram-drawing of half of an object depicted on paper. The task is to complete the picture symmetrically, using the same colors and proportions.

Draw numbers and letters

Using sticks, lay out the names of the letters (if it’s easy, then simple words), as well as numbers within ten. If you have good success, you can do it at speed with one of your peers.

What are numbers made of?

When the preschooler already knows what the numbers look like, you can invite him to lay out each one using sticks of two colors, thereby giving the concept of the composition of the number. So, the number 5 can be made from two red and three green sticks or from one yellow and four red.

Count it!

A simple option: use sticks to lay out an example (as an option, two sticks + three sticks). The child should be asked to count and give the correct answer by placing the required number of elements after the equal sign. If the child knows the numbers, then you can lay out the expression using them.

1. The age at which children should be involved in activities with a set of counting sticks is determined by parents themselves. But experts still recommend not loading the baby’s brain too early. It is optimal to start classes at approximately three years of age.
2. First, you should let your child become familiar with the didactic material - let him play, put together figures and pyramids. This way, it will be easier for a little student to study the shape and color of the parts, and feel the material from which they are made. Only in this way will children be able to draw a conclusion that some sticks are shorter than others and recognize their color differences.
3. The beginning of classes must be made playful - the child should not feel pressure from adults, otherwise in the future he will develop an aversion to mathematics. The child must come to all conclusions and answers himself - it is independent thinking that will make his knowledge strong and durable. This is what experts in the field of pedagogy say.

Science has proven that the development of a child’s speech and mental activity directly depends on fine motor skills hands With finger training, the hand of the future schoolchild prepares for writing. Therefore, it is extremely important to help him in this with the help of educational games, which include games with counting sticks. They are a simple and at the same time universal aid for developing the hands and stimulating intellectual abilities simultaneously.

Counting sticks are easy to use. To show concern for development mental abilities preschooler, parents do not need to reinvent the wheel. After all, everything ingenious is simple.

Almost every one of us remembers such an element as counting sticks from childhood. These were multi-colored plastic or wooden plates that were painted in different colors. With the help of such a simple invention, most children learned to count, distinguish colors, and create compositions. But now we will dig a little deeper and try to figure out how counting sticks can help a child develop abstract thinking, form basic preschool knowledge and become smarter and more inventive every day.

It all starts with the right approach

In order to modern child, which is literally buried in a variety of different toys, could be interested in such simple objects as multi-colored thin plates, it’s worth cheating a little. So, the first thing parents should do is to attach the adjective “magic” to the wands. For better results, you can store them in an unusual box (if you have a girl) or in one of the toy big cars(in the case of a boy). Don’t forget to always draw your child’s attention to the fact that counting sticks can teach him to count, draw, and depict various figures. The classes that take place with their participation should always be interesting for the baby. Make sure that he doesn’t get bored, that he really enjoys this process and that he enthusiastically masters new horizons of knowledge.

Brief instructions for use

In general, we can say that counting multi-colored sticks develop more than one skill in a growing child. Among these are hands, logic, imagination, in addition, they help the baby become more focused and assiduous. Fantasy and creative potential also develop richer and brighter. This children's device can be used if we learn to count to 10, study the alphabet, and compose syllables and words. Counting sticks are also suitable for modeling various figures and designs. You can make a boat, a house, even a mom and dad out of them. It is also interesting for children to sort sticks by color and size (if they have different sizes).

in infancy

From nine months of a baby’s life, you can safely begin to improve the motor skills of his hands. At this age, the baby begins to develop a tweezer grip (he begins to grab objects with large index fingers), therefore the task of parents is to improve this natural and vital skill. In this case, the best assistant will be counting sticks, which are short in length and very thin in thickness. Cut a small hole in the chopstick box with a knife, then turn out all the contents in front of the baby. Let him put the sticks into the box one by one, picking them up with his fingers. When the child begins to grow up, the game can be diversified by the fact that it will now take place over time. The kid will have to put the maximum number of records into the box in a certain period.

Learning colors

Games with counting sticks, where they need to be sorted by color, will be very entertaining for the baby. You can also start teaching your child this at the age of nine months or one year. To begin, select plates of two colors, mix them and show your child exactly how to arrange them. You can simply create two piles, for example, for blue and red. You can make the game more interesting - invite the child to put blue sticks in a box of the same color, and do the same with red ones. This exercise affects the development of the baby’s sensory system. He begins to perceive new material faster and processes it better. Also, during the game, the child will learn to compare and accept correct solution. When you see progress in your work, add another color.

Non-standard combinations

As a rule, at the age of one year, children begin to master such material as plasticine. At first, the kids sculpt some abstract and unclear figures from it, but if you help them a little in this creative process, their success will be much more noticeable. It is in this work that you can use counting sticks to your advantage, and we will now tell you how to do this. A stick that matches the color can become a tree trunk or a flower stem. From large quantity using records, you can make a fence in a plasticine house. Also, sticks can be used as spines for a hedgehog, human arms and legs, dog or cat paws, and so on. It all depends on your imagination and, of course, on your child’s abstract thinking.

Drawing with sticks

It happens that adults try to teach a child to draw certain things, objects, or even depict something on paper, but their efforts are in vain. But it should be remembered, even if the child does not show any special talents in the field of painting, he is simply obliged to convey and be able to depict the simplest objects and phenomena. This fundamentally affects his abstract thinking and perception. Therefore, now we will add various figures from counting sticks and start with the simplest. Draw a simple picture on paper, without painting it over, but leaving only the outlines. Now invite your child to place sticks along these lines. Draw your child’s attention to the fact that both stripes must match exactly. You can complicate the task with the help of flowers. Draw, for example, a brown Christmas tree trunk and green branches. Now let the baby select the plates that match the color and put them on top.

Head deep into math

Every parent knows that counting sticks are one of the best helpers when we learn to count to 10 or study geometry. Amazingly, simple plates that resemble matches serve the best teachers for children and perfectly develop abstract thinking and understanding of this material. How to teach a child to simply count is understandable to everyone. You just need to lay out the required number of sticks, add additional ones to them or subtract them. But if you study geometry, then there are much more opportunities. You can make shapes from the plates, change them, and do this by moving only one of their sides. By the way, you can explain to your baby what a side is in this very way. Knowledge about what an angle, parallel sides, perpendicular and other basics of geometry is similarly invested.

We form the baby’s didactic skills

Cuisenaire's counting sticks are a real find for the younger generation. They are a combination of color and number, which, according to experts, allows a child to quickly and effectively learn the basics of mathematics and logic. In addition, they perfectly develop didactic skills, improve hand motor skills and improve abstract thinking. If you look from a mathematical point of view, then these sticks are a set in which order and equivalence are monitored. Thus, by modeling a number with the help of this “constructor”, the child begins, without noticing it, to solve simple mathematical problems. In his understanding, an idea of ​​number is formed based on measurement.

Playing with Cuisenaire's invention

If you have a very tiny child (one to one and a half years old), then the colored Cuisenaire counting sticks will for now only serve as a construction set. However, we still use it with a hint of mathematics, using the following method. You can make a ladder out of sticks. We place the longest of them at the bottom, place a slightly shorter one above, then an even shorter one, and so on. The records can also be placed in different ways. They may end up being shaped like a pyramid, or they may be fitted to one side. This will give the child the opportunity to understand what it means to be more and less, what it means to be “between” or “on both sides.” Similarly, you can compose any compositions and gradually complicate them, monitoring the development of your child.

Conclusion

Counting colorful sticks are a real find for every family where a child grows up. With their help, you can teach your child any basic skills, from the simplest - hand motor skills, to preschool mathematical knowledge. You can use simple sticks in the process of teaching your little ones, or you can buy Cuisenaire counting sticks, which are considered much more effective and contribute to the better development of the little personality. Therefore, come up with various games, train your child’s imagination and watch how he literally improves before your eyes and becomes smarter and smarter.

Hello, Dear friends! Sukhikh Tatyana - the owner of the blog - is glad new meeting. As promised, today I present to your attention material on the topic: games with counting sticks. A seemingly primitive device for counting, but how many possibilities it has! This didactic tool was used by famous scientists to develop unique teaching methods: Maria Montessori, Nikolai Zaitsev, George Cuisenaire...

Many of you Dear Parents, they forget about the simplest and cheapest educational toys, which, if desired, can be made from waste material. The most primitive devices can provide tangible benefits to a child if they are included in the child’s home development program. Do you think sticks are only needed for counting? This is fundamentally wrong; their goals are much larger:

• Development of finger motor skills - even just by touching multi-colored sticks, children train their brains better than wooden sticks. I have already written a lot about motor skills, if you are interested, find articles on the site. From the simplest operation: taking it out of the case and putting it back, to complex patterns of counting material - all these tasks play a huge role in training the brain through the fingers.
• During classes with this simple device, spatial orientation is formed, children learn the concepts of right-left, front-behind, top-bottom.
• A variety of tasks with counting sticks require attention, visual-effective thinking, and active thinking.
• By completing tasks with the help of colored helpers, the child learns color.
• By making drawings, a preschooler activates creativity, design thinking, and imagination.
• And, finally, their direct purpose is teaching elementary mathematics. Here the field of action is wide: counting, geometric figures, comparison of quantities, simple arithmetic.
• Sticks are also used as an auxiliary tool for the development of different methods, for example, to Dienesh logic blocks.

What are the best sticks to choose? For example, I found some good things in UchMag:

• Counting sticks and numbers, 72 elements – wooden set in a box;
• Pleasant to the touch bright counting sticks in a case – 50 pcs.
• It’s very nice to have Cuisenaire sticks at home - a universal author’s material, the set contains elements of different colors and different lengths. Later I will tell you how to play and teach children with their help.

How to start using counting sticks for fun?

There are two stages to working with this simple material– initial, when bright, smooth things are used as a playing tool. And the second stage is mathematical, a higher level, which involves mastering the basics of mathematics with the help of colored assistants.

In kindergarten, we begin working with a counting instrument by getting to know it: children look at the sticks, learn to determine their color, lay them out on the table, and put them in a box. It would be nice to make a hole in the lid of the box so that the child pushes each little thing into the hole - this is a great exercise for fingers. Then we put as many sticks as possible into each handle, then into the other, and aerobatics - with both handles.

Now that we've played enough, let's start geometric design. Laying out, including Cuisenaire's counting material, is the most enjoyable way for preschoolers to learn elementary geometry:

• Laying out geometric shapes according to the adult model: path, ladder, fence, squares, rectangles. Then we complicate it: house, train, car, butterfly, garage, etc. It’s even more interesting to play with Cuisenaire’s material; the sticks are large and you can use them to build three-dimensional figures.
• Laying out according to the picture: there is an image of a mushroom, flower, sun, and the child must guess how to lay it out from sticks.

And in combination with Dienesh’s logic blocks, a child can be able to lay out anything, since these blocks are geometric shapes of different colors: circle, square, rectangle, triangle in two sizes and two types of thicknesses, ideal for children preschool age who are familiar with geometry.

By the way, if you are interested methodological material Dienesh and Cuisenaire, I suggest the following literature:

• “Demonstration material for Cuisenaire counting sticks and Dienesh logic blocks” – here are recommendations on how to work with these techniques, as well as sample lesson notes;
• “Logical and mathematical development of preschool children: games with Dienesh logic blocks and Cuisenaire colored sticks” – this is a unique manual, it contains didactic materials for the logical and mathematical development of preschool children;
• “We play with Dienesh's logic blocks. Training course for children 5-6 years old" – describes 24 lessons in senior group in logic and mathematics.

Entertaining games with magic wands for preschoolers

Below I will give schemes for working with Cuisenaire’s counting material; however, we play in exactly the same way with ordinary matches, toothpicks, and chopsticks:

• We build a ladder of 10 elements on the table from smallest to largest. We walk along the rungs with our fingers and count back and forth;
• Now we lay out the ladder with the missing elements: the child fills in the gaps;
• Mirror image: adult selects elements certain length, colors, arranges them, and the child repeats in exactly the same way;
• Oral tasks: lay out three red sticks, put them in a row, lay out a path, a triangle, etc.;
• Remember the figure: the adult constructs something from sticks, invites the child to look carefully and turn away. The adult changes something in the design, the child names it and restores the structure;
• Templates: an adult lays out a figure and asks to add 2 more elements to the template, then 3, etc.
• Shorter and longer: we work with colored sticks. An adult takes a stick, for example, red and invites the child to find a green one, but shorter than a red one. Using the same principle, we try to find sticks with a different sign.
• ​ More or less: put the sticks into two unequal piles, ask them to name where in which pile there are more (fewer) sticks;
• Please take any 2 elements, but not blue ones. Or find 2 sticks of the same color, but different sizes;
• 38 parrots: measure the length of the machine and table with short sticks. We find out how many short sticks “fit” in a long one, etc.;
• Right-left: find the shortest and longest sticks, place them so that the long one is on the right and the short one is on the left (front-back, top-bottom, etc.);
• We make a ladder and invite the child to add elements to make squares or rectangles;
• Children in preparatory group ready for such tasks: with your eyes closed, find two sticks of the same length, put them on the table next to each other. If you spend enough time with younger age games with Cuisenaire sticks, the child will even be able to find sticks of a certain color with his eyes closed. The fact is that these sticks are grouped by size and color.

Making the task more difficult for older children

It's time to complicate developmental tasks; they can be offered not only to older preschoolers, but also to younger schoolchildren:

• Make a train where the first carriage consists of 4 sticks, the second – of 6, the third – of 8;
• Take as many sticks as possible in your hand. Without opening your palm, count them. Lay out the corresponding numbers from the sticks;
• Lay out cards or cubes with numbers, the child places the corresponding number of sticks next to them;
• We teach the equal sign: we put 5-6 sticks, we invite the child to put the same number next to it. Between two piles we place two sticks in parallel;
• To a certain number of sticks you need to add enough to get a certain number. For example, we add 2 sticks to 3, we get 5. This is how we learn simple addition;
• Puzzles with sticks work great: we lay out a figure and invite the child to add or remove sticks to create another figure. There are diagrams on the Internet that you can print for yourself;
• In “collaboration” with Dienesh blocks, we propose to create a city with roads, houses, bridges and play out a whole story.

In my opinion, it turned out to be a decent file cabinet for home use, what do you think? Yes, and in a preschool educational institution it will be useful. Of course, there are many more exercises and creative tasks with counting sticks, but you can’t fit everything into a more or less readable article.

Each of us has been familiar with such a basic guide since school as counting sticks. I remember when I went to 1st grade, for some reason my parents could not find factory-made sticks in stores, and for some time I and several other classmates had to carry matches with the sulfur heads removed to math lessons)))

Of course, these days there is no such problem, although for the games I want to suggest today, colored popsicle sticks, matches and even pencils are quite suitable. We bought 2 identical sets of counting sticks for games and activities. In addition, we also have beautiful painted ice cream sticks, I’ll tell you about them next time.

Did you know that counting sticks can be used for more than just math and counting? Even the smallest children can play with them and develop in different directions at the same time!

For example, load sticks one at a time into the machine — good activity for the development of fine motor skills. You can also name the colors of the sticks.

For older children, you can give a more complicated building: load 10 sticks into the machine (or 5 yellow, three pink, four orange and one green).

We sort the sticks by color.

Offer your baby doll plates that match the color of the sticks (in place of the plates, you can take ordinary sheets of colored paper or cardboard).

Ask them to arrange the sticks by color into matching plates.

“Drawing” with counting sticks

Why not draw by laying out various pictures from counting sticks? Depending on the age of the child, choose various ways and difficulty levels:

• Laying out geometric shapes (left) and simple objects made from them: triangle + square = house (right).

You can lay out figures of different colors according to instructions, ask to repeat the same as your mother, or make the same figure, but of a different color.

And, of course, you can make calculations: how many sticks are needed to fold such a triangle, square, trapezoid? What shape can be made using only 3 sticks? What about 4?

• Laying out silhouettes along a template outline.

Make several template diagrams in advance: lay out various compositions from sticks on a sheet of paper and outline them with felt-tip pens of the desired color. The baby will need to place the sticks directly on the picture, selecting them according to the given color.

You can complicate the task by suggesting that you lay out the drawing not on a sheet of paper, but next to it, using the diagram as a sample.

• Another option for “drawing”: draw on sheets of paper elements of some objects, creatures, etc.: a face that can become the sun with the help of ray sticks, the silhouette of a hedgehog that needs to be added with needle sticks, crossbars that can become a fence .

Game "Do as I do"

The adult lays out the sticks in any color sequence (horizontally or vertically), and the child’s task is to repeat it.

Rug

Give your child a piece of mesh and show how to thread sticks through the holes. You can set a certain color sequence and ask to continue it. This game miraculously promotes the development of motor skills and attentiveness.

Collecting flowers

Give your child artificial flowers with holes in the middle and show them how to insert sticks into them as stems and collect flowers into a bouquet.

Sorter game with sticks

In addition, using counting sticks, you can make a sorter and a simulator for fine motor skills of your fingers!

For the base, use an ice cream/mayonnaise bucket or a tin can with non-sharp edges (for example, a mixture).

Glue sectors of colored paper onto the lid (we used self-adhesive), make holes with nail scissors - and a wonderful educational toy is ready! With its help, your baby will not only train his fingers by inserting sticks into the holes, but will also develop color perception, and with your help, he will learn colors.

Did you like the games I suggested? Which one did you find most interesting? Please write about this in the comments!

Share your ideas and suggestions on the topic of homemade educational games.

Do you want to regularly receive ideas for children's gaming development? Subscribe to project news and receive my brochure as a gift

—————————————————————————————

2017 © Olesya Shirokova’s project “Growing and Growing”