We are working on number recognition over here at the moment, we have the number toys and all that jazz but I wanted to create something a little more hands on in the run up to Christmas! Ayla loved feeding Santa some cookies and we had a good go an naming the numbers we could see. So if your looking for a DIY Christmas number activity for preschoolers this is one for you to try out.
Resources you need to make Santa and his Cookies
- Cardboard
- Coloured Pens
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Numbers (either from a toy or create you own)
- Hot Glue Gun or Tape
Making The Christmas Number Activity For Preschoolers
Using the pencil draw Santa’s face onto the cardboard making sure you draw a big open mouth to cut out later.
Colour in your Santa face then cut out his mouth and trim down the cardboard if needed. Glue or tape some spare cardboard or a small box onto the back of Santa face, ensuring you don’t cover his mouth from behind.
Draw 10 circles onto the carboard, decorate them to look like cookies and cut them out. Find some numbers and explore the activity together and feed Santa the correct amount of cookies!
Adapting This Number Activity for Toddlers.
Hand Eye Coordination – for little one’s we can use this activity to work on their coordination skills as they post each cookie into Santa’s mouth.
Counting – If your not quite at the level of recognising numbers how about just counting the cookies as you post them into Santa’s mouth, using language like more and less.
Size – Make different sized cookies using language like big and small.
Colour Recognition – Make up different coloured cookies, can you feed Santa a red and yellow cookie?
Number Recognition Activities Like This are Great For;
Promoting number recognition but exploring numbers while counting the cookies.
Supporting imagination as they pretend to feed Santa. Ayla pretended Santa was talking to her as she was feeding him!
Boosting cognitive development by creating a hand on activity, and not using flash cards.
Encouraging critical thinking as your little one has to work out what number Santa is using and then count the cookies as they feed him.
