Play at Home Guide: Count, Group, and Compare

Basics Focus: Count, Group, and Compare

Here are some easy activities that can be used at home to engage your children, and continue learning through play. This is a great way for your family to spend time together, help your children develop new skills, and have opportunities for learning through play. If you would like more

Information on supporting your young child’s development, please visit https://rva.thebasics.org.

Need an easy, and creative activity to enhance your child(ren)’s count, group, and compare skills?

Pom Pom Sort:

Materials Needed:

• Muffin Tins and colorful pom poms, clothespins or chip clips.

Ways to count, group, and compare

• Sort (group) the pom poms into the muffin cups by color.
• Count how many pom poms of each color you have

For example: There are three green pom poms and two blue pom poms.

• Compare the number of different colored pom poms.

For example: There are more green pom poms (3) than there are blue (2).

Extending the Activity:

• Give your child a clothespin or chip clip to pick up the pom pom and place it in the tin. This strengthens your child’s pincer grip which is needed for writing and other fine motor activities.  Make it a  competition to see who is faster (adult: use your non-dominant hand to make it a fair game J)
• Don’t have muffin tins or pom poms?

Gather items that can be sorted by color, size, or type. Try socks, rocks, balls, blocks…

What is the purpose of the activity?

• To help strengthen basic skills to help prepare children for kindergarten.

Why is it important?

• Helps your child understand and comprehend basic math concepts.
• Increases hand coordination  and fine motor skills.

Remember: If they see you playing, then they will play. It makes kids want to join in on the fun.

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