Did you know that singing about numbers is a powerful math activity for young children? There are many wonderful songs for counting and numbers. You can sing them with your child anywhere, anytime, in any language.
Songs for counting are easy to sing and repetitive. Some suggestions are: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed, The Ants Go Marching, This Old Man, Three Little Kittens, Five Little Ducklings, Five Green Speckled Frogs, One Elephant-Deux Eléphants, Hickety Pickety My Red Hen, and 10 in the Bed, and more. To add to the fun and learning, there are rhymes like 1, 2 Buckle My Shoe. You can use any words that rhyme. Reminders that kids do not jump on beds may be needed countless times.
One Potato, Two Potato is a circle game for three or more to play. One person is It and curls a hand into a fist like a potato. The other players sit in a circle and make a hand into a potato. Whoever is It starts the chant, and each time s/he says a word, goes around the circle tapping the top of each fist. Everyone says the chant together: 1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4, 5 potato, 6 potato, 7 potato, more. The word ‘more’ means that player gets to be It and the game starts again.
The video below is similar but counts One Banana, Two Bananas, all the way to 10. Instead of bananas, ask kids to think of something else, like peaches, oranges, apples, grapes, strawberries, carrots, peppers, and keep counting.
Ever sing a kids’ song and get it stuck in your head? That’s exactly what makes them so effective. When kids sing about counting, the numbers get stuck in their brains. Learning to count accurately needs many, many experiences with numbers. Opportunities to count really count and help develop number sense. Singing songs about numbers adds a note of fun. What counting songs do you and your child sing?