Counting & Adding Acorns on the Light Table

My daughter has been super interested in simple math games and adding activities lately. She’s counting and adding everything. To encourage her interest in beginning math activities I’ve been trying to give her opportunities to add and count with simple math games.  Our Light & Reflections Series is all about fall and back to school this month so I pulled out some acrylic acorns and the light table and made this fall math game.

Counting & Adding Acrylic Acorns on the Light Table

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Materials:

• Acrylic Acorns aka Fall Table Scatter (I found these in Target’s Dollar Spot, but I’ve seen them at Micheals)
• Light Table
• Overhead Tiles
• Dry Erase Marker

I used our overhead tiles for numbers and equation signs.  I simply used a dry erase marker to write the letters and equations.  We’re just beginning addition right now but you can use whatever math signs your children are learning for this activity.   Tip: I usually let my dry erase markers ‘dry’ for a few hours after I draw on tiles and such, it helps it them from wiping off the second the kids touch it and they still wipe off later.

Once we turned on the light table we got to work.  The first couple of ones we did together but after than my daughter was off and adding on her own.   She’d pick what numbers she wanted to add together and put them into the equation on our light table.

She’d pick out her number tiles and then count out the correct number of acorns under each number.  This let her count out each number and visually see (and touch) the quantities of each number.

After counting out acorns for each number she then counted all the acorns together, giving her the answer she was looking for. It allows her to learn the process of adding in a hands on way that she can easily figure out on her own without getting confused or frustrated.

My daughter is very visual and independent when it comes to learning activities. She wants to try them on her own right away so I try to make sure the activities allow for self correcting and independence. This adding game is just that for her, it’s simple but it allows her to work through each set of numbers and figure it out without frustration. She was so proud of herself when she’d add each set of numbers correctly.

Find more fall light table activities below:

Fall Tic Tac Toe on the Light Table from And Next Comes L

Fall Lanterns from Frog in a Pocket

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