Kindergarten Crafts - Counting to 100

Counting to 100 is not typically something done in preschool, but it made sense with my particular kiddo. Most kids learn to count to 100 in kindergarten or even first grade, and that is perfectly fine. This project would be as great for those kids as it was for my slightly younger one. In fact, my second child wasn't ready for this project until around second grade. Every child is different. You'll have a good idea when yours is ready.

27, 28, 29, 100.

That's how 4-year-old Grace counts these days.

She really likes the number one hundred. She learned how to spell it, how to write it, what it means.

The only problem is that she's determined to make it come after 29.

Wanting to show her that numbers are little more than a pattern, I decided to count something.

My first thought was stickers. Grace loves stickers, and she will peel them off of the paper and stick them to anything that can't run away.

Including her baby sister and me.

"Grace, do you want to count stickers?"

No. Why do you want to count stickers?

"I thought it would be fun, that's all."

She gave me a look that I've given dozens of times.

This week.

I think you're wrong, Momma.

Okay then. No stickers.

"Would you rather glue sequins on a piece of paper?"

No, but I would like to glue sequines to a piece of foam.

Finally. We were in business.

Counting to 100 Craft

Materials:

• 3 large pieces of foam or construction paper
• 100 sequins
• Glue
• Markers

Instructions:

1. Using a marker, write the numbers 1 through 10 across the top of your piece of foam.
2. Have your child place a small puddle of glue under each of the numbers.
   
3. Let her place one sequin into each puddle of glue.
   
   Grace got fancy and started adding multiple sequins to the puddles. I tried to explain why she shouldn't, but she didn't care. I gave up on that issue and helped her to count piles rather than individual sequins.
4. On the next line, write the numbers 11 through 20. Repeat with the glue and sequins. It's important to a later step that you line up the numbers, 11 right under 1, and 12 right under 2 and so on.
5. On the next line, write the numbers 21 through 30.
   
6. Keep going until you reach 100 or she loses interest. We got to 70 the first time we worked on it, and then we did the rest of the numbers another time.
7. Talk about your craft! I asked Grace all kinds of questions and pointed things out to her, like -

• Did you notice that every line has the same numbers going across?
• Look! If we go down the side of the page, it goes 1, 2, 3, 4!
• What patterns do you see? (She looked at the sequins for patterns, like similar colors and shapes. She had gotten fancy and did a line that was all flowers and another that was all stars.)
• We counted the numbers together, putting our fingers together on each sequin as we counted it.

I know a lot of schools do a 100 days of school craft. This particular one isn't fancy but it is meaningful and would work for that as well.

Here are some other basic activities that you might enjoy:

• Sticker Matching Activity & Game for Toddlers & Preschoolers
• Learning to Count Money – Preschool Sorting Activity
• How to Make Learning Fun with Jelly Beans
• How to Use Candy Hearts to Make Learning Fun
• How To Use a Kindergarten Journal

How else could you use this craft?