Preschool Numbes by Jean Warren

	Set out six bowls and fill with six different colors of tissue paper squares.
	Tissue colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
	Place a large piece of butcher paper on the floor or on a large table.
	Draw a six arced rainbow on the paper.
	Let your children work on the group rainbow by taking turns adding tissue squares to each arc. Top arc red, then orange, then yellow, then green, then blue and finally purple at the bottom.
	Have children count the bowls, the number of different colors and the number of arcs on the rainbow.

RAINBOW FISH

	Give each child a paper fish cutout.
	Let children take turns using 3-4 boxes of water colors.
	Have children each paint a rainbow fish by adding six different colors in rows on their fish.
	Display fish on a bulletin board.
	Add six water bubbles (white circles) coming out of each fishes mouth.

SIX BUSY BUMBLE BEES

	Give each of your children a yellow paper cutout of a bee.
	Let them add facial feathers and six strips on the back of their bee with a black marking pen.
	Display fish on a bulletin boards with a bee hive and six bees buzzing around.

SNOWFLAKES

	Give your children paper circles.
	Have them fold their circles in half.
	Then help them fold the remaining half circle into thirds.
	Now fold the remaining third in half again.
	Now cut out large notches along one side.
	Open to reveal a six pointed snowflake.

Q-TIP SNOWFLAKES
Here is an easier snowflake for young children to make.

	First cut some Q-tips in half and give six halves to each child.
	Give each child a small square of waxed paper and a small bottle of white glue.
	Have children squirt a glob of glue onto their papers, then arrange their six Q-tip halves into a six pointed snowflake.
	Add more glue to center of their snowflakes plus add a piece of white yarn or string to each snowflake, then let dry.
	When dry, gently peal the waxed paper from the snowflake.
	Have children count the number of points their snowflakes have.
	Hang the snowflakes from windows or from the ceiling.

SHAPE FLOWERS

	Cut out paper ovals (1” wide x 2” long) and 1” paper circles.
	Set out some background paper and some glue.
	Have your children make flowers on their papers by first gluing on a circle and them gluing on six petals around the circle to make a flower.
	Set out green crayons for children to draw on green flower stems.
	Have children count the number of petals on each of their flowers.
Variations: Many items could be glued on the paper circles to make flowers. Such as six pieces of fat yarn, six toothpicks, six paper rectangles, six triangles, six feathers, etc.

SIX LEGGED BUGS

	Give each child a large sheet of paper.
	Set out some paint Dobbers, such as Do-A-Dot.
	Have children press paint circles on their papers.
	Set out some small tipped black marking pens and have children use them to put facial features and six legs on each bug (three on each side).
Variation: For bugs with more than one body part, such as an ant, you may want to let your children press new pencil erasers into black ink and print three circles touching each other on a piece of paper. Then have them add three legs on each side of their ant body.

SIX GAMES

SIX PIECE PUZZLES

	Take pictures from magazines and glue them to pieces of light weight cardboard.
	Then cut the picture into six pieces.
	Place each puzzle in a zip-lock bag.
	Let your children take turns putting the puzzles together.

MUFFIN TIN COUNT
Small six- hole muffin tins are great for games when studying the number six.

	Set out some muffin tins and some small markers. Mini poms work great.
	Let children take turns taking a muffin tin and placing six pons in each cup.

MUFFIN TIN ROLL
You will need four muffin tins for this game (or four egg carton halves)

	Make small paper circles and tape them to the bottom of the four muffin tins.
	Write the numerals 1thru 6 on the circles in each muffin tin.
	Have four children sit on the floor with a muffin tin in front of them.
	Set out a die and have children take turns rolling the die.
	If a child rolls a one, have him place a marker in his one cup, if he rolls a three, he marks his three cup and so on.
	If a child rolls a number that he already has covered up, he loses his turn and must wait for another turn to continue.
	Children keep rolling the die until someone has all of his numbers covered up, 1 thru 6.

ROLL A SIX
Here is another dice game you can play with your children.

	Set out a single die.
	Let your children take turns rolling the die until they each roll the number six.

EGG BASKET SEARCH
You will need cardboard egg cartons for this activity, (the kind you can pull apart in the middle to make 2 six holed cartons) plus some plastic eggs.

	Place plastic eggs around your room or outside.
	Give each child a six holed egg carton and have them search for eggs to fill their carton.

CLOTHESPIN MATCH-UP
You will need some snap type clothespins and a white cardboard circle for this game.

	Divide the circle into six sections with a black marking pen.
	Color each section a different color.
	Take six clothespins and color the top of each one of the six colors.
	Set out the circle and the clothespins.
	Let your children take turns matching the colored clothespins to the same color on the circle, then clipping the clothespin onto that section of the circle.

BLOCK STACK UP

	Set out some blocks.
	Ask your children to build towers, six blocks tall.

SIX LANGUAGE

SIX BOOK
Make a book for your children to read filled with groups of items that number six.

	On six pieces of 9” x 12” construction paper draw or glue on sets of six objects.
	Title each page with words such as Six Balloons, or Six Cars.
	Stack up the pages and add a front and back cover page.
	Staple the pages together and write “The Six Book” on the cover.
	Set out the book in your book area for your children to take turns looking through and counting the pictures on each page.

PRETTY SNOWFLAKE
Teach your children the following rhyme while they hold up a paper snowflake.

Pretty snowflake falling down
Has six points all around.
I will count them, just for kicks.
One, two three – four, five, six.
Jean Warren

SIX LOST MITTENS

	Hide three sets of mittens in your room.
	Have your children sit in a circle.
	Choose three children to stand in the middle of the room to be the three kittens.
	Recite the familiar Three Little Kittens rhyme to your children but change the number of mittens lost from three to six.
	Three little kittens Lost six mittens And they began to cry, “Mother Dear, see here, see here Our mittens we have lost. What lost your mittens, You naughty kittens, Then you shall have no pie.
	Have the three kittens hunt around your room to find a pair of mittens.
	When they have all come back to the circle wearing a pair of mittens continue the rhyme.
	The three little kittens Found the six mittens And they began to cry, “Mother Dear see here, see here Our mittens we have found! Yes, found six mittens You good little kittens Then you shall have some pie! The three little kittens Took off the six mittens And gobbled up their pie! Adapted Traditional

SIX WRITING

WRITING POEM
Use this poem when your children are practicing writing the number six.

            Roller Coaster curving down,
            Hits the bottom, then loops around.
                                               Jean Warren

SPAGHETTI
You will need some cooked spaghetti for this activity.

	Set out some sheets of dark construction paper and some strings of cooked spaghetti.
	Have your children use the limp noodles to make large six shapes on their papers.

CHENILLE SIXES

	Set out some short chenilles or pipe cleaners.
	Let your children bend them to make the number six.

YARN SIXES

	Write the number six (large) on pieces of paper using a pencil.
	Have your child take a sheet and use a Q-tip to spread glue on the pencil lines.
	Set out some 8-12” pieces of yarn.
	Have children place the yarn on the glued line, making a yarn six.
	Let the sixes dry, then display the sixes on the wall.

CIRCLE SIXES You will need circle stickers and black marking pens for this activity.
	Set out some paper and some circle stickers.
	Have children place a sticker on their papers, then take a black pen and add a curvy line coming down and circling around the sticker to make a six.
	Let children make 3-4 sticker sixes each.

SIX SCIENCE

RAINBOW PRISMS

	Hang a prism in your room so that the sunlight shines through it and creates little “rainbows” on a wall.
	Have your children look at the rainbows and count the number of colors that they see.
	Also have them name the six colors.

SIX LEGGED INSECTS

	Set out some books about bugs and insects.
	Have your children look through the books searching for bugs and insects with six legs.
	Set out some sheets of paper and marking pens and encourage your children to make their own six legged insect.

OBSERVING SIX Here are some additional ideas for observing the number six in our environment.
	Observing pictures of snowflakes and ice crystals.
	Looking for six wheel trucks
	Searching for items at a store sold in sets of six.
	Make muffins with your child, have him fill up six muffin cups.

SIX SNACKS

CRACKERS AND CHEESE

	Serve each child six crackers and six cheese squares.
	Have children place one cheese square on the top of each cracker.

FRUIT BAGS

Give each child a baggie full of six orange or apple sections.

MATCH STICKS

	Give each child six small straight pretzels.
	Set out some melted chocolate.
	Let children dip their six items into the chocolate to make match sticks.

SETTINGS FOR SIX

	Cover a long low table with a table cloth.
	Set out some plastic dishes and silverware, napkins, etc.
	Let your children take turns setting the table for six.

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