STREAM Activity: Ice Cream Math

How many cones can you count?

Activity best for children age 2 and up

Today’s activity is all about counting! Counting is an important skill that we need to learn because there is math all around us. What time do you go to bed? How many cheerios are in your bowl? When we count, it is important to know the quantity that numbers represent– or how many! This is called one-to-one correspondence. If you count and touch 5 pom poms, then you have 5. If you count and touch 12 pom poms, then you have 12. This fun activity helps you to learn how much each number is. You can count up to 10 or keep going until you are too tired to count any more!

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Materials you’ll need:

Paper

Pom poms

Spoon

Tray

Writing utensil

Guiding Questions:

How many “ice cream cones” do I want?

Will there be more “cones” than “ice cream”? Or less?

How many pom poms did I use?

Directions

STEP 1
Have a grown up help you gather the materials you need. Cut out some triangles from the paper so that they look like ice cream cones. You can cut out as many cones as you want. On each cone write the number starting with 1. Keep writing the number on the cones until you have the amount of cones that you would like.

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STEP 2

Put the pom poms in a tray. These will be the ice cream scoops that you will put on top of the cones.

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STEP 3

Using a spoon scoop up the “ice cream” pom poms and place the correct amount on each cone. On cone 1 place 1 pom pom.

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STEP 4

Keep placing “scoops of ice cream” on the cones. Do you have enough pom poms for each cone? Have fun doing ice cream math!

Grown Ups-Are you looking for more ways to extend your child’s learning? Check out these extension activities to build upon today’s STREAM activity!

Reading Connections: 

Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin, Jr. and Michael Sampson

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Each Orange Had 8 Slices: A Counting Book by Paul Giganti, Jr.

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Math Connections: 

You can count so many things around your house and in your neighborhood! How many people are in your family? How many books do you have? How many red lights did you stop at today on the way to school? Keep counting all day long!